Programs » Publication Grants

Application Guidelines

Criteria

Applications for publication grants will be considered only for book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art, visual studies, and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher on their merits, but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy. Applications are judged in relation to two criteria: (1) the quality of the project; and (2) the need for financial assistance. Although the quality of the manuscript is the sine qua non for a grant, an excellent manuscript may not be funded if it is financially self-supporting.

In general, the purpose of the grant is to support presses in the publication of projects of the highest scholarly and intellectual merit that may not generate adequate financial return. The jury is particularly sympathetic to applications that propose enhancing the visual component of the study through the inclusion of color plates or an expanded component of black-and-white illustrations. Expenses generated by exceptional design requirements (maps, line drawings, charts, and tables) are also suitable for consideration. Permission and rental fees/reproduction rights, especially in cases where they are burdensome, are also appropriate.

Reader’s Reports

Reader’s reports should be anonymous to the author but signed and dated for the benefit of the jury (to be kept confidential), and they should not be more than three years old. The reports must be substantive, analytical evaluations of the complete manuscript. Mere endorsements are not acceptable. The author’s response to the reports should be included with the application so that the current state of the manuscript is made clear. The Meiss Jury does not admit reports written by the author’s dissertation adviser or other interested parties, such as a series editor. Note that reader’s reports are a significant and influential element of the grant application.

Eligible Applicants

Awards are open to publishers of all nations. Commercial, university, and museum presses are all eligible. Applicant authors and presses must be institutional CAA members. University presses can be eligible under the CAA membership of the university. Self-published manuscripts are not eligible for this grant. While all periods and all areas of art history and visual studies may be considered, eligibility does not embrace excavation or other technical reports, articles, previously published works (including collections of previously published essays), or congress proceedings. Within a calendar year, a press may submit the same manuscript for a Meiss Grant and a Wyeth Grant, but a book that wins one CAA publishing grant is ineligible to receive another CAA-administered grant and will be removed from consideration for the other grant. A project that has been rejected for a grant may not be resubmitted to the same grant, except in a rare case where substantial revision has been made to the material, and the publisher has so noted in the application. At its discretion, the jury may decline to review the resubmitted application. Publishers are encouraged to submit no more than two or three books for consideration in any one grant period, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Schedule

The jury meets to consider awards twice annually, in the spring and fall. To be considered at the spring meeting, completed applications must be received at the CAA office no later than March 15. To be considered at the fall meeting, applications must be received no later than September 15.

Preparing the Budget

When preparing the budget, the publisher should be as specific as possible about costs and the use to which grant monies will be put as the jury carefully considers financial information when making an award. The grant sum is intended to be less than the total cost of production; that is, a substantial portion of production costs must be met by the publisher or be from other sources. The overhead costs of a parent organization, such as a university or office of a university, may not be included in the budget, and Millard Meiss Publication Fund monies may not be used for such costs. Award amounts are determined by the jury.

Contact

Questions? Please contact Cali Buckley, Grants and Special Programs Manager, at cbuckley@collegeart.org.