Staff recommends City Council approve submitting a grant application to the Jerry Metcalf Foundation, to secure a portion of the required match for the Our Town Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and approve accepting the grant funds if awarded.

In 2022, the City of Billings was awarded a $50,000 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Our Town grant is funding the City's Mobilize the MAGIC City project which will work with an artist for a year to develop a formal process to involve art and artists in everyday civic life. Local artist, Terri Porta, was selected as the Artist-In-Residence for this project. Ms. Porta, along with project leaders and volunteers, will engage the public to develop two creative placemaking hubs along Billings' first neighborhood bikeway, document the successful processes in a Placemaking Playbook, and conduct a Public Arts Committee Feasibility Study. 

The grant from the National Endowment for the Arts requires a dollar-for-dollar match. While part of the match will be provided as an in-kind match, the Mobilize the MAGIC City project leadership team has set a goal of raising $20,000 to match the grant. Funds raised will help expand and enhance creative placemaking hubs along Billings' first neighborhood bikeway. 

To help fund this match, City staff will submit a grant application to the Jerry Metcalf Foundation (JMF) for up to $10,000. According to its website, "the JMF is a private, non-profit organization that has been supporting...work in Montana with small grant awards..." The JMF has four areas of funding focus including two that relate to the Mobilize the MAGIC City project: "the visual, performing, and literary arts" and "education and community health." Applications for the 2023 funding cycle are due on April 7, 2023 and the board plans to announce grant awards on May 15, 2023. 

City Council may:

• Approve the submittal of the grant application to the Jerry Metcalf Foundation and approve acceptance of grant funds if awarded; or
• Not Approve the submittal of the grant application to the Jerry Metcalf Foundation. 

There is no disadvantage to submitting this grant application. If the application is not funded, City staff will investigate other ways to fund the required local match for the National Endowment for the Arts grant. 

If Council approves the submittal of the grant application to the Jerry Metcalf Foundation and funds are awarded, the grant will provide up to $10,000 in support of the Mobilize the MAGIC City project.