NEA Heritage Fellowships Instructions

NEA National Heritage Fellowships

Submit a National Heritage Fellowship Nomination
To honor and preserve our nation's diverse cultural heritage, the NEA annually awards
up to nine National Heritage Fellowships to master folk and traditional artists,
inclusive of one Bess Lomax Hawes Fellowship (described below). These fellowships
recognize artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our nation's
traditional arts heritage.
Nominees must be worthy of national recognition and have a record of continuing
artistic accomplishment. They must be actively participating in their art form, either as
practitioners or as teachers.
The designation of a Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship will be
awarded to an individual who has made major contributions to the excellence, vitality,
and public appreciation of the folk and traditional arts. The nominee should be worthy of
national recognition and must be actively engaged in perpetuating the folk and
traditional arts. Named after the influential advocate, educator, and producer of the folk
and traditional arts, Bess Lomax Hawes, this award recognizes:
•

An artist whose contributions, primarily through teaching, advocacy, organizing,
and maintaining important repertoires, have greatly benefited their artistic
tradition.

OR
•

An individual such as a producer or advocate whose efforts have significantly
increased opportunities for and public visibility of traditional arts and artists.

Individuals may be nominated specifically for the Bess Lomax Hawes Fellowship.
One or more nominations may be submitted in a year (using a separate online form for
each submission). Nominations may also be submitted by an individual or group. All
nominators must provide the name and contact information of the individual who will be

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responsible for all communication with NEA staff regarding the nomination, including
receiving correspondence, making updates or changes, and receiving feedback.
Awards for the National Heritage Fellowships (inclusive of the Bess Lomax Hawes
Fellowship) will be up to $25,000, and may be received once in a lifetime.
For FY2023, nominations for artists residing in the following states or territories will
receive special consideration in the panel review: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware,
Guam, Indiana, Northern Marianas, Kansas, Utah, and Vermont.
HOW TO UPDATE A PREVIOUSLY SUBMITTED NOMINATION
If you would like to update a nomination submitted within the past four years, DO NOT
use the online nomination form. Instead, please contact Folk & Traditional Arts
Specialist Cheryl Schiele at [email protected] for instructions.

What are the folk & traditional arts?
The folk and traditional arts are rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a
community. Community members may share a common ethnic heritage, cultural mores,
language, religion, occupation, or geographic region. These vital and constantly
reinvigorated artistic traditions are shaped by values and standards of excellence that
are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community,
through demonstration, conversation, and practice. Genres of artistic activity include,
but are not limited to, music, dance, crafts, and oral expression.
Nomination Requirements
Recipients will be selected on the basis of nominations from the public. Nominations
may be for an individual or for a group of individuals (e.g., a duo or ensemble, but not
an incorporated organization). Nominees must be citizens or permanent residents of the
United States and may receive the Fellowship once in a lifetime. Self-nominations are

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not accepted and no one may nominate an eligible group in which they are an active
member.
Individuals who have previously received any other lifetime honor award from the NEA
(National Heritage Fellowship, Jazz Masters Fellowship, or an Opera Honor) are not
eligible. Nominations of deceased individuals will not be considered. No payment will be
made to the estate or heirs of a deceased recipient.
Make a Nomination
Nominations must be submitted online. Each individual or group nomination must have
a separate nomination package. Materials that are emailed, mailed, or faxed cannot
be accepted.
Step 1 – Submit Online Nomination

May 31, 2023 by 11:59 p.m., Eastern

through NEA Website

Time

Step 2 – Submit Nomination Work

June 3, 2023 at 9:00 a.m., Eastern

Samples and Support Letters to Applicant Time to June 9, 2023 by 11:59 p.m.,
Portal

Eastern Time

Announcement of Fellowship Award

Summer of 2024

Effective nominations frame the artist’s work through quality work samples, as well as
letters of support from community members, persons with expertise in the nominee’s
genre, and the nominee’s artistic peers. It is the responsibility of the nominator to frame
the nominee’s work, cultural background, and lifetime achievements in the letter of
nomination. While nominations will be reviewed by a panel of experts in the field of folk
and traditional arts, nominators should not assume panelists will have pre-existing
familiarity with the nominee or their specific cultural tradition.
A nomination will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed without work
samples submitted through the Applicant Portal, unless the nomination is
specifically for a Bess Lomax Hawes Fellowship. At the top of the Nomination

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Statement, please indicate if the nominee is to be considered specifically for the Bess
Lomax Hawes Fellowship.
The work samples submitted should include both recent and historical high-quality
examples of the nominee’s work. Nominations in the non-performing arts are especially
encouraged to use high-quality photos or video that effectively show the quality of the
artist’s work.
After Steps 1 and 2 have been completed, updates to the nomination package may be
made June 21 - 24, 2023. Contact Cheryl Schiele at [email protected] to schedule an
appointment to make an update.
NOTE: We do not accept mailed or emailed materials
Submission Instructions
Step 1 – Submit Online Nomination through NEA Website
Attachment 1 (mandatory): A PDF document of a nomination statement/letter that
details the reasons that the nominee(s) should receive a National Heritage Fellowship.
Describe the nominee's contributions to their particular artistic tradition and explain why
this individual or group deserves national recognition.
Attachment 2 (optional): If the information is not included in the nomination letter,
please attach a PDF document of a résumé or short biography that outlines the career
of the nominee(s), a list of major public appearances or exhibitions by the nominee(s),
and the titles of published works, if any.
A complete nomination package of written materials includes a nomination
statement/letter, bio/resume, and letters of support. These written materials should not
exceed 20 pages in length. You may submit two additional documents in the work
sample category of “other written materials.” See Step Two instructions below. We will
request excess pages and work samples to be removed.

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DO NOT submit documents as Microsoft Word file. Each attachment must be a PDF
and the file size limit is 1 MB (megabyte).
DO NOT embed non-printable media files (video and/or sound) in your PDF documents.
DO NOT enable any document security settings or password-protect any PDF file you
submit to us.
Step 2 – Submit Statements/Letters of Support and Work Samples through
Applicant Portal
In addition to the material you submit electronically through our online form in Step
1, you will upload support letters and/or work samples through the Applicant
Portal. The Applicant Portal will be open beginning on June 3, 2023 at 9:00 a.m.,
Eastern Time. You will have until 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on June 9, 2023, to upload,
preview/check, and submit nomination work samples, support letters, and supplemental
materials.
SPECIAL NOTE: Your registration (User I.D. and Password) for access to the Applicant
Portal will be created for you by NEA staff. Staff will contact you with your Applicant
Portal registration information by email on the morning of August 5th.
Please follow the guidelines for the work sample limits for the nomination material. The
maximum number of allowable work samples is all that will be reviewed and no more
than 20 minutes of combined work samples will be reviewed. A nomination package will
be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed without work samples, unless the
nomination is specifically for a Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship.
Items to Upload through the Applicant Portal
Please upload supplemental materials and work samples in the following order:
•

Statements/Letters of Support (combine all letters in one PDF document);

•

Video Work Samples;

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•

Audio Work Samples;

•

Image Work Samples (combine all images in one PDF document);

•

Other Types of Work Samples (e.g. articles, flyers, etc.)

Work Sample Guidelines and Formats
You will be able to upload items in the formats described below. There is a limit of 250
MB for all of your items combined.
We will accept the following:
Up to five (5) statements/letters of support in each nomination package. This does not
include the nomination statement itself.
•

Do not use a font size smaller than 12 point. Leave a margin of at least one
inch at the top, bottom, and sides of all pages. Use only 8.5 x 11 inch size
pages. Within each PDF, number pages sequentially; place numbers on the
bottom right hand corner of each page.

Work sample guidelines:
Type

Video

Audio

Images

Other

Web

Written

Resources

Materials

(not video or
audio links)

Max. #

3 selections

5 selections

Allowed

2 PDF
documents

Max. Time

5 minutes

5 minutes

Each

each

each

Sample

20 images

5 websites

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Max. Size

150 MB

5 MB

5 MB

Each

5 MB/ 12

5 MB

pages each

Sample *
File Types

mp4 or PDF

mp3

with links

jpg, gif, bmp, PDF

PDF with

png, and tif;

links

or PDF with
images
Note: Panelists will review no more than 20 minutes of combined work samples.
Information About Uploaded Files
There can be a slight delay between the upload of your work samples and seeing them
in the Applicant Portal. This is particularly true for videos. For videos, the usual upload
time runs five to ten minutes. However, close to the deadline, this time may extend to as
much as an hour. Videos are placed in a queue to be converted for upload, and the
more people uploading, the longer the queue. Do not immediately assume that your
upload failed; wait and try accessing the material again.
Your file names must not:
•

Exceed 100 characters.

•

Begin with a space, period, hyphen, or underline.

•

Contain these characters: #%&{}\<>*?/$!‘“:+`=|"@.

For each item that you upload, you will find a descriptive field into which you will enter
the following information, as appropriate:
Title box:
•

For letters/statements of support, state the type of item
(Ex: Letters of Support from John Doe, Jane Doe, and Jimmy Doe).

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•

For video/audio/digital image/website/document work samples, state the title
of the work or name of the nominee represented by the work sample
(Ex: This Little Light of Mine)

Description box (500-Character Limit, including spaces; do not include web links):
For statements of support, simply state the type of item.
For video/audio/digital image/website/document work samples:
•

Name of the nominee featured. Describe what they are doing or wearing, if it is
unclear (e.g., wearing a red shirt).

•

Title or description of the nominee’s work or activity.

•

Date work created/performed.

•

Brief description including how the work sample relates to the proposed
nomination.

•

For audio and video samples, length of the sample.

Nominators submitting multiple websites or multiple images on a PDF should include
the relevant information from above with each website or image in the PDF. The
descriptive field for the file should provide a brief overview of the group of images or
websites as a whole.
Additional Guidance for Video Samples
You may submit a link to a video sample, or upload a video sample directly.
If you submit a link:
Submit a PDF with an active hyperlink to the video’s web address/URL. If you are
including more than one web address, list them all on a single PDF. For each site, list
the URLs for pages to be shown; include any necessary information on required plugins, passwords, or navigation paths. Do not submit links to sites that require work
samples to be downloaded (e.g., Dropbox).

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Uploading video samples:
In order to be uploaded, videos must meet the following minimum requirements:
•

Resolution: At least 480 x 360

•

Frames per second (fps): At least 12

You can often check the resolution of a video as follows. In Windows environments, find
the file on your computer, right click it, and select "Properties." On a Mac, hold the
Control key, and click on the file name. Select "Get Info" and the information should
display. Most videos are a standard 29 frames per second.
While the above requirements are the minimum, submitting your video in the mp4
(H.264) format at 640 x 480 with mp3 audio will allow for efficient uploading while
showing your clips to best advantage.
If your video doesn't meet the minimum resolution requirements above, there are a
number of software programs you can use to convert your video.
If you are submitting more than one video sample, you will upload each individually, in a
separate file.
Additional Guidance for Digital Images
Please combine all of your images into a single PDF file. This can be done by creating
a Word or PowerPoint file and saving the file as a PDF. If more than one image appears
on a page, each image still counts toward the maximum of 20 allowable images.
DO NOT submit PowerPoint or Word documents. Image size should be consistent;
medium to high resolution is recommended (e.g., 300 dpi).
Additional Guidance for Documents (Literary Samples, Publications, Periodicals,
Catalogues)

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Do not use a font size smaller than 12 point font. Leave a margin of at least one
inch at the top, bottom, and sides of all pages. Use only 8.5 x 11 inch size
pages. Within each PDF, number pages sequentially; place numbers on the bottom
right hand corner of each page. Excess pages will be removed and not be reviewed.
If you scan material, please follow the guidance below:
•

Scan images at a resolution of 300 dpi. Resolutions over 300 dpi will result in
unnecessarily large files.

•

Experiment with the JPEG quality settings. Saving the document as a "medium
quality" or "low quality" JPEG will reduce the file size, and is not likely to reduce
readability.

When you have scanned the images, combine them into a single PDF file. Submit a
single file for each document; do not submit a separate file for each scanned
page.
Additional Guidance for Websites
If you are providing more than one website for review, list all of them on a single PDF.
For each web address/URL, include any necessary information on required plug-ins,
passwords, or navigation paths. Do not submit links to sites that require work samples
to be downloaded (e.g., Dropbox).
NOTE: If you provide links to work samples - audio samples, digital images, video
samples, or documents – the same limits on uploaded work samples apply to those
provided via links. See Work sample guidelines and formats above.
Nomination Updates
New or updated information that significantly affects your nomination may be submitted
June 21 - 24, 2023. Contact Cheryl Schiele at [email protected].

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NEA staff will work primarily with the nominator listed in the online form. Please provide
the name and contact information for the nominator who will be responsible for making
updates.
Deadline for Nominations
Nominations must be submitted online no later than May 31, 2023, by 11:59 p.m.,
Eastern Time. Fellowships will be announced in the summer of 2024.
Late, ineligible, and incomplete nominations will not be reviewed.
Review of Nominations
The selection criteria are artistic excellence, significance within the particular artistic
tradition, and contributions to living cultural heritage.
Nominations are reviewed by an advisory panel of folk and traditional arts experts and
at least one knowledgeable layperson. Panel recommendations are forwarded to the
National Council on the Arts, which then makes recommendations to the Chair of the
NEA. The Chair reviews the Council's recommendations and makes the final decision
on all the award recipients.
Nominations remain active for a total of four years unless a nominee is selected for a
National Heritage Fellowship, a Bess Lomax Hawes Fellowship, or passes away.

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated at an average
of 1 hour per response including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing
data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and
reviewing the collection of information. We welcome any suggestions that you might
have on improving the guidelines and making them as easy to use as possible. Send

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comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of
information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: [email protected],
attention: Reporting Burden. Note: Applicants are not required to respond to the
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid U.S. Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) control number.

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