RFI_NEA_Creativity_Connects_Mapping_Project_FBO.pdf

General Information:

Document Type: Request for Information (RFI)

RFI Number: NEA RFI 2015-01

Release Date: August 14, 2015

Response Date: September 14, 2015 at 5:00pm (EST) via email to

Contracting Officer at HARRISL@ARTS.GOV

Contracting Office Address: National Endowment for the Arts

400 7th Street, SW, Third Floor

Washington, DC 20506

Description of Services/Supplies: Creativity Connects NEA Leadership Initiative, an interactive digital systems map showing how the arts fit into the larger creative ecosystem and documenting the current conditions underpinning creative activity in the United States.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) to identify the capabilities of the marketplace of all interested parties and request comments on the Draft Performance Work Statement

(Draft PWS) included herein.

Objective of the RFI

As part of its market research, the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) is issuing this

RFI to determine if there exists an adequate number of qualified interested contractors capable of defining the components of the systems map, designing and programming an interactive interface, and creating a platform that shows examples of creative activity as well as connections, influences and interdependencies between the examples, as further described in the Draft PWS.

This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the NEA for any future solicitation. NEA makes no implied or in fact contract by issuing this RFI. The Draft PWS describes only the currently contemplated possible scope of services and may vary from the work scope in a Final Performance Work Statement. No official solicitation exists; therefore, please do not request a copy of a solicitation. If in the future an official solicitation is released, there is no guarantee that sources responding to this will be included on the source list.

Telephone inquiries will not be accepted.

The NEA makes no implied or in fact contract by issuing this RFI. Acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made, nor will respondents be notified of the NEA’s view mailto:HARRISL@ARTS.GOV of the information received. Do not send any material that requires a non-disclosure agreement or that may be business sensitive. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. The NEA will not pay for information received in response to this RFI. All information received in Capability Statements marked “Proprietary” will be protected and handled accordingly. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their Capability Statements. Responses to this RFI will not be returned.

Purpose of Market Research

According to Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) Part 10(a)(3), the results of market research can be used to:

(i) Determine if sources capable of satisfying the NEA’s requirements exist;

(ii) Determine if commercial items or, to the extent commercial items suitable to meet the NEA’s needs are not available, nondevelopmental items are available that—

(A) Meet the NEA’s requirements;

(B) Could be modified to meet the NEA’s requirements; or

(C) Could meet the NEA’s requirements if those requirements were modified to a reasonable extent;

(iii) Determine the extent to which commercial items or nondevelopmental items could be incorporated at the component level;

(vi) Determine whether bundling is necessary and justified; and

(vii) Assess the availability of electronic and information technology that meets all or part of the applicable accessibility standards issued by the Architectural and

Transportation Barriers Compliance Board at 36 CFR Part 1194.

The extent of market research will vary, depending on such factors as urgency, estimated dollar value, complexity, and past experience. The contracting officer may use market research conducted within 18 months before the award of any task or delivery order if the information is still current, accurate, and relevant. Market research involves obtaining information specific to the item being acquired and should include—

(i) Whether the NEA’s needs can be met by—

(A) Items of a type customarily available in the commercial marketplace;

(B) Items of a type customarily available in the commercial marketplace with modifications; or

(C) Items used exclusively for governmental purposes.

(ii) Customary practices regarding customizing, modifying or tailoring of items to meet customer needs and associated costs;

(iii) Customary practices, including warranty, buyer financing, discounts, contract type considering the nature and risk associated with the requirement, etc., under which commercial sales of the products or services are made;

(iv) The requirements of any laws and regulations unique to the item being acquired;

(v) The availability of items that contain recovered materials and items that are energy efficient;

(vi) The distribution and support capabilities of potential suppliers, including alternative arrangements and cost estimates; and

(vii) Size and status of potential sources.

Draft Performance Work Statement:

The NEA was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The

NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.

At the time of its 50th anniversary, consistent with this ongoing mandate, the NEA is conducting targeted explorations intended to support a creative and sustainable future for the Arts (defined for the purpose of this document as music, museums, visual arts, arts education, presenting works, multidisciplinary works, design, dance, theater, and literature). One of these – Creativity Connects – is a leadership initiative launched by the

NEA in 2015 that will show how the Arts are central to the country’s creativity ecosystem, investigate how support systems for the Arts are changing, and explore how the Arts connect with other industries.

Creativity Connects will provide the framework for the NEA to investigate the conditions and trends affecting, shaping and promoting creativity in the United States and examine the ways in which the arts sector, government, for-profit sector, and philanthropic community can collaborate to support the Arts, grow our nation’s creative economy, and enhance the contributions of creative workers to our society.

Creativity Connects will have two components:

● An infrastructure report that provides a contemporary overview of changing artistic practices and the emerging landscape for artists and creatives; and

● A beautiful and technologically sophisticated interactive digital systems map showing how the Arts fit into the larger creative ecosystem and documenting the current conditions underpinning creative activity in the United States (the Map).

Once completed, the infrastructure report, map and project data will serve as a resource to support strategic planning, budgeting, and policy development for the public, private and social sectors. Creativity Connects will bolster our national understanding of the trends, opportunities and obstacles affecting creativity across fields of endeavor as diverse as fashion design, technology innovation, culinary arts, scientific innovation, computer gaming, and others.

The NEA is seeking a contractor to help plan, design, program, and implement the Map

(the Contractor). The final deliverable will:

● Demonstrate how the Arts supported historically by the NEA connect to other creative industries and fields that require creativity of different kinds. The map will seek to demonstrate the interconnections that exist, perhaps even causality. Within this map, factors like performance skills, design thinking, branding, storytelling, and software programming offer a visual analogy to the movement of creativity between the Arts and other sectors. While showing these connections, the map will also depict contemporary trends that affect the creativity ecosystem: new demands for infrastructure that supports the Arts, changing artistic practices and the emerging landscape for artists and creatives;

● Act as a virtual museum of NEA-funded projects. While the map will reveal layers of historical grant information from the NEA, the goal is to make these stories human, tangible and real by illustrating each artistic field with relevant archival image, video, audio clips, writing sample, first-person monologues, and ephemera

(including tickets, posters, book covers, newspaper clippings and other objects)(collectively, the Digital Assets). These digital assets would illustrate the larger history of the NEA as well as the themes projects have addressed, artists that have been involved, and trends within or across fields. The map would allow users to seamlessly move, open and experience examples of Arts projects supported by the agency; and

● Act as a resource to Arts organizations with information and examples of how the

NEA can support their endeavors.

The data that will populate the map will include, but is not limited to, the following:

● NEA grants data pertaining to creativity and/or creativity-related variables (to be determined in consultation with the NEA’s Office of Research and Analysis), data from the NEA’s Grant Management System (GMS) and geographic data on NEA-funded project activity locations (GEO). The NEA will provide the Contractor data from agreed-upon fields in the GMS or GEO databases in Stata (a type of data analysis and statistical software) or Excel files;

● Data collected by the NEA and cooperators through national interviews and roundtable discussions which will tap the insights of experts and thought leaders (i.e.

opinion leaders or recognized authorities in a given field) on the topic of creativity, creative fields, and supporting infrastructure for the Arts;

● Existing data sets about creative industries (e.g. Bureau of Economic Activity

Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account);

● Data collected through partner networks in the fields of business, science, technology, financial, education, for-profit media, for-profit design, for-profit publishing, makers, law, environmental, faith-based institutions, animation, food, and fashion;

● Digital Assets collected from NEA grantees;

● Social media including, but not limited to, information that can be accessed through social logins (e.g. via LinkedIn or Facebook); photographs, Tweets, Instagram posts, and infographics tagged with a project-related hashtag; and data visualization elements generated in connection with the map.

This work will be undertaken in close coordination with the NEA. We require a one (1) year base contract with two (2) option years. Contractor shall design, build and test the

Map and related website with interfaces that work on all modern browsers and on a variety of devices.

RFI Responses Submission Instructions:

General Guidelines submit the minimum information necessary to satisfy Part A-F below;

clearly mark your response with the RFI number: NEA RFI 2015-01;

limit responses to four (4) A4 pages;

submitted to the email HARRISL@ARTS.GOV by September 15, 2015.

Responses shall address each part as follows

Part A. Capabilities and Technical Experience – Provide a capability statement describing the ability to identify expert knowledge of and experience with data visualization, UX design, Drupal environments, software programming, cross-browser/cross-platform development, graphic design, linguistics, creative direction, collaborative storytelling projects, interactive design, and online mapping.

Part B. Comments on the Draft PWS – Provide comments, critique and feedback on the Draft PWS. This includes, but is not limited to, comments on the scope of objectives, timing, and sources of data.

Part C. Technical and Management Approach – Provide a capability statement describing how your company would devise storytelling approaches in order to shape the overall Map-user experience and adopt an agile approach to project development and regular troubleshooting to ensure the different versions of the Map are launched successfully.

Part D. Cost Estimate – (a) Highlight past projects your organization has worked on that are similar to the Draft PWS and state the cost of these projects; and (b) Provide a cost estimate based on the Draft PWS and the estimated number of hours required to execute the Draft PWS.

Part E. Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) - If any, provide disclosure of business activities of your company, your affiliates, your team members and affiliates of your team members which create either a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest in the performance of the services contemplated in this RFI.

mailto:HARRISL@ARTS.GOV

Part F. Small Business – State whether your company is a large business, small business (and also state your under socioeconomic status), college/university, or a non-profit organization.