News

Two TN cities selected for recent NEA Big Read grant award

By Lee Baird, Director of Literary Arts – 

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced 75 nonprofit organizations around the U.S. that will receive grant funding to host a Big Read project between September 2015 and June 2016, two of which are Tennessee cities. Germantown and Knoxville, representing both the West and East grand divisions, received a combined total of $25,000 for their projects.

The Big Read program was piloted in 2006 after a 2004 study by the NEA showed a notable, nation-wide decrease in literary reading among all age groups. Over 1,100 projects have now been funded with the intention of closing this gap and building communities through innovative arts programming.

Managed by Arts Midwest, this initiative allows each organization to develop unique programming with the support of provided reader’s guides, teacher’s guides and a media library that includes audio commentary. Communities are given the opportunity to read, discuss and celebrate one of the 37 selections from U.S. and world literature through various events centered around the chosen book.

Germantown’s Big Read celebration will be focused on A Wizard of Earthsea,  by Ursula K. Le Guin, and Knoxville’s will be A Lesson Before Dying, by  Ernest J. Gaines.

To view the complete list of recipients and their reading selections, click here.Screenshot 2015-06-03 10.13.23