Please see below for a grant from ALSC for family book club programs and the NEA on developing sustainable communities that includes arts and cultural development. 1. Deadline: Nov. 30, 2013 The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) is accepting applications for mini-grants to allow public libraries to initiate D?a Family Book Club programs. Mini-grants are part of ALSC's Everyone Reads @ your library grant, funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. The D?a Family Book Club is a reading program that engages children and families in the shared reading and discussion of contemporary children's literature that reflects our common plurality. Up to 15 $2,000 mini-grants will be awarded. A minimum of 50% ($1,000) of grant funding must be used to purchase books to distribute to participants of the library's D?a Family Book Club. Remaining funds should be used for D?a Family Book Club programming, publicity, or to add multicultural or multilingual books to the library's collection. Applicants must be located within 20 miles of a Dollar General Store, distribution center, or corporate office (please visit Dollar General's Store Locator at http://www.dollargeneral.com/storeLocator). For more information and the application form, please visit http://dia.ala.org/dia-2014-mini-grants-available. 2. Deadline: January 13, 2014 The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announces funds to support projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform them into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. Eligible applicants include city or township governments, county governments, independent school districts, special district governments, public, state, and private institutions of higher education, state governments, nonprofit organizations, and DC government agencies. Grants will range from $25,000 to $200,000 for creative and innovative projects in which communities, together with their arts and design organizations and artists, seek to improve their quality of life, encourage greater creative activity, foster stronger community identity and a sense of place, and revitalize economic development. Projects may include arts engagement, cultural planning, and design activities such as: * Festivals and performances in spaces not normally used for such purposes * Public art that improves public spaces and strategically reflects or shapes the physical and social character of a community * Support for creative entrepreneurship * Design of cultural spaces - new or adaptive reuse For more information, visit the NEA website<http://www.blogger.com/See%20more%20at:%20http://arts.gov/grants-organizations/our-town/grant-program-description#sthash.2pSZTFVW.dpuf>. Karren Reish Library Grants Coordinator reishk@michigan.gov 517-241-0021 www.michigan.gov/lsta www.michigan.gov/mcfb