Department of State February 1, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Cultural Programs Division in the Office of Citizen Exchanges in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) announces an open competition for a cooperative agreement to administer The Rhythm Road-American Music Abroad program. The program will consist of up to ten tours for a selected number of professional American artists in jazz, urban music, and American roots music (e.g. country-western, bluegrass, zydeco, Cajun, etc.) The musicians selected for this program must demonstrate high artistic ability and be conversant with the broader aspects of contemporary American society and culture. Tours will include workshops, master classes, and outreach activities, in addition to concerts. U.S. public and non-profit organizations meeting the provisions described in Internal Revenue code section 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3) may submit proposals that support the goals of The Rhythm Road-American Music Abroad program: to promote mutual understanding and cross- cultural awareness. The tours accomplish this by providing an opportunity for international audiences to experience American musical life, highlighting our country's cultural history as well as the contemporary cultural scene, and allowing American performers to learn about life and culture in the foreign host countries. The Bureau is particularly interested in proposals for the administration of tours by jazz, urban, and American root music performers to countries with significant Muslim or underserved populations, and countries that engage youth and/or groups that influence youth. In the Western Hemisphere, we are also interested in proposals for projects that reach indigenous populations. No guarantee is made or implied that a grant will be awarded for tours to any particular region or that tours will be organized to any particular region. For this competition, all organizations must demonstrate a minimum of five years' experience successfully conducting international performing arts exchange programs in the music field to be eligible.