News

NEA Announces Grants to Support the Arts and Innovation Across Tennessee

Big Ears Festival, 2018. Photo courtesy of Big Ears Festival.

From Victoria Hutter, Media and Public Relations, NEA –

In pursuit of its commitment to advance the creative capacity of people and communities across the nation, the National Endowment for the Arts announces its second round of funding for FY 2018. This funding round includes annual partnerships with state, jurisdictional, and regional arts agencies as well as the categories of Art Works, Creativity Connects, Our Town, and Research: Art Works. The NEA will award 1,071 grants totaling $80.5 million to support programs that provide jobs to artists, administrators, and other creative workers and arts experiences for millions of people.

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “From Atlanta, Georgia to Sparks, Nevada, NEA funding reaches thousands of communities, assisting local organizations and providing access to the arts to all.”

Tennessee received nine grants for a total dollar amount of $915,000:

Hunter Museum of Art
$10,000 Chattanooga, TN
Art Works — Museums
To support ArtSense, a collection of initiatives expanding accessibility through multisensory experiences.

Big Ears Festival
$20,000 Knoxville, TN
Art Works — Music
To support the Big Ears Festival.

Knox County, Tennessee
$10,000 Knoxville, TN
Art Works — Literature
To support the annual Children’s Festival of Reading.

New Ballet Ensemble (aka New Ballet or NBE)
$20,000 Memphis, TN
Art Works — Arts Education
To support year-round dance instruction, residencies, mentoring and tutoring, and a family resource center.

ALIAS Chamber Ensemble
$10,000 Nashville, TN
Art Works — Music
To support a performance and recording of music by Tennessee composers with related educational activities.

Humanities Tennessee
$30,000 Nashville, TN
Art Works — Literature
To support literary programs including the Southern Festival of Books.

Nashville Shakespeare Festival
$15,000 Nashville, TN
Art Works — Theater
To support free performances of Shakespeare in the Park.

New Dialect
$10,000 Nashville, TN
Art Works — Dance
To support Dance Dialectics, a year-long contemporary dance education project designed to create professional development and community engagement opportunities for children, teens, pre-professional dancers, professional dancers, and adults.

Tennessee Arts Commission
$790,000 Nashville, TN
Partnerships (State & Regional)
To support arts programs, services, and activities associated with carrying out your agency’s NEA-approved strategic plan. The Tennessee Arts Commission sub-grants NEA funds to Tennessee nonprofit organizations through its annual competitive grant programs.

Grants recommended in this round are listed below in two ways:

•    State/jurisdiction and then by city/town and by
•    Funding category (Art Works II, Creativity Connects, Our Town, Research: Art Works, and state and regional partnerships) and then artistic discipline/field, ranging from arts education to visual arts

Awarding grants and supporting partnerships constitutes a significant portion of the NEA’s budget. In 2017, the agency made awards totaling $128 million or 85 percent of its annual budget appropriation. The first round of grants for fiscal year 2018 were announced in February 2018 and totaled $25 million. Other awards will be made in the coming months. All current grants can be viewed through the NEA’s grants search.