Alabama State Council on the Arts — Live Arts Learning Grant

This program pays for bringing live performing artists into Alabama schools, or taking students out to performances, residencies and other arts experiences — covering costs like artist and presenter fees, tickets and transportation. Support ranges from a single one-hour assembly to a full artist-in-residence stint spread across a semester.

Individual artists, schools and arts organisations in Alabama can apply, and a school bringing in an outside performer or company can add that person as a collaborator on the application; the Arts in Education team can help track down a match through the artlook Alabama database if an applicant does not already have one lined up. Every project has to be school-based and give students a genuine hands-on arts experience rather than a purely passive show.

Awards run from $500, enough for a short assembly-style performance, up to $4,200 for a longer artist-in-residence program, with no requirement to match the funds with other money. There is no single annual cut-off — applications are accepted on a rolling basis — and unlike the Council's larger Enhancement grants, these are not reviewed by a panel: the program manager decides each request based on what funds remain. Because of that, there is no published scoring rubric; the strongest applications line up a clear collaborator, a concrete school-based activity, and a realistic budget well ahead of when the activity needs to happen.