Washington, DC - National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman and U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan participated in a joint webinar in July (webcast archived online) to discuss two new, innovative community development funding opportunities. 

HUD and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released two Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs): $100 million in grants available through HUD's Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, and up to $75 million in grants available through a joint HUD and DOT Sustainable Communities Challenge Grant Program. Under both programs, arts organizations are eligible to partner with state and local governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), transit agencies, philanthropic and non-profit organizations and other eligible applicants to develop consortia grant proposals.

"The arts are a natural component to furthering this Administration's commitment to creating more livable, walkable, environmentally sustainable communities," said HUD Secretary Donovan. "They can play a key role as a partner that is able to enhance the unique characteristics of communities and increase our economic competitiveness through supporting creativity and innovation."

"The arts are creative placemakers," said NEA Chairman Landesman. "We are able to work alongside federal agencies like HUD to help create places where people want to live work and play, both today and in the future."

Both programs build on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an innovative interagency collaboration, launched by President Obama in June 2009, between the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide more sustainable housing and transportation choices for families and lay the foundation for a 21st century economy. Guided by six Livability Principles, the Partnership is designed to remove the traditional silos that exist between federal departments and strategically target the agencies' transportation, land use, environmental, housing and community development resources to provide communities the resources they need to build more livable, sustainable communities.

This is the first time that HUD and the NEA have co-convened the arts and creative sector on a national level around funding opportunities.