The Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) is accepting applications for its next grant cycle, supporting new creative projects to be presented between October 2012 and the start of the fall semester in 2013.

Merit-based grant awards for projects are given in two categories -- up to $1,000 to students and registered student organizations, and up to $2,500 to Cornell faculty, departments and programs. The CCA awarded grants for 45 projects last year.

The deadline for applications is Sept. 15. An application form and submission guidelines are available at http://cca.cornell.edu.

In spring semester 2012, CCA received unanimous support from the academic deans and the provost for an annual allocation of $76,000 in dedicated grant funding.

"This broad base of support will not only benefit individual artists and arts projects, but creates an environment of shared responsibility and interest in sustaining a creative culture benefiting the entire university," CCA Director Stephanie Owens said. "It's an opportunity for higher visibility and broader participation, and an invitation to collaborate, with projects bridging the arts and sciences as part of the new model."

The CCA awards grants annually to support original creative art projects by an individual or group working on independent research. The grant recipient has 12 months to complete and present the work.

Information session
CCA Director Stephanie Owens and CCA lead dean Kent Kleinman will host an informational meeting to address specific questions about the grants program and more general questions about the CCA, Sept. 4 from 5-6 p.m. at the CCA offices, 410 Thurston Ave.

Applicants are encouraged to use the grant as an opportunity to experiment and to cultivate new forms of artistic production that may be difficult to engage within the traditional classroom setting.

"It's a balancing act to show that art can have an objective, research-based process while not dismissing the particular, idiosyncratic way that artists engage with the world," Owens said. "Some of the most provocative practices in the arts have proximity to the methods of scientific or social research, and Cornell is perfectly situated to take advantage of this affinity."

Projects can engage any art form or mixture of art forms, and can be presented or performed on or off campus. Work that expands the boundaries of a discipline, encourages student-faculty collaboration or crosses multiple disciplines and departments will be given highest preference for funding.

CCA also will produce an annual universitywide exhibition in the spring and a series of related events, as a collaborative curatorial project on a theme. Details will be announced in January.