Overview

The College of Arts & Architecture (CAA) acknowledges that scholarship in the creative disciplines makes unique demands on time and resources. Participation in exhibitions, performances, screenings and other showcasing opportunities represent scholarly activities and are the basis for tenure, promotion and advancement opportunities. These activities often involve expenditures above and beyond those associated with the creation and realization of a specific work.

The goal if the Supplemental Grant is to provide current MSU CAA faculty with additional funds to cover any justifiable research-related expense not already covered by other sources that will advance the College of Arts & Architecture’s goals tied to Montana State University’s Strategic Plan.

Eligibility

  • Tenured or tenure-track faculty, full-time research faculty, and lecturers.
  • Applicants who have received this award within the past two years will be assigned a lower priority, as will continued funding for a project that has already received funding through this source.

Award Amounts

  • Awards are determined at the discretion of the College of Arts & Architecture.
Note: CAA funds awarded through this program cannot be applied to faculty summer salary. Funds will be disbursed to applicants through normal faculty accounts, in coordination with School Directors, Leadership Fellows and Business Operations Managers.

Application Information

All applications must be submitted using the online application portal and should include:

  • Brief description of how the funds will be used;
  • Explanation of how the proposed project or endeavoradvances the mission of MSU and the forms of scholarship embraced by the applicant’s respective school(s).
  • Short, itemized budget

Required Attachments

  • Signed letter of support from a co-applicant, if applicable.
  • Signature of your school’s director.
Note: Co-applicants will be required to sign the application as part of the online application process.

Deadline/Timeline

Applications are accepted anytime during the academic year and should be made at least 30 days before funding is desired.

Evaluations

Decisions regarding applications are made in consultation with the College of Arts & Architecture Leadership Team, comprising Directors, Leadership Fellows, the Assistant Dean, the Associate Dean, the Assistant to the Dean, and the Dean.

Terms

  1. The Director(s) of your school will be asked to sign off on your application to express their support.
  2. Monies associated with the CAA Supplemental Grant must be spent prior to the end of the fiscal year, which ends on June 30.  No exceptions to, or extensions of, this deadline are possible.

CAA Policy on Supplemental Scholarship Support

The College of Arts & Architecture acknowledges that scholarship in the creative disciplines makes unique demands on time and resources. Participation in exhibitions, performances, screenings and other showcasing opportunities represent scholarly activities and are the basis for tenure, promotion and advancement opportunities. These activities often involve expenditures above and beyond those associated with the creation and curation of a specific work. These additional costs might include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Materials (materials required for the creation of creative works, including paper, clay, metal, plastics, paints, canvas, wood, fixtures and other necessities to create a work);
  • Unique material purchases (resources purchased that might not, at first glance, correspond to traditional perceptions of what constitute “arts-related supplies” e.g. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, a conceptual sculptor whose works sometimes involve displays of 1000 pounds of foil-wrapped candies);
  • Mounting (affixing prints and photographs to a hard surface, such as metal, glass or Dibond, so that works do not wrinkle, tear, pit or crease);
  • Framing (creating a “surround” specific to a work of art so that it may be displayed in a manner in keeping with museum and gallery standards);
  • Pedestals, plinths, vitrines and shelving (for the secure display of three-dimensional works);
  • Stretching (creating stretcher bars and associated hanging systems for a work, such that it can be displayed in a gallery setting);
  • Installation (special costs associated with hanging, installing, securing and appropriately displaying works that are specific to the site);
  • Crating (labor and materials used for the creation a work-specific container so that pieces may be safely and securely shipped from one location to another);
  • Shipping (charges associated with the transportation of works to, between and from exhibition sites);
  • Jury fees (charges commonly made by museums, galleries and other venues associated with peer review);
  • Sheet music (for performances and research);
  • Repair and maintenance (instruments and other tools/resources used in service to scholarly activities); and
  • Increased travel needs (participation in an activity that might require multiple site visits due to the complexity of a project, or the need to see a site in situ in order to create works appropriate to the demands of site-specificity)

Currently, professional development and innovation funds distributed to CAA’s academic schools are only sufficient to cover minimum costs for travel, accommodation, registration fees and per diem associated with scholarly activity. Accordingly, CAA will support the aforementioned expenditures associated with scholarly engagement, with the understanding that the purchased materials, services and/or activities are (1) utilized for scholarly purposes and (2) involve the scholarly activity of a CAA employee. If those scholarly purposes are fulfilled, CAA will still adhere to a policy that does not attempt to reclaim these expenditures if any subsequent revenues are generated by the scholarly work.

Where external parties/entities (visiting artists, commercial art galleries, production studios, etc.) are concerned with respect to the aforementioned expenses and scholarly activities, CAA will extend its support through the use of foundation or non-state funds, as appropriate. 

As a general rule, funding requests for supplemental research support and activities will be reviewed on an ongoing basis by the College of Arts & Architecture Executive Team (Dean, Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, School Directors and School Leadership Fellows) and subject to additional consultation, input, review and approval by the Provost, the Vice President of Research, Economic Development and Graduate Education and the Director of MSU Technology Transfer.

Sponsorship

This program is sponsored and funded jointly by CAA and the Office of Research, Economic Development and Graduate Education.