National Endowment for the Arts Announces Recovery Funds
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August 4, 2008
Washington, D.C.-- The National Endowment for the Arts announces $100,000 in grants and additional resources to support Iowan and Midwestern arts communities affected by this year's historic flooding. An NEA grant of $100,000 to the Iowa Arts Council will help Iowa artists and arts organizations resume their work. In addition, the NEA and the Institute of Museum Library Services (IMLS) are supporting the distribution of a new publication, Guide to Navigating Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration Disaster Aid for Cultural Institutions. Concurrent with these efforts, an NEA-supported Governors' Institute on Community Design recently brought together Iowa leaders to develop strategies for rebuilding the state after one of the worst storm seasons to hit the region.
"The arts are a vital component of the Midwestern creative economy" said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "The NEA wants to do what it can to help Iowa back to recovery."
The $100,000 in NEA special funding to the Iowa Arts Council will support short and longer term recovery efforts. While organizations like FEMA support the costs of asset recovery, NEA funds will help organizations get back to the work of making art. Some of the funds will be placed in the Iowa Arts Council's 2008 Emergency Arts Relief Program, which offers stipends and grants to Iowa artists and arts groups for immediate recovery needs. The NEA award will also help defray new costs resulting from storm damages or displacement. Possible examples may include rental fees to conduct programming in unscheduled locations, offsite storage of materials and collections; or hiring temporary staff to assist with organizing records, inventory, and business planning.
"This year's historic natural disasters have impacted not just homes and businesses, but many of the cultural attractions that tell the story of Iowa," said Iowa Governor Chet Culver. "I want to thank the National Endowment for the Arts for providing these resources to Iowa's arts and culture community. These dollars will help move us farther down the road to recovery."
The Guide to Navigating Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration Disaster Aid for Cultural Institutions is designed to help cultural organizations apply to FEMA or the SBA for disaster aid. The guide includes the forms cultural organizations must submit to those agencies. It was produced with support from the Arts Endowment in partnership with the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Heritage Preservation, a service organization that provides conservation and disaster preparedness assistance, will distribute the guide to affected Midwestern arts organizations and other state, regional, and national organizations.
Hard copies of the Guide to Navigating Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration Disaster Aid for Cultural Institutions are available from Heritage Preservation. The publication is also available from Heritage Preservation at 202-233-0800 and online at http://www.heritagepreservation.org/federal/index.html.
Iowa hosts Governors' Institute on Community Design
Other NEA-funded initiatives are also assisting affected states. On July 29-30, a Governors' Institute on Community Design workshop was held in Des Moines, Iowa, to help the state government respond to the disaster. Created in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Governors' Institute brings a state's governor and his or her cabinet and staff together with top planning experts and design practitioners to identify strategies for addressing specific issues facing the state. Since its launch in 2005, the Governors' Institute has worked with eight states; Rhode Island, Virginia, Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Iowa.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
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National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
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Washington, DC 20506