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National Endowment for the Arts Announces $700,000
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Awards include city and rural design and planning grants in Louisiana and Mississippi
February 28, 2006
Washington, D.C. - The National Endowment for the Arts announces $700,000 in grants to support arts organizations in the Gulf Coast region that were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year. These grants include $500,000 in support to individual organizations and state and local arts agencies in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Additionally, the NEA is funding $200,000 for regional participation in the Mayors' Institute on City Design and Your Town, two of the country's most established city planning and design programs.
"These grants will help spur both community and economic recovery for the Gulf Coast region," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "The region can't recover without the arts. We have tried to be as inclusive as possible in these grants to help rebuild the arts community."
Grants include $157,200 in hurricane relief funds to Gulf Coast State Arts Agencies to support projects to revitalize the arts industries in affected states. An additional $142,800 supports 14 local arts agencies in the region for projects including management infrastructural support to the Arts Council of New Orleans, and support to the Acadiana Arts Council for a year-long arts outreach program for temporary and permanent residents of the region. Another $200,000 will go to 14 individual cultural organizations for a range of projects. These include emergency conservation projects at the New Orleans Museum of Art and Beauvoir, The Jefferson Davis Home in Biloxi, Mississippi. Other projects support musical performances relating to a month-long celebration of the performing arts in New Orleans in March.
Funds to support Mayors' Institute on City Design and Your Town projects
NEA grants totaling $200,000 support urban and rural design and planning initiatives for affected Gulf communities. In November, the NEA provided $50,000 for two Mayors' Institutes on City Design in Biloxi, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana. These institutes gave mayors from seven Gulf Coast cities a critical opportunity to discuss strategies for rebuilding their communities with nationally renowned design and planning experts and practitioners. The Arts Endowment awarded an additional $50,000 for follow-up sessions for these Mayors' Institutes. Since 1986, the Mayors' Institute on City Design has gathered more than 650 mayors and designers to generate ideas on better city planning.
The NEA also has awarded four grants totaling $100,000 to organizations in Mississippi and Louisiana to host four workshop sessions of Your Town: The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design. Since 1991, the NEA has funded Your Town design workshops for more than 50 small and rural communities. The workshops teach residents and community leaders about the important role design plays in shaping the built environment, enhancing quality of life and making communities better places to live, work, play, and invest.
Additional resources
The Arts Endowment, FEMA, and Heritage Preservation have published a new booklet titled Before and After Disasters. An updated and expanded version of Resources for Recovery: Post-Disaster Aid for Cultural Institutions, it includes summary descriptions and contact information for 15 federal grant and loan programs and covers sources of federal assistance for preparedness, mitigation, and response, as well as for recovery. Sample projects in disaster planning, training, treatment research, and restoration illustrate the funding guidelines. This guide is available through the NEA publications page, http://www.arts.gov/pub/index.php.
Please see a complete list of grants.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
This year, the National Endowment for the Arts marks its 40th anniversary of leadership in the arts. The NEA 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 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
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506