Second Year of American Masterpieces Features Choral Music, Musical Theater, and Visual Arts

		Contact: Victoria Hutter 202-682-5692 hutterv@arts.gov

National Endowment for the Arts awards $3.12 million in grants

April 27, 2006

Washington, D.C. - Showing off some of our country's best artistic work to as many people in as many communities as possible is the goal of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius, a project of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). American Masterpieces supports tours of performances and exhibitions that reach large and small communities in all 50 states. The NEA announced today that the second year of this national initiative includes 37 grants totaling $3,120,000 awarded to projects in choral music, musical theater, and visual arts.

The breakout of grants is as follows:

• Choral music funded with eight grants totaling $490,000
• Musical theater funded with 13 grants totaling $580,000
• Visual arts funded with 16 grants totaling $1,240,000

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia said, "On the occasion of the Arts Endowment's 40th anniversary, I'm delighted that we can celebrate our country's artistic achievements with an exemplary American Masterpieces program. More than 2 million people are expected to attend American Masterpieces events and activities in communities ranging from Issaquah, Washington to New York City, from Crossville, Tennessee to Los Angeles."

Choral Music Grants

The choral music component of American Masterpieces, the first music grants for the initiative, features regional choral festivals (lasting two to three days) and tours highlighting an American repertoire. Half of the programming will focus on the work of the American composers listed below and will be directed by experienced choral directors leading renowned choruses.

In addition to performances, each engagement includes master classes, workshops for choral directors, composer-in-residence programs, and other activities. The choral music component will be launched on June 11, 2006 at the new Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland as the final event for the Chorus America annual conference.

Musical Theater Grants

The 13 musical theater projects highlight the collaborative creativity, evolution, and cultural contributions of this most American of artistic genres. Productions will be presented in the home city or on tour and will be classics, lesser known works, or newer works by acknowledged masters. The productions are:

• Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, Allegro, and Oklahoma!
• Meredith Willson and Richard Morris's The Unsinkable Molly Brown
• Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents's West Side Story
• Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods
• Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change
• Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart's Hello, Dolly!
• Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's Lost in the Stars
• George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's Porgy and Bess

In addition, New York's City Center will produce A Celebration of the Great American Broadway Revue that will showcase the historical development of Broadway book musicals from operettas to musical comedies.

Visual Arts Grants

This will be the second year of visual arts projects as part of American Masterpieces. These projects will again feature the creation and touring of major exhibitions to communities that might not otherwise see these works. Accordingly, each of the tours will be scaled to show well in small and mid-sized museums. Educational materials including brochures and catalogues will provide context to the works on view.

Although the tour itineraries have not been completed, currently 72 venues in 22 states are slated to host an exhibition for a total projected audience of 1.72 million people.

Please see the complete grant listings:

For more information on the National Endowment for the Arts, please contact the NEA's communications office at 202-682-5570 or visit the web site at www.arts.gov.

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