As the only funder in the country to support arts activities in all 50 states and five US jurisdictions, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded $82.06 million in grants to fund 1,195 projects in the second round of funding for FY2017. Grants were awarded to support organizations that employ artists and cultural workers to provide programs for thousands of people across the country; in urban centers and in rural towns; and along with partnership agreements to U.S. states, jurisdictions, and regions.

Arizona arts programs were awarded $475,000 in this round of grantmaking. Arizona recipients include International Sonoran Desert Alliance (Ajo) building authentic community ownership of Ajo’s historic town center with music and dance; Release the Fear (Phoenix) arts workshops for youth in schools, treatment centers, and correctional facilities that explore issues of peer pressure, gangs, bullying, conflict, and anger; and Southwest Folklife Alliance (Tucson) supporting statewide programs and activities in the areas of fieldwork, apprenticeships, and professional development and the 44th annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival.

“The American people are recognized for their innovative spirit and these grants represent the vision, energy, and talent of America’s artists and arts organizations,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “I am proud of the role the National Endowment for the Arts plays in helping advance the creative capacity of the United States.”

In addition to the awards listed below, the NEA announced its annual state partnership grant to the Arizona Commission on the Arts in the amount of $821,600. By law the NEA is required to allocate 40% of its grant funds to state and regional arts agencies. These funds are awarded through a competitive grant process conducted every three years and must be matched with state funding.

Grantees

International Sonoran Desert Alliance (aka ISDA)
Amount: $25,000
Location: Ajo, AZ
Field/Discipline: Our Town – Design

To support building authentic community ownership of Ajo’s historic town center with music and dance. The project is a series of performances of folk, traditional, and contemporary Native American and Latino music and dance. International Sonoran Desert Alliance will partner with Pima County on this initiative. The goal is to use creativity to build community across longstanding racial and ethnic divisions between the estimated 3,500 Native American, Latino and Anglo American residents of Ajo.

Nogales Unified School District #1
Amount: $35,000
Location: Nogales, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Folk & Traditional Arts

To support instruction in mariachi music for youth. Master artists will teach middle and high school students to play traditional mariachi instruments, such as vihuela, guitarron, violin, trumpet, and harp. The students will also attend as many as three mariachi band conventions where they will have the opportunity to perform. Project personnel also will provide repairs of instruments and uniforms.

Act One
Amount: $10,000
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works

To support the Field Trip Program and related activities. Students from Title I schools will experience arts learning opportunities through educational field trips. Tickets will be provided to a performance or exhibition and teachers will be equipped with teaching guides to prepare the students prior to the event. The program will be provide an opportunity for partnering arts organizations, such as the Phoenix Symphony and Ballet Arizona, to build new audiences.

Ballet Arizona
Amount: $20,000
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Dance

To support Ballet Under the Stars, a free outdoor performance series in local parks throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. The works performed are included in the company’s recent repertoire and/or will be presented in the upcoming season. In addition, children from local schools will choreograph their own work under the tutelage of Ballet Arizona dancers through the Class Act program, and will perform an original dance piece at their local performance. The intention behind Ballet Under the Stars is to make ballet accessible to individuals from underserved communities who may not be able to otherwise attend ballet performances.

City of Phoenix, Arizona (On behalf of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture)
Amount: $30,000
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Local Arts Agencies

To support youth programming through the Phoenix Neighborhood Arts Grants. The Phoenix Youth Arts Council, a program of the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture (POAC), will develop a funding program to provide grants for collaborative projects intended to increase community and cultural engagement with young people. A series of town halls and use of POAC’s cultural assets mapping tool will inform the council’s process, as they work to facilitate creative partnerships among neighborhood organizations, businesses, artists, and arts organizations. Goals for the grant program include prioritization of the needs and interests of Phoenix youth and addressing the disparity of arts funding in neighborhoods outside of the downtown and midtown cores. The selected projects are expected to include significant intergenerational community engagement, high artistic quality, and collaborative processes with multiple partners.

Phoenix Art Museum
Amount: $45,000
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Museum

To support the exhibition “Valeska Soares: Any Moment Now.” The mid-career survey exhibition of Soares’ (b.1957) work, the first at a U.S. museum since 2003, will feature approximately 45 multi-media works, sculptures, video, installations, and performance pieces created by the Brazilian artist during the past two decades. Weaving together the themes of memory, time, and the sensorial, Soares creates poetic works that encourage visitor participation and also engage with international art traditions and world literature. The exhibition will be accompanied by a variety of public programs with the artist presented on-site and at venues throughout the community.

Release the Fear (aka Release the Fear)
Amount: $15,000
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works

To support Bridging Possibilities workshops. Youth in schools, treatment centers, and correctional facilities will participate in arts workshops. Professional teaching artists and facilitators will use inquiry based learning tools to move students through the arts learning curriculum. Visual arts, music, and storytelling exercises will provide youth from underserved communities with different ways to explore issues of peer pressure, gangs, bullying, conflict, and anger.

West Valley Arts Council
Amount: $10,000
Location: Surprise, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Local Arts Agencies

To support the West Valley Performing Arts Series. As many as three separate performing arts series will be presented through a partnership with the City of Surprise Arts Commission. Two series, Lunchtime Theater and HQ After Dark, will introduce audiences to local arts venues and artists through live theater and music performances. The third series, Arts Advantage, is intended to serve elementary school students through school performances. Past performances have included traditional storytelling and Native dances by Yellow Bird Indian Productions; “Opera-Antics,” an introduction to opera; and artist Keith Johnson’s exploration of African folklore. All three series will be expanded to address an increased demand for affordable, accessible, live art performances.

Arizona State University
Amount: $100,000
Location: Tempe, AZ
Field/Discipline: Our Town – Design

To support The Creative Placemaking Policy Fellows program, a Knowledge Building project. The Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts will partner with the Center for Performance and Civic Practice to establish a Creative Placemaking Policy Fellows program. The program will convene practitioners who have led successful partnerships between the arts and community development fields. Fellows will meet to exchange knowledge and document lessons learned. The aggregated findings will identify potential barriers to successful creative placemaking and strategies for overcoming them, and find ways to infuse the work across the community development field.

Additionally, fellows will each produce a training tool, such as a podcast, video, or piece of writing, for dissemination. This program complements fieldwide efforts to build more effective cross-sector knowledge exchange, and to more deeply understand the role of higher education institutions in advancing creative placemaking field development. As many as eight fellows will complete the program during the course of the grant project period.

Southwest Folklife Alliance, Inc. (aka Tucson Meet Yourself)
Amount: $45,000
Location: Tucson, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Folk & Traditional Arts

To support statewide programs and activities in the areas of fieldwork, apprenticeships, and professional development. In addition to continued fieldwork to identify folk artists and tradition bearers, SFA will embark on increasing the number of pairs in its master-apprentice program; convene and offer training through the Heritage Artists Professional Development Institute; implement intensive training camps for professionals; and launch the Yaqui Verbal Arts/Oral Tradition program. SFA also will continue its End-of-Life Continuum initiative in partnership with hospices, as well as complete edits and a reissue of an educational curriculum in partnership with Smithsonian Institution.

Southwest Folklife Alliance, Inc. (aka Tucson Meet Yourself)
Amount: $35,000
Location: Tucson, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Folk & Traditional Arts

To support Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival. In its 44th year, the festival will present performances, exhibits, and demonstrations exploring a wide range of family, ethnic, regional, and occupational folklife communities in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico. A highlight of the festival will be exhibits and demonstrations celebrating the first three years of the Southwest Folklife Alliance’s master/apprentice program.

True Concord Voices and Orchestra
Amount: $25,000
Location:Tucson, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Music

To support True Concord’s performance project, American Rhythm. The project will feature the chamber orchestra and choir in concert programs featuring works by American composers. Programming will include a new work by composer Gerald Near for choir, orchestra, and soprano based on poems and letters of American poet Emily Dickinson. Another concert program will honor U.S. service personnel and veterans with performances of works such as Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and Jake Runestad’s “Dreams of the Fallen.” The concerts will be presented in several locations in Tucson.

University of Arizona (On behalf of Arizona State Museum)
Amount: $35,000
Location: Tucson, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Folk & Traditional Arts

To support Honoring Traditions and Bridging Generations at the Arizona State Museum. Native American master basketweavers and potters will conduct artist residencies at the museum. The artists will conduct public demonstrations of their art, and also will have access to the museum’s collection of Native American artifacts to serve as a source of inspiration. Emerging Native American artists will strengthen their skills by working with master artists.

University of Arizona (On behalf of Poetry Center)
Amount: $10,000
Location: Tucson, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Literature

To support Poetry Center programming and activities. Through its public Reading and Lecture series, the Poetry Center will present a wide range of poetry readings and discussions free-of-charge; several poets also will make visits to local schools. Other planned programming includes a residency for two poets. Many events will be recorded and made available online.

Western Jazz Presenters Network, Inc.
Amount: $15,000
Location: Tucson, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Music

To support tours with saxophonist Charles McPherson and his group. Project activities include two distinct tours with performances in as many as eight rural and urban nonprofit venues in Western states such as Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington. Ancillary tour activities may entail workshops for high school or college students, open rehearsals, and audience talkback sessions.

Wickenburg Foundation for the Performing Arts (aka Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts)
Amount: $20,000
Location: Wickenburg, AZ
Field/Discipline: Art Works – Dance

To support the creation of new dance work by BODYTRAFFIC at the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts. The work will be a part of the Made in Wickenburg artist residency program. The Webb Center will host Artistic Directors Lillian Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett and the BODYTRAFFIC company for a two-week extended work session. BODYTRAFFIC will invite the Wickenburg community to participate in open rehearsals, conversations, and spontaneous dances in unexpected places. The residency will culminate in public performances.

Banner photo: Lobby of Phoenix Art Museum. Photo by Haute Event Photography,