FY 2005 Grant Awards: Challenge America: Reaching Every Community

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

1894, Inc. (Grand 1894 Opera House)
Galveston, TX
$10,000
To support the 2006 Grand Kids Festival. The festival is designed to expand children's involvement in the arts by featuring hands-on education and entertainment.

Alexandria Museum of Art
Alexandria, LA
$10,000
To support an exhibition of works by John F. Simon, Jr. and associated arts education programming. An Alexandria native turned New Yorker, Simon trained as a scientist as well as an artist, and has created a diverse body of graphic and digital work during the last 20 years. The museum will instruct general audiences in the variety of techniques used in his drawings, prints, and complex computerized imagery. Tours for Rapides Parish school students will enable children and teenagers to see Simon's art and participate in on-site instruction. A gallery talk by the artist also is scheduled for the exhibition opening. Information designed to pique the interest of Central Louisianans will be presented through local news media.

Altoona Symphony Orchestra
Altoona, PA
$10,000
To support a concert during the 2005-2006 season. The ASO will host two Italian soloists, Andrea Padova, who will perform in the premiere of his new work for piano and orchestra (an ASO commission), and Mario Carbotta, who will be featured in a Mercadente concerto for flute.

Arlington Museum of Art, Inc.
Arlington, TX
$10,000
To support the exhibitions "Rock, Paper, Scissors," including a catalogue, and "Layered, Stacked, Assembled," as well as related program activities. The former is a playful show of sculpture by artists from across Texas; the latter displays works in various media that explore accumulative processes as form and content. Along with the paired art presentations, AMA will host its first Family Day, offering special tours and the occasion for children and their parents to practice artmaking under the tutelage of exhibited artists. The "Saturday Art Ventures" program will provide art and literary pursuits for eight- to twelve-year-olds free, in collaboration with Arlington Central Public Library. An opening night art lecture, led by artists and curators, and a visiting artist lecture are scheduled.

ArtSouth, A Not for Profit Corporation
Homestead, FL
$10,000
To support expanded arts education programming and related community outreach activity. ArtSouth will offer programs that appeal to the rapidly growing and ethnically varied population of Homestead, including the heritage arts (pottery, weaving, sewing), gallery tours and lectures, and the performing arts, primarily musical genres. Enrollment in the arts camps and after-school classes, undertaken in partnership with enFAMILIA and Juilliard, will be increased. Outreach will target young, middle-aged, and senior adults; children and teenagers; immigrants, such as those of Mexican, Mayan, and Haitian origins; and people whose experience of the arts ranges from first-timer to serious student to practicing artist. ArtSouth's goal is to enrich the semi-rural Homestead area culturally by supporting artists and providing opportunities for the public to engage with the arts.

Ball State University (on behalf of Midwest Writers Workshop)
Muncie, IN
$10,000
To support the Midwest Writers summer workshop. Published and aspiring authors participate in this annual series of sessions providing instruction in writing's various genres and techniques, as well as practical information about publishing and marketing.

Ballet Arizona
Phoenix, AZ
$10,000
To support set and costume costs for the spring 2005 production of CoppÈlia. Ib Andersen, the Artistic Director of Ballet Arizona, has created entirely new choreography for this classic nineteenth-century tale of a lifelike mechanical doll and her maker, set to LÈo Delibes' score. The work will receive five regular season performances, as well as two abbreviated matinees for students gratis.

Bloomington Art Center
Bloomington, MN
$10,000
To support a series of visual art exhibitions. Works by professional artists from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area will be shown in the Center's two galleries, introducing local audiences to emerging artists. Among the scheduled artists are Catherine Hearding (watercolor, pastel landscapes); Nancy Carlson (children's book illustrations); Jennifer Davis (mixed media painting); Liz Miller (installation of forms in synthetic materials); Jeannine Kitzhaber and Margo Selski (respectively, dress-form sculpture and super realistic painting that explores women's domestic lives); Fred Annes, Jon Hicks, and Cameron Zebrun (respectively, architectonic wall relief, topographical sculpture, and constructed environmental paintings); Mary Lingen and Steve Hemingway (respectively, oil landscape painting and glazed ceramic vessels).

Chapman University (on behalf of John Fowles Center for Creative Writing)
Orange, CA
$10,000
To support a reading series. Each year, a diverse and distinguished group of national and international writers is invited to read from and speak about their work to audiences drawn from the general public in Southern California, as well as professional writers, scholars, and students.

Children's Chorus of Maryland, Inc.
Towson, MD
$10,000
To support a special 30th anniversary concert. The Children's Chorus of Maryland will be joined by other children's choral groups, and the CCM Alumni and Friends chorus, in a performance of new repertoire composed or adapted for young voices.

City of Cerritos, California (on behalf of Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts)
Cerritos, CA
$10,000
To support presentation of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Paquito D'Rivera. Under the Center's "Global Rhythms" series, clarinetist-composer D'Rivera, the six-time Grammy winner and 2005 NEA Jazz Master, will perform with ALJO, Jazz At Lincoln Center's resident ensemble, led by its musical director and pianist, Arturo O'Farrill. This concert exemplifies the Center's commitment to showcase a wide range of musical genres, as well as to continue efforts to draw Hispanic residents of Cerritos, and Orange and Los Angeles counties, into its audiences.

City of Chesapeake, Virginia (on behalf of Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission)
Chesapeake, VA
$10,000
To support the 2005 Symphony Under the Stars concert.

City of Harlingen, Texas (on behalf of Harlingen Arts and Entertainment)
Harlingen, TX
$10,000
To support the presentation of Cleveland SIGNSTAGE Theatre performances and a workshop. The acting company will perform for Harlingen-area public schools in the municipal auditorium, after which it will conduct an educational workshop with participating students of regional schools for the deaf; an evening performance and discussion for families also will be held.

City of Vista, California (on behalf of Moonlight Stage Productions)
Vista, CA
$10,000
To support production of The Most Happy Fella. The theater will engage a classically trained pianist with experience as conductor and vocal director to assist Moonlight's artistic director in realizing this work, which features composer-lyricist Frank Loesser's most operatic score. Moonlight's staff will design the scenery, costumes, and lighting. To attract new young audiences, admission to dress rehearsals will be free for college and high school students. Marketing will focus on area residents over 50 as well as regular theater-goers in North San Diego.

Clayton State University (on behalf of Spivey Hall)
Morrow, GA
$10,000
To support Spivey Hall's Young People's Concerts. Soloists and ensembles will perform jazz, classical, and traditional/world music, as well as repertoire from musical theater and opera.

Cook Forest Sawmill Center for the Arts
Cooksburg, PA
$10,000
To support the 2006 Dulcimer/Folk Music Workshop and Festival. Over a two-day period in September, the Sawmill Center will host nearly 30 one-hour workshops for beginners through advanced players of the dulcimer and other instruments used in folk music. A continuous "jamming" tent and an entertainment tent will offer visitors the opportunity to enjoy artists' renditions of old-time tunes, songs, and dance. The festival will culminate in a concert at the Sawmill's Verna Leith Theater. In abeyance for a year following the loss of a key project partner, the festival will be revived due to the Arts Endowment's contribution. The Sawmill Center provides a place for the local people to practice and preserve the visual arts, crafts, and music representing their cultural heritage. Audiences come primarily from northwestern Pennsylvania, a largely rural area with limited resources and little access to arts activity.

David Taylor Dance Theatre
Littleton, CO
$10,000
To support the 2006 Rural Colorado Community Tour. The contemporary ballet company will visit small rural towns in the state during 2006, presenting dance performances, master classes, and workshops.

DeEtte Holden Cummer Museum Foundation (Cummer Gallery of Art)
Jacksonville, FL
$10,000
To support planning for an exhibition of photography by Jerry Uelsmann and related catalogue, as well as curator fees. Mr. Uelsmann, now 71 and a long-time Florida resident, is regarded as having profoundly influenced the medium through his innovative mastery of photomontage in a pre-digitized era and creation of memorable, nonliteral yet plausible images. The Cummer Museum will organize a retrospective with the assistance of art historian Phillip Prodger, an independent curator and photography scholar who has worked with the artist. Expected to contain over 130 prints, including previously unpublished examples, the exhibition is slated to open in fall 2008 and to tour nationally, perhaps internationally. Among the activities to be undertaken during this developmental phase are preparation of essential project timelines, checklists, outlines, and budgets for the exhibition and catalogue, and proposed venues and other components of a tour plan.

Fergus Falls Center for the Arts, Inc. (A Center for the Arts)
Fergus Falls, MN
$10,000
To support performances by Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues with Randy Sabien, and associated residency activities. In addition to performing full public concerts in East and West Otter Tail County, the musicians will conduct workshops and lecture/demonstrations on jazz and blues techniques in relation to string chamber music in Perham and Fergus Falls high schools, where orchestra programs are thriving.

Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra
Sugar Land, TX
$10,000
To support a concert and master class with guest pianist Robin Harrison. Canadian pianist Robin Harrison will join the orchestra in performing Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 24 in C minor, K.491.

Gadsden Cultural Arts Foundation, Inc.
Gadsden, AL
$10,000
To support audience-building programs through a series of music performances. The GCAF will host free concerts of the region's bluegrass, folk, and gospel, as well as Latino music in the Mary G. Hardin Center courtyard, and present chamber music in various local venues by the Etowah Youth Orchestra Honor Strings. It will also sponsor a fiddlers' competition and other entertainment during Gadsden's annual downtown G.R.I.T.S. festival.

Gainesville Symphony Orchestra
Gainesville, GA
$10,000
To support the Patriotic Pops concert in Hiawassee and related marketing activity. With this event, which builds on a 2004 concert played to a full house, the GSO advances toward developing a viable concert series in Hiawassee, and realizing plans to offer live professional performance of classical music to other underserved audiences in rural Appalachian communities in northeast Georgia and adjacent areas of the Carolinas and Tennessee.

Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council (GO ART!)
Batavia, NY
$10,000
To support the design of an accessibility ramp, signs, landscaping, and a related interpretive brochure for the GO ART! Cultural Center. The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council will hire an architect, landscape architect, and sign designer to assist in planning changes needed to enable full accessibility to the facility, improve landscaping, and erect appropriate signage and a new historical marker. Following recommendations in the historical structure report on its recently acquired home, an 1831 Federal style landmark building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, GO ART! intends to make the Cultural Center truly open and more visible to the general public while reflecting a respect for the property's history.

Grand Prairie Cultural Arts Council, Inc. (Grand Prairie Arts Council)
Grand Prairie, TX
$10,000
To support the 2nd Annual Jazz FallFest and the 5th Annual April Concert in the Parks series. Through these events, the Council will present a variety of music genres and repertory to audiences of all ages, without charge for admission.

Gwinnett Philharmonic Association, Inc.
Norcross, GA
$10,000
To support the opening concert of the 2005-2006 season. The Gwinnett Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Prokofiev's Concerto No.1 for Piano, featuring pianist Brent Runnels, as well as compositions by Khachaturian, Borodin, and Tchaikovsky. With the aim of increasing the number of regular concert-goers, GPO will focus promotion efforts on new area residents in the rapidly growing Gwinnett County and surrounding areas.

Henderson District Public Libraries
Henderson, NV
$10,000
To support the 2005 Vegas Valley Book Festival. The VVBF is an annual multi-day program of readings, panel discussions, and literary presentations for people of all ages, in which approximately 50 guest writers of various genres participate. By bringing writers and readers together for discussion, the festival encourages audiences to read more widely and with renewed enthusiasm and insight. In addition to introducing Nevadans to nationally known authors, VVBF also supports local writers and raises awareness of literary programs offered at public libraries and other community cultural venues. The 2005 festival, which has been designated an official "Signature Event" of the Las Vegas Centennial celebration, will explore themes associated with the city.

Hickory Museum of Art, Inc.
Hickory, NC
$10,000
To support an exhibition of contemporary Southern folk and outsider art, with accompanying catalogue and education programs. In addition to more than 200 objects, the exhibition will include interpretative and photographic panels and a documentary video.

Huntsville Museum of Art
Huntsville, AL
$10,000
To support the exhibition Maxfield Parrish: Master of Make-Believe. The Huntsville Museum of Art will host a show of about 70 works by this important 20th- century American artist, including book and calendar illustrations, paintings, and murals. Parrish advocated the popularization of art and gained public recognition as well as commercial success through wide dissemination of his images using new color printing techniques. The museum will publicize the exhibition to prospective visitors from the City of Huntsville, northern Alabama counties, and Tennessee.

Imperial Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Lakeland, FL
$10,000
To support the family concert series in 2005-2006. Designed for children ages four to ten and their parents, the one-hour fall and spring concerts will focus on orchestral music based on literary characters to inspire the youngsters to read as well as experience the music. Pre-concert activities include an instrument "petting zoo," conducting station, composing station, and musical demonstrations. The ISO aims to foster future audiences for live symphonic music through this program. Outreach efforts will extend from Polk and eastern Hillsborough counties to Orange, Lake, Osceola, Sumter, and Hardee, including migrant and rural communities.

Indianapolis Dance Company, Inc./GHDT (Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre)
Indianapolis, IN
$10,000
To support the ENCORE performance of signature pieces from a modern dance repertoire. The company will present pieces chosen by audiences, dancers, and staff.

Inglewood Cultural Arts, Inc.
Inglewood, CA
$10,000
To support the "Treasures of Inglewood's Public Art 2006" tours, and the production and distribution of a bilingual guide map. ICA personnel will make initial presentations about the project in the community (basically half African-American and half Latino), recruiting applicants from whom tour guides will be chosen and trained. Up to two bus tours of Inglewood's mural and sculpture sites will be conducted for interested local residents, terminating at the Inglewood Library, home to Helen Lundeberg's "History of Transportation" mural, where they will meet artists whose works they visited. A graphic design/publication printing team will be contracted to produce an English-Spanish tour map, charting Inglewood artworks for trip guests and future viewers. The "Treasures" tour is intended to foster civic recognition, appreciation, and pride in community achievements.

Jacksonville Symphony Association
Jacksonville, FL
$10,000
To support a special concert previewing the 2005-2006 season. Music Director Fabio Mechetti will lead the Jacksonville Symphony in "Maestro's Sneak Peak," a program of musical excerpts from forthcoming concerts featuring special performances by Concert Master Phillip Pan, and give glimpses into how he composes the season. To draw younger and more diverse audiences from among the academic community and surrounding neighborhoods, and enlist new season subscribers, the orchestra will play the concert in Lazzara Performance Hall on the campus of the University of North Florida, which is a partner for the project.

Jefferson Symphony Association
Golden, CO
$10,000
To support the opening concert of the 2005-2006 season. Under the baton of Dr. William Morse, the Jefferson Symphony will perform a concert entitled The Golden Brass, which includes "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" (John Adams), Concerto for Trumpet (Alexander Artunian), "Bugler's Holiday" (Leroy Anderson), and Symphony No.1 in D major (Gustav Mahler).

Knox Concert Series, Inc.
Anniston, AL
$10,000
To support the presentation of Ballet Flamenco Jose Porcel. Knox will also provide a multifaceted program on Spanish history, culture, and social customs for Anniston public high school Spanish classes in conjunction with the Porcel company's performance, which students and teachers will attend.

Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences
Peoria, IL
$10,000
To support the New Exposures Art Series. The series introduces museum visitors to art not shown previously in the community.

Lutcher Theater, Inc.
Orange, TX
$10,000
To support student ticket subsidies for performances of Oklahoma! and Cirque Eloize's Rain. As part of an arts education effort in this underserved southeastern Texas locale, the Lutcher Theater will provide about 600 tickets free for students and teachers from Lamar State College and senior high schools in Jasper, Jefferson, Newton, and Orange Counties, and Calcasieu Parish just across the border in Louisiana. Some junior high classes also will be included. The two theater productions students are scheduled to attend are a touring version of the restaged revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical, Oklahoma!, and a contemporary show, Cirque Eloize's Rain, which incorporates aspects of the old "follies" genre into a new form.

Masterworks Chorale, Inc.
Belleville, IL
$10,000
To support Cathedral Voices and Christmas at the Cathedral, concerts to be performed at St. Peter's Cathedral. Under the direction of Dr. A. Dennis Sparger, the Masterworks Chorale will perform Mass in D Major by Antonin Dvorak, accompanied by guest organist Nancy Peterson, as well as a cappella works suited to the excellent acoustics of the Cathedral of St. Peter, the largest church in the state. The Masterworks Children's Chorus and professional orchestra will join the Chorale's singers in the annual Christmas concert at the cathedral.

Mesquite Arts Council
Mesquite, TX
$10,000
To support presentation of the zarzuela Luisa Fernanda. This signature Romantic light opera by the Spanish composer Federico Moreno Torroba will be staged with orchestra, full chorus, period costumes, and sets. Production of Luisa Fernanda, the seventh annual zarzuela, demonstrates the Mesquite Arts Council's commitment to an art form appreciated among international Hispanic cultures and by opera fans worldwide, and to extending its reach to new audiences in Mesquite, Dallas County, and North Central Texas through broader arts programming.

Mint Museum of Art, Inc. (Mint Museums)
Charlotte, NC
$10,000
To support professional development activities in the visual arts for teachers. Instructors of kindergarten through twelfth-grade students will attend courses and a workshop integrating literacy and history and other social studies with art via in-depth study of two special exhibitions, Renaissance to Rococo: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and The Land of Make Believe: Original Children's Book Illustrations, and the Mint's permanent collection of pre-Columbian art. College art history faculty and artists will conduct the sessions. Using Mint resources, area teachers are able to enhance the academic curriculum and cultivate the interest of young prospective museum-goers.

Moraine Valley Community College (on behalf of Fine and Performing Arts Center)
Palos Hills, IL
$10,000
To support the presentation of the Chicago Children's Choir, Trinity Irish Dance Company, and Second City. Among the groups to be presented through MVCC's Chicago Artist Series will be the Chicago Children's Choir, represented by its concert choir of 90 high school students; Trinity Irish Dance Company, renowned for combining traditional and innovative choreography; and Second City, a Chicago comedy institution with a national following. The performances will be staged in the 575-seat Dorothy Menker Theater for general audiences from the Chicago suburban area.

Morgan County Foundation, Inc.
Madison, GA
$10,000
To support the 2006 Madison Chamber Music Festival. Artistic director Christopher Rex, principal cellist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, will select the musicians to participate in the festival.

Morikami, Inc.
Delray Beach, FL
$10,000
To support the conservation and exhibition of Japanese paintings.

Music From Bear Valley, Inc.
Bear Valley, CA
$10,000
To support artist fees for the 2005 Bear Valley Music Festival. Under the baton of Music Director Carter Nice, the BVSO will play a variety of concerts, ranging from popular Broadway melodies to a children's program to classical compositions from three centuries. Pianist Olga Kern and violinist Sandra Wolf-Meei Cameron will take the stage for two classical concerts each. The orchestra also will perform Rossini's The Barber of Seville with a cast headed by Jessica Siena and Steven Stolen. Festival audiences are drawn chiefly from Alpine, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Amador counties.

Newark Museum Association
Newark, NJ
$10,000
To support the Cross Country Adventures series of educational activities for families. Playing on the quintessentially American idea of the road trip, parents and children will explore the museum's significant American art collection through hands-on projects at a simulated diner, gallery adventure tours, and travel guides organized by themes such as landmarks, nature trails, wildlife, cityscapes, entertainment, and accommodations.

Nittany Valley Symphony, Inc.
State College, PA
$10,000
To support the Women of Note concert. The NVS and conductor Michael Jinbo will perform several works by American women composers, Amy Beach's Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, Op. 45, with guest soloist Marylne Dosse, Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman by Joan Tower, and Concerto for Orchestra by Jennifer Higdon. There is a special Pennsylvania flavor to this "Women of Note" program: Ms. Tower is Composer in Residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony; Ms. Higdon is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia; and Ms. Dosse is Professor of Music at Penn State University. In addition to more customary marketing, the NVS will promote this event to women in business, the professions, academia, and public service.

North Carolina Pottery Museum, Inc. (North Carolina Pottery Center)
Seagrove, NC
$10,000
To support the development of two exhibitions and related programming. The Center will organize a display of horticultural ware representing North Carolina's two-century tradition to accompany A Place to Take Root: The History of Flowerpots and Plant Containers, a national traveling exhibition it hosts in spring 2005. The second exhibition, slated for fall 2005, is Wood-Fired: The Living Tradition, featuring works by contemporary North Carolina potters David Steumpfle and Kim Ellington, who continue the use of a technique practiced by skilled pottery makers since the state's early colonial era.

Northern Indiana Arts Association
Munster, IN
$10,000
To support the exhibition "Portrait of America: Norman Rockwell & The Saturday Evening Post" and related activities. The NIAA will host the show of 323 framed original "tear sheet" covers of The Saturday Evening Post from 1916 through 1963, which was organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The enduring popularity and broad appeal of Rockwell's work are likely to draw viewers of all ages and socio-economic groups from northwestern Indiana and eastern Illinois. The NIAA also will present a concert of 20th-century American music by the Calumet Chamber Musicians to coincide with the exhibition. Educational activities will include producing information packets for teachers and docent-led tours for 200 school groups. The NIAA anticipates the public's response to this exhibition will bolster its efforts to contribute to the region's quality of life through the arts.

Northwestern Michigan College Foundation (on behalf of Dennos Museum Center)
Traverse City, MI
$10,000
To support the exhibition Age of Armor: From the Higgins Armory Museum and related educational programming. Examples of the armorer's craft spanning from ancient Greece to the seventeenth century, including full suits and horse armor, will be on display.

Oakland Community College
Bloomfield Hills, MI
$10,000
To support publication of a special issue of Witness on the theme of childhood in America. The special issue will be illuminated by poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and artwork. Among other things, the magazine will explore the effects of ethnicity, economic class, contemporary culture, divorce, drugs, new technology, parental authority, and geographical place on growing up in America. Writers committed to submit work include John Balaban, Bob Hicok, Maxine Kumin, Thomas Lynch, Linda Pastan, Floyd Skloot, and Paul West. Drawing its readership from writers, students, educators, and an eclectic mix of the general public, Witness highlights the role of the modern writer as witness to the times. Three thousand copies will be distributed throughout the nation, and complimentary copies will be provided to high schools and public libraries in Oakland County, Michigan.

Orange Show Foundation (Orange Show Center for Visionary Art)
Houston, TX
$10,000
To support a youth mural creation project, including film documentation and production of a DVD. The Orange Show Center will recruit about 20 high-school age youth from Houston's predominantly Latino East End to participate in planning and painting a mural in the community which reflects its historical significance as the city's birthplace and the residents' cultural heritage. The Mayor's Anti-Gang Office, a project partner, will advise about candidates likely to benefit from participating in the activity. Houston's Greater East End Management Committee, another partner with responsibility for planning development in this part of the city, will identify the wall to be decorated. Austin High School, a third project partner, will host two weeks of classroom instruction by members of Aerosol Warfare Arts Collective, professional artists who will lead the mural painting, and a local Houston historian, who will tour the teenagers to the East End's historic sites. GONZO247, founder of Aeros

PACT, Inc.
Clearwater, FL
$10,000
To support the Eckerd Theater Company's residency in Highlands County public schools, with related study guide materials and workshop activities. The ECT will perform Aesop's Fables and conduct workshops based on The Little Moon Theater, an adaptive play-within-a-play that focuses on character and behavior issues, for elementary school children and teachers, who are rebuilding scholastic life since the 2004 hurricane season's devastation.

Paducah Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Paducah, KY
$10,000
To support an in-school ensemble program and defrayal of student tickets for symphony concerts. A string quartet, a brass quintet, and a woodwind quintet will perform in public schools for children in grades K-5.

Palm Springs International Film Festival
Palm Springs, CA
$10,000
To support the 11th Annual Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. This event showcases animation, comedy, documentary, and live-action short films created by emerging artists from around the world. The festival's series of film programs, seminars, and special programs provide opportunities for filmmakers, students, and general audiences to discuss the ways contemporary issues and diverse cultures are reflected in the art of cinema.

Passaic County Community College Foundation (on behalf of Passaic County Cultural and Heritage Council)
Paterson, NJ
$10,000
To support the Theater and Poetry Project. In partnership with the Paterson Public School District, the PCCC Theater and Poetry Project provides arts programming for the K-12 pupils attending 26 Paterson schools, who represent a generally underserved, at-risk population. About 9,000 youngsters and 600 teachers attend performances by professional theater, music, and dance artists on the PCCC campus. PCCC staff develop supplemental curriculum-linked materials to assist teachers in preparing students for performances and in working with them afterward to improve analytical and literacy skills. Teachers, librarians, and students contribute to the project's implementation by formally evaluating their experiences.

Peters Valley Craftsmen, Inc.
Layton, NJ
$10,000
To support a series of craft exhibitions. Rotating exhibitions in the Sally D. Francisco Gallery will showcase crafts practiced at the summer intensive workshops.

Plano Symphony Orchestra Non-Profit Corp.
Plano, TX
$10,000
To support the concert An American Celebration. The music program will include Bernstein's Overture to Candide and West Side Story Symphonic Suite, Copland's Rodeo and Lincoln Portrait, and Ives' Variations on America.

Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council
Pleasanton, CA
$10,000
To support the Poetry, Prose, and Arts Festival in 2006, including artists' fees. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins and other poetry and prose writers of national stature are expected to participate in the event, which will include readings and workshops. A play and a music concert also will be presented during the festival. Marketing will target the residents of the Tri-Valley in northern California, constituting Pleasanton, Dublin, and Livermore, as well as the greater metropolitan Bay Area.

Plymouth Symphony Society (Plymouth Symphony Orchestra)
Plymouth, MI
$10,000
To support two subscription series concerts, Beethoven and Friends and The Planets: Music of the Spheres. The concerts will showcase familiar works from the classical canon, as well as works by contemporary composers.

Port Huron Museum of Arts and History
Port Huron, MI
$10,000
To support the 2005 Festival of International Cultures. Traditional art and culture of the diverse African, Asian, European, Hispanic, and Native American ethnic populations living in the predominately rural "thumb" region of Michigan will be displayed on museum grounds to an expected audience of 3,000. Exhibits of artworks, artifacts, and crafts will be punctuated by a variety of performances and participatory activities. Julio Gallardo and Julio Estuardo Monroy, resident multi-genre visual artists from Port Huron's sister city of Chiquimula, Guatemala, will conduct demonstrations of their techniques. The festival embodies the museum's goal to provide opportunities for direct community engagement with practicing artists and tradition bearers, and to foster greater understanding and unity among people of different origins and customs.

Prairie Center Arts Foundation
Schaumburg, IL
$10,000
To support the Presto! concert series by the Schaumburg Youth Symphony Orchestra, including a CD recording, ticket subsidies, and sectional training.

Purdue University Main Campus (on behalf of Purdue University Galleries)
West Lafayette, IN
$10,000
To support the organization, promotion, and tour of an exhibition, "60 x 60." Results of the Purdue Galleries' 15th biennial small-scale contemporary printmaking competition, "Sixty Square Inches," and selected images acquired from previous installments will be combined to show the diverse potential of printmaking media and the subtle message conveyed by art on an intimate scale. Target audiences include students and faculty from the university level down to kindergarten, print artists, and interested members of the public. Planned tour sites are college/university museums and galleries and regional art centers.

Racine Art Museum Association, Inc.
Racine, WI
$10,000
To support catalogue printing and exhibition shipping costs for the exhibition Toshiko Takaezu: Heaven and Earth. Large-scale ceramic sculptures from Takaezu's "Star" series, recently donated to RAM by the artist, will debut with a selection of her pieces from the 1950s through the 1990s. The catalogue will document the exhibition in photographs and a 5,000-word essay by the critic/curator/poet, John Perreault, which places them in the context of 20th-century ceramics and sculpture. Designated a Living Treasure by her native State of Hawaii, Toshiko Takaezu is a major figure among contemporary ceramists.

Rajkumari Cultural Center, Inc.
Richmond Hill, NY
$10,000
To support the production and performance of "Women of the Mahabarata." The Rajkumari Cultural Center will stage the full music-dance-drama, a contemporary exploration of five heroic women, filaments in the karmic web spun out in the ancient Hindu epic of a great war, and models for Indian womanhood throughout the centuries. Combining the Indian tradition of "leela" ("play of the gods" in Sanskrit) with modern American theater techniques, "Women of the Mahabarata" connects a series of portraits through intertwined narrative and dialogue, new music, and Kathak dance (from Sanskrit "katha," "storytelling"), a dynamic North Indian classical form that originated in temple devotions, then moved into the realm of court entertainment. Padmashri Kumudini Lakhia, the respected Indian choreographer, will be engaged to assist in realizing the complete work. Plans call for multiple performances in the RCC's home space as well as sites in Flushing, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The Rajkumari Center i

Red River Arts Council, Inc.
Durant, OK
$10,000
To support presentation of music concerts and accompanying education programs during the 2005-2006 season. A variety of musical genres will be represented by the musicians scheduled to participate: Chicago Brass, Comic Intermezzo, Triple Play, Onix: Nuevo Ensamble de Mexico, Quink, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Tempus Fugit Percussion Ensemble, and Hesperus. Each group will conduct a daytime educational activity, such as a workshop, lecture-recital, or open rehearsal, geared to students at a particular academic level, followed by an evening concert. Both sets of activities will occur on the campus of Southeastern Oklahoma State University, a partner in the project along with the Durant Public Schools. Public, private, and home school pupils from grades 4 to 12 and university undergraduates will be included in the instructional component. The concert performances will be open to the general public without admission fees. Durant is in a rural location where direct access to the arts is

Redlands Symphony Association
Redlands, CA
$10,000
To support use of a multimedia video screen during concerts in the 2005-2006 season. Visual projection of the musicians and conductor will be employed in a variety of concert settings in the orchestra's home venue, University of Redlands' Memorial Chapel, as part of the Redlands Symphony's commitment to provide high quality performances to its audiences. This technology also will benefit the fourth- and fifth-grade children in the Redlands Unified School District, all served by the symphony's formal music education program that includes concert attendance. The impact of video technology on the concerts and concert-goers will be evaluated. Inland Southern California's ethnically diverse population (primarily Anglo-European, Latino, and Asian) represents the orchestra's audience recruitment target.

Richmond Philharmonic, Inc.
Richmond, VA
$10,000
To support a special demonstration performance led by Music Director Erin Freeman and a full concert featuring violinist Emily Cornelius. The Philharmonic will engage in an interactive event with an audience in the underserved Southside of metropolitan Richmond, and musicians who are potential orchestra players will be invited.

San Bernardino Symphony Association
San Bernardino, CA
$10,000
To support a special concert for children and their families. Maestro Carlo Ponti Jr. will conduct a program of symphonic variations on music known to audience members of all ages.

Shenandoah Arts Council, Inc.
Winchester, VA
$10,000
To support performances, exhibitions, workshops, and literary events, including concerts by Solazo and the Kusun Ensemble. The SAC will present Solazo and Kusun Ensemble in concert, as well as their workshops for school children, as part of a celebration of Latin American and African-American culture.

Shreveport Opera
Shreveport, LA
$10,000
To support a production of Faust and related outreach programming. Aiming to generate attendance from communities throughout Louisiana and in bordering Texas and Arkansas, especially adults under 40, the Shreveport Opera will offer outreach programs to familiarize potential audiences with the music and the story, including its religious aspects and literary sources.

Sioux City Symphony Orchestra Association
Sioux City, IA
$10,000
To support the opening concert of the 2005-2006 season. The Sioux City Symphony's new Music Director, Xian Zhang, will make her debut conducting a Chinese classic, Dance of the Yao Tribe by Mao Yuen, followed by four American classics from George Gershwin. The pianist Richard Steinbach, Professor of Music at Briar Cliff University, will perform Rhapsody in Blue with the symphony.

Southeastern Louisiana University (on behalf of Louisiana Literature Press)
Hammond, LA
$10,000
To support design, publication, and distribution of Louisiana Literature and poetry chapbooks during 2006, as well as expanded subscription marketing. The journal's annual issues will be increased from two to three, three chapbooks by nationally known writers will be published, and the print runs for each publication will rise from 600 to 1,000. The staff also will craft a direct mail marketing campaign for 2006 to raise Louisiana Literature's profile among potential subscribers nationwide. Although cleaving to its original mission to publish fiction, poetry, and drama by the state's accomplished artists, Louisiana Literature also embraces meritorious work by writers from around the country.

Sun Cities Symphony Orchestra Association (West Valley Symphony)
Sun City, AZ
$10,000
To support special community outreach concerts. The West Valley Symphony will perform two concerts in capacious St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Avondale for residents of Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, and Tolleson, as part of its "reaching new audiences" program. The St. Thomas Choir, which is preparing to perform at the Vatican, will join the symphony in a performance of works by Vivaldi and Buxtehude. The second concert is planned for Mother's Day. The City of Goodyear and Southwest Gas Corporation will co-sponsor the events. Now in the second year of building a new audience base since relocating to the rapidly growing West Valley, the symphony seeks to reach younger audiences and to cultivate additional municipal, community, and corporate support to ensure its continuation.

Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi (on behalf of Performing Arts Center)
Corpus Christi, TX
$10,000
To support the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra's inaugural concert at the University's new Performing Arts Center featuring guest soloist Van Cliburn.

Tyler Museum of Art
Tyler, TX
$10,000
To support the exhibition The Devonshire Inheritance: Five Centuries of Collecting at Chatsworth, with accompanying education materials. Comprising nearly 250 objects, the exhibition includes rarely shown cabinet paintings, old master and architectural drawings, masterpieces of the great gold- and silversmiths, early photographs, and books and manuscripts from the renowned library of Chatsworth House.

University of Illinois at Springfield (on behalf of Sangamon Auditorium)
Springfield, IL
$10,000
To support the presentation of The Barber of Seville by Teatro Lirico d'Europa and related educational activities. Teaching materials, plus low-cost opera tickets for up to 100 sixth- to twelfth-graders, will be provided to local schools where theater and music programs have been much curtailed.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (on behalf of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts)
Champaign, IL
$10,000
To support presentation of the Wall-to-Wall Guitar Festival. The festival will feature the sounds of guitar in all its global variety, from blues, classical, country, jazz, and rock to the rich instrumental traditions of Africa and the Middle East.

University of Illinois-Springfield for Sangamon Auditorium
Springfield, IL
$10,000
To support a season concert and a master class by the Ahn Trio. The Ahns, whose instruments are piano, violin, and cello, are known for their interest in attracting new adherents to classical music through an alternative amplified ("Ahn-Plugged") format as well as through conventional musicianship. The trio will perform works from their eclectic repertory at the Sangamon Auditorium following a scheduled pre-concert discussion with members of the general audience. They also will lead an instructional workshop for the Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony at Springfield's Hoogland Center for the Arts.

University of the South (on behalf of Sewanee Summer Music Festival)
Sewanee, TN
$10,000
To support the artist faculty fees for the 2006 Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Ensemble musicians of high caliber will be engaged to teach the approximately 200 young artists participating in the five-week instructional program, as well as to perform in the festival's professional concert series. The artists selected to serve as the 2006 faculty are Ryan Anthony, James Box, Bernard Flythe, and Jeff Nelson. Messrs. Anthony and Nelson are members of the Canadian Brass; Mr. Box is the Principal Trombone with the Montreal Philharmonic, and Dr. Flythe is Assistant Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Austin Peay State University. The educational program will include private lessons, chamber music coaching, master classes, and sectional rehearsals. Music theory, conducting, and composition/arranging classes also will be offered. In addition to exposing the students to the finest orchestral and chamber music literature, the goal is to teach them the basics of being a professional performing

Village Theatre
Issaquah, WA
$10,000
To support productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Ruthless! the Musical. Both works will be staged through Village Theatre's program for young people, including students attending the nation's top arts academies and those who pursue a theater career. Joseph will be the result of an adult-directed project, and Ruthless! will be adult-mentored, i.e., students will undertake the roles of director, music director, choreographer, designers, carpenters, and marketing team. Combined audiences of 5,000, from the Puget Sound region primarily, are anticipated for the show runs. Cultivating future generations of musical theater professionals and patrons is one of Village Theatre's key goals.

Ward Foundation, Inc. (on behalf of Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art)
Salisbury, MD
$10,000
To support the exhibition Carving Contests--From Decoy to Decorative. The American tradition of evaluating bird carvings through a contest began at the 1876 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, with the winning birds going to the Smithsonian Institute. This exhibition will examine the influence of such contests upon the far older American tradition of decoy-making, as carvers' isolation diminished and carvings evolved from hunter's tool to snare wildfowl into artist's form to draw people. The museum's collection of birds made by winning carvers from each contest during the 130-year period will be shown, accompanied by graphics and text for aesthetic and historical comparison.

Waukesha Symphony, Inc.
Waukesha, WI
$10,000
To support the opening concert of the 2005-2006 season, with guest soloist Larry Combs. Alexander Platt, the WSO 's music director, will conduct the Waukesha Symphony in a program consisting of Ash by the contemporary American composer Michael Torke, Brahms' Symphony No.1 in C Major, and Mozart's last completed work, Clarinet Concerto in A Major (K.622).

West Valley City, Utah (on behalf of Utah Cultural Celebration Center)
West Valley City, UT
$10,000
To support the 2005 folk and ethnic arts festival. The festival is a forum for Salt Lake Valley folk artists of various ethno-cultural backgrounds to present their living traditions to the wider public. Group and individual performances, as well as craft demonstrations, occur outdoors all throughout the day; a special tent houses storytelling and other projects for children. The festival's featured tradition bearers are identified through the UCCC folklorist's survey and documentation of local ethnic communities' traditional artists and their work.

Wheaton Village, Inc.
Millville, NJ
$10,000
To support a Traditional Indian Hindu Wedding presentation and a Day of the Dead Celebration. The initial set of activities represents rituals associated with the traditional Indian Hindu arranged marriage. Wheaton Village's first collaboration with local residents from various regions of India, this program augments previous performances representing Buddhist, Christian Orthodox, and Muslim wedding customs in music, dance, costume, ceremony, and foodways. The second program will involve the Mexican-American community as planners and participants in a Day of the Dead celebration. WV is providing a venue for the Mexican holiday to strengthen its ties to Cumberland County's largest and fastest-growing immigrant population. Marketing for both programs will target particular and general audiences.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506