Nea Awards $7 Million For Access To The Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has awarded $7 million through 366 grants in its Challenge America: Access to the Arts category. These awards support projects that provide opportunities for people to experience and participate in a wide range of art forms and activities, enable arts organizations to expand and diversify their audiences, and emphasize the potential of the arts to help strengthen communities.
Many of the projects extend the arts to underserved populations whose access to the arts is limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. Panelists reviewed 741 Challenge America applications, requesting a total of $33 million. The NEA’s budget for the year is $122.5 million.
Challenge America: Access to the Arts project examples include:
–Art Mobile, of Dillon, Mont., which will conduct a traveling exhibition program featuring the work of Montana artists. A specially equipped van will travel throughout the state, providing access to original art works and art instruction for schools, nursing care centers, correctional facilities, Native-American 0reservations, and libraries.
–Canton Symphony Orchestra Association of Ohio, which will host the Community Heritage Celebration. A new work by composer Eric Gould, based on the history and diversity of the city’s neighborhoods, will be created and presented with the involvement of school students and other community members.
–Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, of Hendersonville, N.C., which will produce a video documentary about self-taught artists from the rural South, in partnership with the Folk Arts Foundation.
