Arts for Learning receives NEA Big Read Grant

Indianapolis – June 9, 2017… Arts for Learning is a recipient of a grant of $14,000 to host the NEA Big Read in Indianapolis. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. Arts for Learning is one of 75 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading program between September 2017 and June 2018. The NEA Big Read in Indianapolis will focus on Sun, Stone, and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories edited by Jorge F. Hernández. Activities will take place during National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15.

Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,400 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $19 million in grants to organizations nationwide. In addition, Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country. Over the past eleven years, grantees have leveraged more than $42 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 4.8 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 79,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and 37,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible. Last summer, the NEA announced a new focus for the NEA Big Read Library on contemporary authors and books written since the NEA was founded 50 years ago. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please visit neabigread.org.

As the oldest and largest provider of professional arts in education programs in the state, Arts for Learning works with more than 60 teaching artists who provide performances, workshops and residencies to schools, libraries, parks and community organizations. Arts for Learning reaches more than 61,000 Indiana children and youth every year.

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