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National Endowment for the Arts Announces $21 Million in Grants for the First Round of Fiscal Year 2005 Funding
Washington, D.C. - In its first major grant announcement of Fiscal Year 2005, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that it will award more than $21 million to 839 grants. The Arts Endowment will distribute $21,059,750 to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations across the country, funding Access to Artistic Excellence grants as well as Literature Fellowships for individuals. The Arts Endowment's budget for FY 2005 is $121 million. "Through these grants and fellowships, the National Endowment for the Arts is providing critical investments in the American arts," said Dana Gioia, Chairman of the Arts Endowment. "From preserving our cultural heritage through regional folklife festivals, to providing young people with their first visit to live theater, to writing fellowships that allow writers the time to produce their best work, these projects bring arts of the highest quality to communities across the country." Access to Artistic Excellence grants support the creation and presentation of work in the disciplines of dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literature, local arts agencies, media arts, multidisciplinary, museums, music, musical theater, opera, presenting, theater, and visual arts. Projects include commissions, residencies, workshops, performances, exhibitions, publications, festivals, and professional development programs. Through this category, the NEA will fund 780 projects out of 1,353 eligible applications, for a total federal investment of more than $19.9 million. Examples of projects supported by Access to Artistic Excellence grants include:
Literature Fellowships are the Arts Endowment's most direct investment in American creativity, encouraging the production of new work and allowing writers the time and means to write. The agency received 1,590 applications for its Creative Writing Fellowships in Poetry; 45 poetry fellowships of $20,000 each were awarded. Supported poets include Alice Fulton of Ithaca, New York, and Ramola Dharmaraj of Arlington, Virginia. In addition, the Endowment awarded 14 literature translation projects in poetry, totaling $200,000. These grants will facilitate the translation of foreign poets such as Gu Cheng, who became a leading voice of the Democracy Wall movement in China, as well as Laurynas Katkus, a Lithuanian poet whose work bridges the poetry of the Soviet era with the emergence of a new national literature. Grants listings noted in this announcement:
Access to Artistic Excellence Grant listings for these categories are also available by state. Some details of the projects listed in this grant announcement are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval. For additional information, contact the National Endowment for the Arts' Office of Communications at 202-682-5570. 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 Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency |
