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Lucky 13 get over $1 million
By
PEGGY McGLONE
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Thirteen New Jersey arts organizations and the state Council on the Arts will share just over $1 million from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the federal agency's second round of 2006 awards, totaling $63.7 million.
The biggest block of money — some $42.2 million — goes to the state, jurisdictional and regional arts agencies that partner with the NEA. The federal agency must send 40 percent of its total budget to these partner agencies. The remaining $21.5 million supports the work of more than 900 arts groups nationwide.
The largest grant to New Jersey is a $748,900 grant to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, one of the NEA's partners. The award represents a 5 percent increase over last year's $712,700. Part of the additional funds must be dedicated to the NEA's American Masterpieces initiative, said David Miller, executive director of the arts council.
Miller said the council will ask the committees that are currently scrutinizing and ranking applications for state grants to identify American Master works in the fields of choral music, dance, musical theater and visual arts. The arts council hopes to create a season of American Masterpieces that will be presented across the state.
"We're using our panels to identify programs that fit the bill and we'll use the (NEA) money to support that work and we'll help market it," Miller said.
The 13 remaining New Jersey grants support the work of flagship institutions and grassroots organizations alike. Newark Public Radio — WBGO-Jazz 88 — receives the largest grant of $60,000 to support "JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater," a weekly radio series of concerts that is produced in Newark and distributed by National Public Radio.
Several grants support efforts to reach nontraditional audiences in their own settings. A $10,000 grant will help Music for All Seasons of Scotch Plains to bring classic music concerts to children living in shelters for victims of domestic violence. The American Boychoir School of Princeton will use $10,000 for a series of choral concerts at schools on American Indian reservations.
The People and Stories Gente y Cuentos, Inc. of Trenton will receive $15,000 for writing workshops and discussion groups — in English and Spanish — in women's shelters, senior citizen facilities, transitional housing and correctional facilities.
Among the honored projects are several partnerships between different arts organizations. The Newark Museum was awarded $30,000 for "Masters of the 20th Century American Comics," a show it will present jointly with the Jewish Museum in Manhattan.
The Newark Museum this week also learned of a $32,828 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, another federal cultural agency, to help conserve some of the 200 Tibetan tangkas, or religious scrolls, that are part of the museum's Tibetan collection.
The remaining grants are: $40,000 to the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education in New Brunswick for a summer filmmaking program; $25,000 to the Montclair Art Museum to upgrade its collection management system; $15,000 to the Bayshore Discovery Project of Port Norris; $10,000 to the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn for programs for disabled audiences; $10,000 to the Northwest Jersey Folklife Project, Inc. of Phillipsburg; $10,000 to the American Repertory Ballet, in collaboration with the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick; $10,000 to Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken for an art and technology exhibit; and $7,500 to Rutgers University-Camden for its annual Writers' Conference.
Etc. BOX: The largest grant to New Jersey is a $748,900 grant to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, one of the partners of the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Star-Ledger Archive
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Date: 2006/04/20 Thursday