The first step in working with Plainfield was to research the current arts output, community demographics, and the needs of various stakeholders. The Aubrey Group’s work led to conversations with various City employees, local non-profit organizations, and artists who have worked with the City on past projects.

The City was recently gifted a historic building that has since been transformed into the Plainfield Performing Arts Center (P-PAC). The Aubrey Group contributed expertise in funding programs that will take place in and around P-PAC. The Aubrey Group created a statement of purpose describing the needs and wants of the City, as well as a schedule of programming plans for the coming year. Using that document and comprehensive research as a guide, The Aubrey Group began searching for right-fit grant opportunities.

One such grant was the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grants for Arts Projects program. As the NEA’s signature grant program, it funds specific projects in a wide variety of disciplines led by municipalities and organizations.

The program supports “public engagement with, and access to, various forms of art across the nation, the creation of excellent art, learning in the arts at all stages of life, and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life.”

Plainfield was in the process of piloting a theatre residency program and expressed interest in expanding it to multiple residencies in different disciplines. The Aubrey Group created a comprehensive program that included criteria for selecting artists, requirements of the residencies, and various community participation components (including artist talks, open auditions, and collaborative public art).

The team wrote narrative content supported by research describing the benefits this program would provide the City. The narrative included the story of Plainfield’s arts community, the history of Plainfield as a majority-Black City, and a vision for the future.

The Aubrey Group drafted letters of support to be signed by City officials and created a workable budget that accounted for materials, administration, and artist stipends.

National Endowment for the Arts grants are notoriously competitive, especially for new applicants. In November 2020, Plainfield received the news that the project was being funded for $20,000 — exactly what was requested.

About the Grantee: The City of Plainfield, a part of Union County with a population of nearly 55,000, has a rich history of artists and musicians starting their careers in the City and a robust current art scene. A short train ride from New York City, Plainfield is a bedroom suburb in the New York metropolitan area. Leadership set a goal to increase its arts and culture output, and The Aubrey Group was onboarded to build a comprehensive grants strategy for the City.