Supplemental Research Funding

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 represents scholarly activities and is the basis for tenure, promotion, and advancement opportunities. These activities often involve incidental expenditures above and beyond those associated with creating and realizing a specific work.

The goal of 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

Award Amounts

• Awards are determined at the discretion of the College of Arts & Architecture.

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).
• Itemized budget

Evaluations

Decisions regarding applications are made in consultation with the College of Arts & Architecture Leadership Team, which comprises of the Dean, the Associate Dean, the Budget Fiscal Manager, and a small committee of past award recipients.

Terms

1. The Director of your school will be asked to sign off on your application to express their support and inform the College of the funding they will provide at the school level.
2. Travel costs (other than moving trucks for the delivery of work or vehicle rental for tribal events), per diems, airfare, and hotel and lodging fees are NOT eligible for supplemental support.  Grantees should look to other University and College grant opportunities to support these efforts.  Please see the list below for eligible costs.
3. Monies associated with the CAA Supplemental Grant must be spent before the end of the fiscal year, which ends on June 1.  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 and sometimes unexpected 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 creating and curating a specific work. These additional costs might include, but are not limited to, the following types of expenditures:

• 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 constitutes “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 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 of 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);
• Conference and facility fees (charges commonly required to attend conferences/research facilities in the CAA fields and other venues - associated with peer-to-peer education, scholarship, and peer review);
• Sheet music (for performances and research);
• Repair and maintenance (instruments and other tools/resources used in service to scholarly activities); 

Professional development and innovation funds distributed to CAA’s academic schools are generally to cover partial costs for scholarly activity. Accordingly, CAA, when possible,  will subsidize - through matching funds, 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 expenses and scholarly activities, CAA will extend its support through the use of foundation or non-state funds, as appropriate. 

As a general rule, the College of Arts & Architecture (Dean, Associate Dean, Budget and Fiscal Manager, and a small committee of past recipients) will review funding requests for supplemental research support and activities on an ongoing basis.

Sponsorship

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