PROVIDENCE, RI -- In an effort to support community arts programs and enhance the state’s creative and cultural assets, U.S. Senator Jack Reed today announced that AS220; Alliance of Artists Communities; Downcity Design; Everett: Company Stage and School; New Urban Arts; and Trinity Repertory Company will receive a total of $115,000 in federal grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support various programs relating to arts education, production, and community development.

AS220 will receive $10,000 to support opportunities for artists to connect with underserved populations; Alliance of Artists Communities will receive $35,000 for several professional development programs; DownCity Design will receive $25,000 to support design education throughout Rhode Island; Everett: Company Stage and School will receive $10,000 to support the production of a performance about the justice system and mass incarceration; New Urban Arts will receive $15,000 to support the Youth Mentorship in the Arts program and the Summer Arts Internship program for teens; and Trinity Repertory Company will receive $20,000 to support a production of the Spanish Golden Age drama “Fuente Ovejuna” by Lope de Vega.

“These federal grants will provide new opportunities for cultural enrichment in Rhode Island by strengthening arts education, bringing the arts to underserved populations, and supporting new programs that will help our state further assert itself as a national leader in the arts,” said Senator Reed, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees NEA funding.

These federal grants form part of the NEA’s first major round of grant funding for fiscal year 2017, in which over $30 million is being provided to non-profits and individuals nationwide through the NEA’s Art Works; Art Works: Creativity Connects; Challenge America; and Creative Writing Fellowships grant programs.  Grants are being awarded to 48 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and will cross all artistic disciplines while supporting partnerships between the arts and non-arts sectors.  

NEA grant funding decisions are made through a competitive, merit-based, transparent and rigorous grants process.  For more information, visit: http://www.arts.gov.

In May of this year, Senator Reed helped secure over $1 million for Rhode Island in federal grants from the NEA to help support both new and established art projects, including workshops, free performances, exhibitions, and arts education programs.