New England States Touring (NEST 1 and 2) Grant Webinar

Watch this webinar to learn more about the New England States Touring (NEST 1 and 2) Grant in advance of the deadline on December 1, 2025  (for projects beginning February 15, 2026 or later), and April 1, 2026 (for projects beginning July 1, 2026 or later).

NEST 3 is now Crossroads: Touring New England

ASL interpretation from Interpreter-Now.

Read the Transcript

Audrey Seraphin: Good morning everyone and welcome. Thank you so much for being here today for our NEST 1 and 2 webinar. I'm going to kick it over to my colleague Adriienne in a moment to start. My name is Audrey. I use she/her pronouns, and I just wanted to let you know that we do have two live ASL interpreters available for this live webinar as well as on the recording. And we also have a live captioner, so if you need captions you can hit the show captions button and those captions are coming directly from our live captioner, Debbie, and not necessarily through Zoom. I think that's all the housekeeping for now. This meeting is being recorded. We will take your questions at the end and I will now kick it over to Adrienne.

Adrienne Petrillo: Great. Thank you Audrey. Good morning and welcome everyone. I'm Adrienne Petrillo, she/her pronouns. I'm the senior program director for regional grants and international exchange here at NEFA. Before we begin, I would like to do a land acknowledgement as is our practice at the New England Foundation for the Arts. We believe one of the roles of the arts is to make the invisible visible. We also believe that it is not the responsibility of those who have been made invisible to remind us that they are still here. Therefore, as a committed ally, NEFA wishes to acknowledge that the ground on which we are based or our offices are based are the traditional lands of the Massachusetts Wampanoag and Nipmuc people. We honor their ancestors past, present, and future and recognize their continued existence and contributions to our society. You heard a little bit from Audrey, but Audrey is the other NEFA colleague joining us today who you'll hear from. Audrey, do you want to do a slightly more formal intro of yourself?

Audrey Seraphin: Sure! I am the program manager for regional grants and initiatives here at NEFA. And I also want to shout out our intern, Zach, who is sharing slides and will be available for some technical assistance as needed in the chat and Q and A functions.

Adrienne Petrillo: Great. Thank you Audrey and thank you Zach. And thank you to our interpreters and our captioners today. So we can go to the next slide. We are here today to talk about NEFA's funding program New England States Touring or NEST as it is known, the NEST program funds performances, readings, and screenings of work by New England artists presented by New England based nonprofit organizations. This is sometimes the moment where we also just remind you that New England is made up of six states. It does not include the state of New York, so it is Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

I'm going to start by talking about the program goals, which give you a sense of what the NEST program is trying to achieve. And these goals directly inform the program design as well as the funding criteria, which we will talk about later. So the goals are to provide New England communities with access to artistic excellence by artists from across the region to support New England artists by providing opportunities to share their work, receive appropriate compensation, and form reciprocal relationships with the organizations that present them. It is also a goal to build meaningful connections between artists and communities within New England. And finally, we are looking to strengthen the presenting and touring infrastructure in New England as part of our region's entire arts and culture ecosystem. So there are two versions of NEST and we'll talk about both of these today, but I'm going to pass it over to Audrey to do that.

Audrey Seraphin: Sure. Thanks Adrienne. So NEST has two funding levels and you can think about them quite simply as being one or two tour stops on a performing artist's journey. The NEST 1 level funds New England nonprofit applications to present a New England artist from outside their state. So that is one nonprofit presenter. Again, a term we will use on and off here. One nonprofit presenter, for example in Maine to bring in an artist from New Hampshire or Massachusetts or any of the other New England states to their state to perform. NEST 2 is sort of the next level of this, which funds tours of New England based artists presented by one nonprofit based inside the artist's home state and one other nonprofit based in a different New England state. So for example, the same presenter in Maine could present an artist from inside their state through NEST 2 if they were to partner with another presenter presenting the same artist in another New England state.

NEST grants provide up to 60% of the total artist fees, which can include base contract, fee per diem, travel, lodging expenses, and other costs associated directly with the artist's presentation. Those grants can range from $500 to $5,000 and it's important to note that artists that have a total fee of under $2,000 may request up to the full artist fee. NEST grants are awarded through a competitive selection process and the amount of the award is based upon to the extent which the project meets the funding criteria. Many, and in fact, sometimes most of our applicants receive partial funding and applicants should still be prepared to meet the artist fee with other funding sources. Getting a partial funding through the NEST program does not mean that you should reduce an artist fee. We very much believe that artists are presented through a wide means of financial sources and they should be paid their rate regardless.

If you could just go to the next slide. Yes. Here's where I talk about arts presenters. So New England organizations are also known as presenters in this program. You may hear me use both words. Applicant organizations must be a 501c3 nonprofit organization, school, federally recognized tribe or other government entity. We cannot accept applications through fiscal agents as this is a federally funded program through the National Endowment for the Arts. The entity presenting and paying the artist or the presenter would be the applicant for any NEST grant. So arts presenters, as I mentioned, must be 501c3 nonprofit. Then they must be, as Adrienne mentioned, based in New England. All projects that apply for NEST must include a public presentation of the artist named in the application. We define a public presentation as one that is open to the public and advertised accordingly. One other note here, since this is, as I mentioned, supported through federal funds, all applicants must register at SAM dot gov for a UEI or a unique entity id.

This process is outlined pretty clearly through a link on our website. And the last eligibility requirement for applicants for NEST is that they must maintain an updated profile in the CreativeGround directory, which is NEFA's free resource for the creative economy. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. So some examples of folks who might be able to apply for NEST include theaters, performing arts centers, festivals, cultural series, and museums. We also have many applicants who are university or college-based arts presenters, public schools, and educational programs. We also get a fair number of applications from libraries, community arts organizations, municipalities, parks, and historical societies and these public presentations are predominantly for performing artists. But we also fund public presentations of literary projects, though those must include a public reading by the NEST-eligible artist and public presentations of film projects must include a public film screening with the NEST-eligible artist and filmmaker getting a UEI, which I mentioned earlier is a free process and can be done by visiting SAM.gov.

Alright, thank you. Here are some things that NEST does not fund, just to make that quite clear for you. Events that are not open to the public and advertised accordingly. We do not fund events that are private and not open to all. Any events that occur outside of New England. We do not fund fundraisers though that isn't to say you can't make money on an event. We actually encourage that you sell tickets to the event for a wide variety of reasons, but we don't want to fund, for example, an exclusive or high priced event like a gala where a performance might be happening sort of as an add-on. We don't fund activities and programs which take place exclusively in schools during class time. We'll talk a little bit about community engagement later. And so there could be community engagements that are done at schools, but the primary performance has to be open to the public and not just for students of any particular school performances in which the performers are primarily students.

NEST is designed for professional touring artists, self-produced presentations by artists and ensembles. So for example, a theater company putting on a play as part of their season would not be eligible for NEST as it does not involve a visiting artist and is a self-produced production. Producing organizations inviting a guest artist such as a conductor or a soloist to perform as part of a performance by the producing organization. So including guests of symphonies and things like that wouldn't be eligible for funding. And finally, presentations of artistic work with funding available through two of NEFA's other programs, the National Dance Project and the National Theater Project. These other grant programs offer support to New England organizations to present projects that have previously been selected as part of a roster. To those organizations who present dance and theater, it's always worth checking out both the New England Dance Project and New England Theater Project page to see what touring subsidies are available for those projects.

But if projects are available for touring subsidies through those programs, they will not be eligible for NEST funding. Next slide, please, Zach. Fabulous. So as I mentioned, NEST artists are professional artists from New England who meet the NEST artist requirements. Again, a link available on our website, which I can try to drop into the chat later. CreativeGround houses the directory for all New England artists, also known as NEST artists, who may be chosen by NEST applicants for funding. So any presenter looking to present an artist should 1, have their own profile on CreativeGround, but 2, confirm that their artist is listed as NEST-eligible on the CreativeGround directory. There are several requirements outlined on our website about being NEST-eligible, but you have to have the following criteria on your profile, including performance, concert, and reading as one of the services you offer in the activities and services section.

At least one additional photo in addition to your profile image, one video in your media gallery, and an "I have worked with" section that includes at least five or more partners who have hired or collaborated with this artist in the past year and touring artist information including a monetary fee range for presenting. Once you check on your - and I'll show you exactly where that checkbox is in a moment - once you check, I wish to be considered for NEST eligibility, NEFA staff, probably me, we'll review your profile and recommend any edits still needed for eligibility, and then ultimately approve your profile and notify you so presenters can receive funding to present you. We want to recognize that artists often live and work in many different places and employ collaborators from around the world. But NEST, as I mentioned, is designed to support artists residing and working in New England.

A NEST artist must maintain permanent residence in one of the six New England states and spend at least half the year living in that state. We also sometimes get questions around ensembles that might be based in different states. In that case, they need to... The state where the majority of the ensemble resides should be used as the NEST artist's home state, and then they do have to use that as a state of residence on their CreativeGround profile and in all NEST applications. So for example, if you have a duo based in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, they can't change between New Hampshire and Massachusetts based on the application. You've got to pick one and stick with it. If you could go to the next slide, Zach, this will show you. Yeah, the NEST-eligibility checkbox. So as you can see, if you have been on CreativeGround, this is what it looks like when you're editing your profile under the "artist's only" section.

You're going to go to the "touring artist" section and click the little checkbox that says this profile is a performing artist or artist group that tours. And then once you click that checkbox, this checkbox below will pop up. It has some disclaimers, very similar to the information I just told you, but once you click that second checkbox, you get entered into our eligibility queue and we can approve your applications from there. That queue gets reviewed about once a week and sometimes more depending upon proximity to deadlines and number of profiles seeking eligibility. And Adrienne, I think this is when I kick it back to you.

Adrienne Petrillo: Yes, thank you Audrey. So that's a very helpful overview of sort of who applies how you apply and the eligibility requirements. And then the question we get most frequently is how do you decide who gets funded or how do I make sure I get funding? And the answer to that is funding criteria. So as Audrey mentioned, NEST grants are awarded through a competitive selection process and the amount that is awarded is based largely on how well a project meets the funding criteria. So the first thing we're looking for is a clear rationale for how the project aligns with the organization's arts programming goals and provides the community with access to excellent artistic and cultural experience. This is the place for applicants to really talk about the artist. It is critical that you actually name the artist when you are addressing this question. We want to see that you have considered who the artist is and why you're bringing them to your community.

We are also looking for additional activities beyond the performance, which provide opportunity for the artist in this engagement to meaningfully connect with the community. Cross sector exchange. So connecting arts and non-arts, which might be like arts and healthcare, arts and environment. Cross-sector exchanges and collaboration are strongly encouraged. So additional activities can include panel discussions, workshops, classes. They can include social dinners, events, potlucks. We don't prescribe what they need to be, but we are looking for opportunities for the community to engage beyond what happens on stage. We are also looking for projects that support community partnerships and strategies to provide access to the arts for all New England communities, especially those that often experience barriers to participation in arts activities. Such barriers may exist for someone based on their age, class, disability, gender, geographic location and economics. So what we're really looking for is who is being reached by this project and how are you reaching folks who may have a barrier to arts participation?

And the more specifics you can provide, the better. We are also looking to support projects that provide the artist with resources that support their artistic vision and sustainability as a New England based artist. So for example, this might be that you are paying the artist a relatively fair fee. We always say relative because probably most artists could be paid a little bit more, but we want to see artists getting paid adequately. Other ways beyond compensation might be that a presenter is helping an artist document their work. Perhaps they have documentation services that they can provide or they might be helping to advocate for the artists to their colleagues and peers, which leads to the artist getting more work in the future. So there's a lot of different ways that this can happen.

We also have one priority, so this is not a requirement, but we are giving priority to projects that provide communities with new arts experiences. So does the community regularly have an opportunity to experience dance, jazz, opera, classical music, whatever it may be. Has this artist been presented in the community before? And if they have, how is that experience being built upon and expanded? So this is a priority. It is new to NEST this year. So it's important to know for folks who maybe have applied in the past. And then finally, this is just for NEST 2 applications. As Audrey mentioned, there have to be two tour partners on a NEST 2 application. So for those applications we are looking for collaborative planning with the tour partner and the artist so that they can share knowledge and experience that will deepen the engagement for the artist to the partner, the organizations, and their communities.

The applications which best address the funding criteria are likely to receive funding. The funding amount also depends on how well the application meets the criteria. As Audrey mentioned, partial funding is probably what most applicants receive, but the stronger the application, the higher the grant amount. NEFA staff is also available in advance of the deadline if you need advice or guidance on addressing any of these criteria. And then just as a note, Audrey sort of touched on it very briefly, but we actually encourage charging admission to events. There are certainly some events that may not make sense to charge admission, but in general we believe that charging admission is a worthwhile thing for organizations to do because they remind audiences that the work of artists has value. On a more practical level, they help often ensure attendance and they allow you to collect data that can help with marketing and fundraising and of course it can be very important revenue to help with a budget. All right, next slide. I'm going to pass it back to Audrey to talk about having a successful application.

Audrey Seraphin: Yeah, thanks. So that is, as Adrienne mentioned, one of the questions we get most often around what makes an application successful and these are our, I guess, top five tips. We recommend that you read all of the NEST guidelines carefully, which are available in the link that I dropped in the chat at nefa.org/nest. All funders, NEFA included, are seeing an increased number of applications. So we encourage you to carefully read the program guidelines to ensure that this funding program aligns with your project. We don't recommend you try to fit yourself into a program that doesn't align with your work as it's likely bit of a waste of time on your behalf, and probably on ours as well. If you're unsure if your project aligns, please feel free to contact us. We'll have our contact information on the last slide. If you have any questions about whether your project is a good fit, we're happy to talk that through with you.

Community Engagement. NEST is looking to support projects where the artists engages with the community on and off stage. The quality of the off stage activities is reviewed closely by our NEST review panel, which is made up of advisors from all six state arts agencies. We consider who is being reached by the performance and the additional activities, what strategies and partnerships you've developed that provide access, especially for those who may face barriers to participation in arts activities. Such barriers may exist for someone based on their age, class, disability, gender, geographic location, and economics. Essentially we're looking for engagements that go beyond just presenting a performance. As Adrienne mentioned, there's a lot of different examples and we try not to be prescriptive of what that looks like, but very successful engagements have allowed audiences and artists to connect on a deeper level beyond the traditional transaction of a performance.
Our third tip is be specific. Be as specific as possible within the character limits, which I think for NEST are decently generous. Who in your community will be reached? For example, if you're presenting dance, we wouldn't recommend saying people who love dance. It's rather general. If you do offer or are able to offer community demographics, please connect it to your audience and the audience that you anticipate will view this NEST performance. The best advice for when answering narrative questions is to be specific. The most common feedback we get from panelists is that they want more detail. I recommend that you take full advantage of the space provided. That you should be aware of the 2000 character limit per narrative question.

I would also recommend that you answer the questions. You'll see a direct correlation between the narrative questions and the funding criteria. A tip for you, if you answer any narrative question with no or not applicable, it's likely that you do not have a strong application on your hands. If you are applying for a NEST 2 grant and we ask how you've collaborated with partners, we want to see the collaboration between partners. This doesn't mean identical answers, just making clear that you have been able to coordinate with other applicants is important. So use the space provided and answer the questions directly. There isn't any trick or trap here. You don't have to tell us what you think is important. And as I mentioned, it should be clear in either NEST level that you are speaking with the artists you seek to present already. And as I mentioned, the NEST 2 application, the application should bear resemblance. We're looking for sisters, not twins here, and I think I'll pass it back to Adrienne now.

Adrienne Petrillo: Thank you. So for our timeline, there are typically three application deadlines each year. They're the first business day of August, December, and April. Just want to acknowledge we did not have an August deadline this year in 2025. That was due to some delay in confirmation of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and therefore the December 1st deadline, we did move up the grant period a little bit. December 1st is the next deadline that is for projects that begin after February 15th, 2026. Please note that normally the December deadline will be for projects that start after March 1st. Then the next deadline will be April 1st, 2026. And that is for projects that start after July 1st. Projects should occur within a year of the start date of the grant period. So if you're applying in December, it should be for a projects that's going to take place after February 15th of next year, and happening sometime between February 15th, 2026 and February 15th, 2027.

So please don't apply more than a year in advance. Organizations may submit a maximum of two NEST 1 and or NEST 2 applications in any combination per deadline. So what that means is for December, an organization could submit two NEST 1 applications, they could submit two NEST 2 applications, or they could submit a NEST 1 and a NEST 2. It also means that same organization in April could come back again with one or two applications again in any combination. But you are limited to two applications per deadline. All applications are submitted through our online grants portal and we do not accept late applications. The application form will be open until 11:59 PM on the deadline date. NEFA staff will not be available at that time. So we do recommend that you try to submit your applications within business hours when staff are available to support you.
Just so you understand what happens after we receive the application. Applications are reviewed by the NEST advisors. There are six NEST advisors. They're each representatives from each State Arts Agency, for example, such as the Mass Cultural Council, Vermont Arts Council, or New Hampshire State Council and the Arts. All of the NEST advisors are listed on our website and you are encouraged to contact them as you're applying just to let them know it's happening because they will eventually read your application. Applicants are notified about six to eight weeks after the deadline, and it's important to note that NEST grants are paid as a reimbursement after the final report is submitted. We do, on our website, have all of the final report requirements. We recommend reviewing those in advance so that you know what's expected and you can really determine whether the grant funding is worth the work you need to put into it because there are things that are required at the end of the process as well.

We try to keep that as streamlined as possible, but again, we have funders and partners that we also have to report back to, so it's important for us to collect those final reports. And then finally, you should know that as part of our process and really part of NEFA's practice here at NEFA, we do offer feedback. So whether you were funded or not, you are welcome to contact us afterwards for feedback on your application. And it's a really good way to strengthen applications for the future. And sometimes it can even inform applications to other funders. And we recommend that even for those who are funded because sometimes the reason you got funded may not be actually what you thought it was. So just be in touch afterwards as well. Even if you were not successful this time, you might be in the future.

And I think that wraps up our program presentation. Thank you for listening. The NEST program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the six State Arts Agencies. So it is always important to thank your funders. So we thank them for supporting this program. And finally, we are happy to share our contact information. As you can see, Audrey and I are both real people. We do answer our emails, we even answer our phones. So if you have questions, we'd much rather you reach out to us than not. We're more than happy to take questions, talk through projects, give advice where we can, and that's a big part of what we're here for. And I think if you have questions and want to drop them in the chat for the Q and A, we're happy to answer any questions that may come up. Alright, well, I'm not seeing any questions. Again, you know how to reach us, so you're always welcome to reach out. This webinar has been recorded, so it will be posted on NEFA's website in a couple of weeks so you can always rewatch it or tell your friends if they missed this very exciting webinar, they can watch it for themselves. But with that, we thank you for coming today. Thank you to Audrey and Zach from the NEFA staff, and thank you to our interpreters and captioners for joining us today.

Audrey Seraphin: Have a great rest of your Tuesday, everybody, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.