Abilene receives two NEA grants totaling $25,000

June 10, 2020 - The National Endowment for the Arts announced today more than $84 million in grants to organizations in all 50 states. Two of those grants were awarded to the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council and The Grace Museum.

The Grace received a $10,000 ArtWorks grant to digitize the museum’s collection. This will involve professionally photographing more than 2,500 works of art in the permanent art collection, digitizing the images, creating metadata and establishing an online, searchable database on the museum’s website for the images.

The ACAC received a $15,000 grant for the 2020 Childen’s Art & Literacy Festival to fund entertainment. However, because the festival had to be postponed, the Cultural Affairs Council has submitted a request to the NEA to amend the original request. The council hopes to use the funds for CALF related programming later this summer instead.

“We are particularly grateful for the support from the NEA in this challenging time for the arts,” said Lynn Barnett, the ACAC’s executive director. “The support of these two programs helps provide momentum as we work to make art experiences available to people who visit the Storybook Capital.”

NEA grants were awarded in 13 artistic disciplines, arts research, and partnership agreements with all U.S. state and regional arts agencies.  Applications for the grants were submitted to the NEA last summer and reflected the wide range of performances, exhibitions, and activities that the agency has traditionally funds.