Alabama State Council on the Arts — Live Arts Learning Grant

This grant brings live performance into Alabama schools, or takes students out to see it. It stretches from a one-hour assembly performance by a regional artist to a full artist residency, and it folds three older schemes — the Collaborating Artists Program, the Alabama Touring Artists Program and the Rural School Touring Program — into one application.

Individual artists, arts organisations and schools can all apply, and whoever applies adds the others as collaborators: if a school wants a dance company in, the school applies and names the company's representative on the form. Every application has to be school-based and put an arts experience in front of students. You're expected to have arranged the programme with your partners before you apply; the state's artlook Alabama database exists for finding those matches.

Awards run from $500 to $4,200, sized to the experience — roughly $500 for a short assembly performance, up to $4,200 for a residency. The money covers transport, tickets, presenter and artist fees, and other costs tied directly to getting students to the art. There is no matching requirement, so you don't need to raise anything alongside it.

Applications go through the council's grant portal on a rolling deadline. Unlike the council's Enhancement grants, these aren't reviewed by a panel — the Arts in Education programme manager decides, based on funds available at the time, which is a good argument for applying early in the year. Beyond being school-based and arts-forward, the page doesn't publish scoring criteria.