NEA Awards 832 Art Works Grants Totaling $23.3 million

NEA ^ | 11/27/12

[Drango]

Plus, 40 Creative Writing Fellowships totaling $1 million awarded to poets

November 27, 2012

Contact: Victoria Hutter 202.682.5570 hutterv@arts.gov

Washington, DC -- National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced today that the NEA will award 832 grants totaling $23.3 million through its Art Works funding category. Not-for-profit arts organizations in 47 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico will receive funding. The supported projects span 13 artistic disciplines and fields and focus primarily on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing works for the benefit of American audiences. In addition, the NEA will award Creative Writing Fellowships to 40 outstanding poets for a total of $1 million. This grant announcement is the first of several for fiscal year 2013.

"Through a rigorous peer-review panel process, the NEA ensures that projects recommended for funding are among the most creative, the most effective, and will make a real impact," said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "I am proud to announce these 832 Art Works grants and 40 Creative Writing Fellowships and I look forward to seeing the projects come to fruition for the benefit of both the grantees and their communities across the country."

Art Works

Art Works is the NEA's largest funding category. These grants emerged from applications submitted to the March 2012 deadline. (Grants from the August 2012 deadline will be announced in Spring 2013.) Art Works encourages and supports the following four outcomes:

Creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, Public engagement with diverse and excellent art, Lifelong learning in the arts, and Strengthening of communities through the arts.

Funded Art Works projects include:

1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia is recommended for a $20,000 grant to support InLight Richmond, an annual one-night community festival and public exhibition of light-based art. InLightexhibitions feature a range of light-based works including video projections, interactive environments, multimedia projects, performance, and installation.

Calista Elders Council in Anchorage, Alaska is recommended for a $45,000 grant to help support a three-day Yup'ik dance festival in Chavak, Alaska, (population 938) featuring 24 dance groups from 23 remote villages. Families in the village will host and provide food for the 312 dancers for a weekend of dancing, ceremonials, and socializing.

Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota is recommended for a $100,000 grant to support production of two new works: a play by Caridad Svich, based on Julia Alvarez’s novel In the Time of the Butterflies, and an oral history piece about veterans with disabilities created in partnership with Footprints Collective. Also, Mixed Blood will tour Minnecanos, an original musical about four generations of Minnesota Mexicans and The Deaf Duckling about a deaf child born to a hearing family.

Ojai Festivals in Ojai, California, is recommended for a $15,000 grant to support the 67th annual Ojai Festival. Programming will focus on American artists and music, including the works of Lou Harrison, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, and John Luther Adams. Additional featured artists include Mark Morris Music Ensemble, the Mark Morris Dance Group, pianist Emanuel Ax, the American String Quartet, and jazz trio The Bad Plus with Ethan Iverson.

Please see the complete list of recommended projects under the Art Works category.

Art Work by the numbers Applications and Grants

Number of eligible applications received for the March 2012 deadline: 1,509 Number of grants recommended from pool of applications: 832 Total dollars requested from eligible applications: $74 million Total dollars to be awarded for grants: $23.3 million Average success rate of applications to grants: 55% Average funding rate of amount requested in application: 50% Average success rate of amount requested in application in Fall 2009: 41% Average funding rate of amount requested in application in Fall 2009: 58%

Panels and Panelists

Number of panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff to review applications: 28 Number of individual panelists from those panels: 140 Estimated review time per application in advance of a panel: 30 minutes Estimated number of hours a panelist spends in preparation and in panel: 40 hours

Geography and States

Number of states represented by applicants: 50 plus DC, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands Number of states represented by grantees in this funding round: 47 plus DC and Puerto Rico Number of states represented by panelists in this funding round: 37

Of Special Note

Among the 832 Art Works grants, 178 will have multi-state impact. This means that through touring, collaborative projects, TV and radio broadcasts, and other means, these projects extend their reach and leverage NEA support beyond the grantees' home states. Also, among these grants, six will support projects inspired by the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring: four grants in dance, one in music, and one in theater. Those grantees are: Ballet West, Salt Lake City, Utah Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois Houston Ballet, Houston, Texas Mark Morris Dance Group, New York, New York Saratoga International Theatre Institute, New York, New York

As part of its commitment to fund organizations across the country, the NEA conducts grant workshops to help potential applicants understand the agency's grant-making process and offer tips for submitting strong proposals. Since October 2011, the NEA has held 35 grant workshops in 19 states plus the District of Columbia (using this presentation). Together with 10 training webinars offered through the NEA's website, the agency has reached more than 4,700 new and/or prospective applicants.

Creative Writing Fellowships

The NEA has awarded creative writing fellowships since 1967, providing writers with the time and freedom to pursue their writing.

Among this year's recipients are the first married couple to individually receive a fellowship at the same time, Suzanne Buffman and Srikanth Reddy. Other fellowship poets include Ken Chen (Brooklyn, NY), Sy Hoahwah (Benton, AR), Reginald L. Flood (Quaker Hill, CT), Meg Day (Salt Lake City ,UT), and Solmaz Sharif (Los Angeles, CA).

Creative Writing Fellowships by the numbers

Number of eligible applications received for this funding round: 1,137 Total number of pages submitted in applications: 46,200 Number of reviewers who read through applications: 22 Number of pages each reviewer read: 2,100 Number of applications selected by reviewers to receive further review by a panel: 110 Number of fellowships awarded: 40 Average success rate for fellowships awarded: 3.5%

Please see the complete listing of poets recommended for Creative Writing fellowships.

A state-by-state listing of all the grants announced in this release is also available.

The National Endowment for the Arts 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. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov or at www.twitter.com/NEAarts and www.facebook.com/NationalEndowmentfortheArts

The National Endowment for the Arts 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. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.

[Drango]

Prior to 1965 there was no great art anywhere. We were in a cultural wasteland. It's important that our grand-kids pay for this as we borrow money from the Chinese to fund this worthy art activity.

After spending $4 billion for "art" we are much better off. /s

[GeronL]

100% waste of tax dollars

[cripplecreek]

Yep and I say that as an artist who manages to scrape by earning my money honestly.

[Proud2BeRight]

FLUSH.....

Art is either a hobby or a business that needs to stand on it’s own value. Stealing taxpayer funds when the nation is $16,172,249,000,000 in debt to spend on it is obscene.

[Fledermaus]

But...but...but...what about the important Cowboy Poetry?

Unfortunately, the GOPe won’t cut this crap out either. Nor would have Romney. If Reagan didn’t, any chance anyone will?

[onyx]

Less than$1.3k to GO!

Please Contribute Today.

Just 130 Donations @ $10.00 each!

[cripplecreek]

Unfortunately, the GOPe won’t cut this crap out either. Nor would have Romney. If Reagan didn’t, any chance anyone will?

That's what amazes me. They always go for politically volatile things when they could easily cut crap like this and at least show a little good faith. I don't care if it is just piddly little crap, cut it anyway.

In all fairness, my congressman did manage to get $20 of the $50 million he sought to get cut from the endowment for the arts.

[Fledermaus]

Agreed. But when you try, the “establishment” just screams “nickel and dimes”.

Well, they add up.

[Lionheartusa1]

Recently Glenn Beck created a work of art ,, placing a likeness of he bamster in a quart jar of pee pee and placed it on eBay . The bidding reached $11,300.00 before eBay took it off the site . Unlike the previous artwork created by a liberal whack-job of a crucifix submerged in a vat of urine Beck received no govt. support for his creation . Kudos to Beck for being independent of needing govt. support and kudos to the 79 bidders who attemped to buy his masterpiece . The liberal whacko still hasn’t sold his disgusting piece of worthless , lack of artistic ability which shows who really has the talent in this urine art contest .

[cripplecreek]

Its like PBS funding. Even liberals admit that its just a tiny amount of money in the grand scheme of things but they won't even let that tiny amount go.

Here's a particularly strident article fom the "Dance Journal" about my congressman's cut in NEA funding.

House Approves Amendment to Cut NEA Funding (Feb 2011)

[FlingWingFlyer]

I hope Glenn Beck picked up a grant for his “Pee Pee Obama”. That thing is awesome. A real work of art.

[JamesA]

Hey, thats some of my money and I didn’t tell NEA they could throw it away. I want a refund, no demand a refund. I’ll be dead in my grave before that happens.

[MinuteGal]

Where to begin!

The NEA was founded in 1965. Art in this country has been crap since 1965. I was in the modern art museum in DC and just about all I saw was contemporary modern crap. I had some schooling in art, won a local first prize years ago....and I respect artistic freedom and creativity more than anyone I know. But I don't respect crap.

Let the artists produce all the crap they want, load up museums with crap.......but not on my dime.

Forty poets will divvy up a million clams. For what? More crap like Maya Angelou's incoherent social justice poem delivered at Bubba's inaugural? Where's the market for poetry today that poets should be subsidized?

I've posted almost 500 political/social culture poems, satirical and otherwise during my 14 years on FR. Where's my grant??? I believe everyone reading this should be FORCED to send me some of his or her money!

Poets can write all the poems they want, but not on my dime. If there's a market for poems, they'll prosper, if not, they can get a job and write all they want on their own time and dime.

Most of the best art in history was produced prior and up to government grants. I could continue parsing the outrageous grants in the article above, but you get my drift.

Leni

[joe fonebone]

I just have to laugh out loud..

I was on another thread about the elimination of the dollar bill and going to the dollar coin...

the savings were far greater than cutting this crap, yet so called conservatives were angry because it was only a “drop in the bucket”..

well, this is just a drop in the bucket too...

just wanted to point out some of the hypocracy of some on this site, and of conservatives in general..

a bucket is filled a drop at a time.....

[cripplecreek]

a bucket is filled a drop at a time.....

Exactly. Its not 100 billion but its part of 100 billion and a cut is a cut is a cut. Bike paths and hiking trails are a particular irritation to me.

[SunkenCiv]

"
Thanks Drango. That's $28,004.81 apiece (average). The poets get $25K each (average).

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman... Not-for-profit arts organizations in 47 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico will receive funding... 13 artistic disciplines and fields... Creative Writing Fellowships to 40 outstanding poets for a total of $1 million... "Through a rigorous peer-review panel process, the NEA ensures that projects recommended for funding are among the most creative, the most effective, and will make a real impact,"

..."All Hail Obama!"