On February 13, 2019, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced awards in three of the federal agency’s funding categories: Art Works, Challenge America, and Creative Writing Fellowships. Through these grants, the NEA supports local economies and preserves American heritage while embracing new forms of creative expression.

“The arts enhance our communities and our lives, and we look forward to seeing these projects take place throughout the country, giving Americans opportunities to learn, to create, to heal, and to celebrate,” said Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

9 Arizona arts organizations were awarded a total amount of $190,000.

Number of Grants: 9
Total Dollar Amount: $190,000

Flagstaff Arts Council
$25,000 Flagstaff, AZ
Art Works — Local Arts Agencies
To support a visual arts exhibition exploring water issues in Northern Arizona and the Southwest United States.

Grand Canyon Chamber Music Festival
$25,000 Grand Canyon, AZ
Art Works — Arts Education
To support the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP).

City of Litchfield Park, Arizona (on behalf of Community and Recreation Services Department (Special Events))
$10,000 Litchfield Park, AZ
Challenge America
To support the Litchfield Park Native American Fine Arts Festival.

Phoenix Art Museum
$30,000 Phoenix, AZ
Art Works — Museums
To support the traveling exhibition Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist.

Childsplay, Inc.
$10,000 Tempe, AZ
Art Works — Theater
To support the world premiere production of Selena Sings, a new play by Miriam Gonzales and composer Daniel French.

Borderlands Theater Teatro Fronterizo, Inc. (aka Borderlands Theater)
$20,000 Tucson, AZ
Art Works — Theater
To support a production of Their Dogs Came With Them, a new play by Virginia Grise, adapted from the 2008 novel by Helena Maria Viramontes.

Loft Cinema, Inc. (aka The Loft)
$20,000 Tucson, AZ
Art Works — Media Arts
To support the 2019 Loft Film Fest, a screening tour, and related public programming celebrating the art and diversity of film.

Museum of Contemporary Art (aka MOCA)
$10,000 Tucson, AZ
Challenge America
To support a series of performance and sound workshops at Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind.

University of Arizona
$40,000 Tucson, AZ
Art Works — Museums
To support an exhibition and outreach program featuring the work of artist Umar Rashid (aka Frohawk Two Feathers).

Art Works

Art Works is the National Endowment for the Arts’ principal grantmaking program. The Arts Endowment convened panels to review 1,605 eligible applications for funding and the agency will award 972 grants ranging from $10,000-$100,000 totaling more than $25 million.

Challenge America

The Challenge America category primarily supports small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations—those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. For fiscal year 2019, expert readers reviewed 221 eligible applications and the agency will award 138 grants of $10,000 each for a total of $1.38 million.

Creative Writing Fellowships

In fiscal year 2019, the National Endowment for the Arts will award 35 Creative Writing Fellowships in poetry. Each fellowship is $25,000 for a total of $875,000. Nearly 1,700 eligible applications were received and reviewed anonymously by a panel, resulting in a group of recipients from across the country, diverse in ethnicity and background. None of the 2019 recipients have previously received an NEA fellowship.
Visit the Arts Endowment’s Literature Fellowships webpage to read excerpts by and features on past Creative Writing Fellows and recipients of Literature Fellowships for translation projects.

About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. For more information, visit www.arts.gov.

To read the entire announcement, click here.

Banner Photo: Eli Burke, 2018. Courtesy of MOCA Tucson