NEA Announces Art Works and Creative Writing Fellowships

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman announced that the agency will award 863 grants to organizations and individual writers across the country. The awards total $22.543 million, encompass 15 artistic disciplines and fields, and support projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Of those 863 grants awards, 823 are for projects at not-for-profit organizations, The remaining 40 awards are made to individual writers. "Art Works is the guiding principle at the NEA," said agency Chairman Rocco Landesman. “And I’m pleased to see that principle represented through the 823 Art Works-funded projects included in this announcement. These projects demonstrate the imaginative and innovative capacities of artists and arts organizations to enhance the quality of life in their communities.”

Congratulations to the Maine applicants who received six grants totaling $151,000. The grants were awarded to the following:

Alice James Poetry Cooperative, Inc. (aka Alice James Books)
Farmington, ME
$24,000
CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature
To support the publication, promotion, and distribution of books of poetry. Titles will be chosen via editorial solicitation and three annual competitions---the Beatrice Hawley Award, the Kinereth Gensler Awards, and the Kundiman Poetry Prize.

Bates College (on behalf of Bates Dance Festival)
Lewiston, ME
$30,000
CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
To support dance artist residencies as part of the annual Bates Dance Festival titled, Cultivating a Vibrant Dance Community. The project will bring together leading dance figures, companies, and emerging artists such as Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Rennie Harris PureMovement, Jane Comfort and Company, Keigwin + Company, and Kyle Abraham for one- to four-week residencies to connect, create, and perform in a collaborative, supportive environment.

Cultural Resources, Inc. (Consortium)
Rockport, ME
$20,000
CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk and Traditional Arts
To support the Wabanaki Artists' Network. In collaboration with the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, Cultural Resources will offer training and marketing opportunities to young, emerging Native artists. In addition, a statewide network will be established, linking non-Native organizations and tribal artists through a traveling exhibition and artists residencies, providing the potential for a national model for Native and non-Native collaboration.

Haigh, Jennifer
Hull, ME
$25,000
CATEGORY: Literature Fellowships FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature

Portland Ovations (aka Formerly Portland Concert Association)
Portland, ME
$25,000
CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting
To support the presentation of dance, music, and culturally specific works. Each presentation by such artists as dance company Trey McIntyre Project, performance group CIRCA (Australia), violinist Jennifer Koh, and singer/songwriter Dan Zanes will be accompanied by discussions, lectures, workshops, master classes, and open rehearsals.

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Inc.
Skowhegan, ME
$27,000
CATEGORY: Art Works FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities
To support a residency program for emerging visual artists. Artists will be provided with a private studio, full room and board, and weekly private and group critiques by a faculty of leading professional artists.

More information can be found on the NEA website.

Education Leaders Institute Update

The six-person Maine team—one of five from around the country--at the NEA’s Education Leaders Institute in Chicago recently were lucky to have been assigned Chike Nwoffiah, artist and Executive Director of the Oriki Theater in California, as a coach for our project design work in arts education. In his plenary presentation, Chike challenged the institute’s participants to work more creatively with the constraint of limited funding—particularly during the current economic recession. “Money is not the problem,” Chike stated adamantly. “There is never enough money for education, yet there is always plenty of money for the prisons that are needed when our education systems fail.” One of Chike’s points was that, in the design of our arts and education projects, we must clearly, consistently, and loudly employ our arts, stories, and statistics to show the relevance of these projects to the issues which dominate our community conversations and decision-making: local economies; opportunity generation; and the sociocultural problems which arise—crime, drug use, teen pregnancy, etc.—when we don’t succeed in moving a more creative agenda forward. The Maine team returns to the state with the broad outlines of a long-term, step-by-step plan to radically improve Maine’s public education system, promoting creativity, imagination, and innovation in both the learning process and content. Planning meetings will continue July 30: ELI team meeting at the Maine Arts Commission offices, and September 17: Expanded statewide design team meeting.

Also, Sue Gendron will be on a retreat with the State Planning Board in August, at which she will be discussing the issues of teacher prep and accreditation related to these plans.

We will keep you informed on the progress of the Maine team.

Submitted by Linda Nelson who is a Maine Arts Commission member and one of Maine's ELI team members.

Poetry Out Loud Maine State Final

On February 27, ten students, out of an incredible beginning total of 2700, from high schools across Maine competed in the state finals of Poetry Out Loud at the Camden Opera House.

The final, organized by the Maine Arts Commission, was a closely contested event that highlighted the exceptional talents of Maine’s students. At the end of the evening, William Whitham of Bangor High School was ultimately selected as state champion.

William now goes on to represent Maine in the national finals in Washington D.C. at the end of April, where he will compete for a $20,000 college scholarship.

Highlights of the finals, that include extended interviews with the students, can be seen on YouTube.