Work Samples and Other Supplementary Materials
CAH values and emphasizes excellence in all grant programs within all disciplines. This section contains detailed information on the CAH’s requirements and suggestions regarding content. Arts and humanities content and/or merit are one of several criteria on which an application is reviewed. Content and/or merit is demonstrated to the advisory review panelists through the applicant’s:
- Section 1: Work Samples
- Section 2: Support Materials (including Assessment and Evaluation)
- Section 3: Résumés of Key Personnel
Of these, the work sample carries the most weight because it must contain the clearest depiction of the applicant’s best work(s) of art and/or humanities. All applicants must submit arts and/or humanities work samples.
Work Samples
Work samples are critical for each application and are carefully considered during application review. CAH strongly recommends that applicants pay close attention to the content of work sample submissions.
The guidelines on work sample submissions depend on the grant program. Applicants are encouraged to adhere to the suggested work samples or risk ineligibility for consideration of a grant award.
Work samples must be no more than three (3) years old from the date of submission. Submitting older work samples may render the application ineligible for funding consideration.
Support Materials
Support materials are documents that strengthen the application and provide additional information that directly relates to the grant request. Support materials do not take the place of a work sample. They do, however, reinforce the quality of the applicant’s arts and humanities disciplines(s).
Some examples of supporting materials include:
- Theater/exhibition reviews
- Letters of recommendation
- Certificates of achievement or recognition
- Sample lesson plans
- Assessments and evaluations
- Awards, and/or
- Recordings of artistic process, creation, or experience.
Assessment and Evaluation
The purpose of assessment and evaluation within grant applications helps to (1) determine the efficacy of a program, as articulated in the program goals and as required for grant reporting and (2) provide evidence to support changes to improve the program and its delivery.
Assessments typically fall into two general categories: Qualitative assessment is non-numerical and observational, including interviews, surveys, and focus groups, while Quantitative assessment provides empirical data that demonstrates growth in the knowledge, skills, and understandings of the participants.
There are many ways to assess and evaluate programming including needs assessments; pre- and post-testing; and formative, observational, and summative assessments that utilize mixed-method approaches such as portfolio/process-folio assessments.
Résumés of Key Personnel
Panelists additionally review the résumés of the key administrators and facilitators involved in the grant activities. Those professionals involved in the organization determine the capacity and ability of the applicant to effectively facilitate the project. Their backgrounds as artists and administrators should be relevant to the organization and clearly demonstrated through their professional résumés.
Additional Suggestions from CAH Staff
When creating and preparing work samples, supporting materials and résumés, CAH recommends considering the following:
- Applicants should test all media work samples in the application before submitting. If a sample cannot be viewed or played when testing, it is likely that a panelist will not be able to access the material when evaluating applications.
- Select recent, high-quality samples that relate as directly to the application as possible.
- Select work samples that illustrate and unite the applicant’s narrative content.
- Photograph uploads should be in JPEG (or JPG) format with a 72-dpi minimum resolution and should not exceed 8 MB in size (each).
- Adding more than the recommended number of work samples to an application often weakens it.
- Carefully chosen work samples (pictures, videos, excerpts, etc.) tend to make the biggest impact and create the strongest artistic impression.
- Advisory review panelists will attempt to review all work samples submitted by each applicant. Applicants are advised to adhere to the guidelines for support material and work sample submissions detailed on page 12;
- Each work sample and document must give the specific name and title, so panelists can identify what they are reviewing.
- For project-based grants, include samples of similar projects completed to illustrate an ability to execute the proposed project.
- For video submissions:
- Do not include highly edited commercial/promotional videos as a work sample.
- Do not include poor quality video samples or samples with dim lighting, unstable video, bright backlighting, or blurred images.
- If the video work sample is longer than five (5) minutes, indicate the embedded timecode of the video where panelists should begin viewing the work sample (e.g., 5:05:00).
For online materials and websites:
- Panelists review only within the “four corners” of the application. They are not expected to go to outside links or content, so a linked website may not be viewed.
- Websites can be screen-shot and attached as an image, but it is often an insufficient work sample. Submit a website only if it is an essential part of the project.
Definitions
Access is defined in the broadest definition of the term as a means of ensuring individuals and/or groups are given physical, financial, geographic, demographic, cultural, and developmental access to programming, services, and other opportunities.
Arts means instrumental music, vocal music, dance, drama, folk art, creative writing, architecture and allied fields, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic and craft arts, industrial design, costume fashion design, media and film, and sound recording; disciplines related to the presentation, performance, execution, exhibition of those major art forms; and the study and application of the arts to the human environment.
Capital Project means a project to construct either new facilities or make significant, long-term renewal improvements to existing facilities.
Commission means the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities established by the Commission on the Arts and Humanities Act, effective October 21, 1975 (D.C. Law 1-22; D.C. Official Code § 39-201 et seq.).
Diversity refers to the various backgrounds and races that comprise a community, nation, or other grouping. In many instances, the term diversity does not only acknowledge the existence of diversity of background, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc., but applies a recognition of the value of these differences. Diversity enriches policies and practices by bringing people of diverse backgrounds and experiences together to inform, shape, and enrich these policies and practices.
Equity means giving everyone what they need to be successful. Equity is different from treating everyone the same. Equity operates from the understanding that people and groups enter given situations from very different starting points. These starting points are often determined by certain social hierarchies such as race, class, gender, age, sexual identity, etc. An equitable framework centers awareness of these hierarchies and creates systems that are actively anti-racist, anti-classist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobic.
Humanities means the study of ancient or modern languages, literature, philosophy, history, human geography, archeology, jurisprudence, religion, law, ethics, the history, criticism, theory, and practice of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences that have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.
Inclusion means authentically welcoming and bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policymaking in a way that shares power.
Period of Performance means the time during which the grantee is expected to complete award activities, incur expenses, and expend approved grant funds.
Request for Applications means a document that describes the requirements needed to obtain a particular grant. The RFA includes a description of the purpose of the grant program, including a definition of the type and range of services or activities that a grantee is expected to complete.