2011 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ August 12, 2010 deadline ]

Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies
Media Arts | Museums | Music | Musical Theater | Opera | Presenting | Theater
Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Literature

Academy of American Poets, Inc. (Consortium)
New York, NY
$65,000
To support National Poetry Month in April 2012. In partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English, the academy will distribute approximately 200,000 free posters and conduct a nationwide media campaign to encourage poetry coverage and book reviews, and sponsor readings and events in New York City and with partner organizations across the country.

American Library Association (Consortium)
Chicago, IL
$20,000
To support the Great Stories Club, a reading and discussion program for at-risk teens. In partnership with Passages Academy Libraries, the association will send authors around the country to discuss their work with teens, ages 13 to 19, who reside in juvenile detention centers, attend alternative high schools, participate in alcohol or drug treatment programs, have children, or are living in group or foster homes.

Art Sanctuary
Philadelphia, PA
$10,000
To support the 28th annual Celebration of Black Writing. The 2012 festival will focus on Caribbean writers and include a week-long line-up of readings, workshops, panels, performances, discussions, and a book fair.

Asia Society (Consortium)
New York, NY
$30,000
To support Page Turner/Asia, an initiative to bring writers from Asian countries to the annual Asian American Literary Festival. In partnership with the Asian American Writers' Workshop, the Asia Society will bring to the U.S. 12 contemporary writers from countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Inc.
New York, NY
$45,000
To support a series of readings, discussions, interviews, blogs, and a festival targeting Asian Americans in celebration of the organization's 20th anniversary. Many of the events and interviews will take place in ethnic communities and explore issues of identity, history, and urban change.

Association of Writers & Writing Programs (aka AWP)
Fairfax, VA
$80,000
To support the 2012 AWP conference; the production, printing, and distribution of The Writer's Chronicle; and the continued development of the AWP website, including the web-based AWP Job List. Serving an estimated 9,500 attendees, the three-day conference in Chicago will feature more than 400 readings, forums, and panel discussions, as well as a book fair showcasing the work of more than 550 small presses.

Bowery Arts and Science, Ltd.
New York, NY
$30,000
To support more than 450 poetry, prose, and spoken-word presentations and workshops at the Bowery Poetry Club. Signature series and initiatives include World of Poetry, featuring poetry in translation; Page Meets Stage, pairing two poets with one reading, one performing; Summer Institute for Social Justice & Applied Poetics, an education-through-the-arts initiative targeting at-risk teens; Urbana Poetry Slam, a weekly poetry slam; and the Segue Readings, highlighting diverse and cutting-edge aesthetics.

Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn, NY
$25,000
To support the Brooklyn Independents literary series and the Russian Literary Series. The latter will feature Russian writers reading and presenting in Russian to Brooklyn's large population of Russian speakers.  Brooklyn Independents will feature poets from four independent presses: Graywolf Press, Akashic Books, Hanging Loose Press, and Ugly Duckling Presse.

Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$35,000
To support administrative costs and judges' fees for the 2011 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, as well as the foundation's annual week-long writing retreat, both targeting emerging African American poets.

Center for the Art of Translation
San Francisco, CA
$10,000
To support Lit & Lunch, a reading series spotlighting international writers and translators. The readings are available on the center's website with full audio, photographs, and selections of presented materials.

Center for the Art of Translation (Consortium)
San Francisco, CA
$25,000
To support training for teachers and writers on the integration of poetry and translation into New York City classrooms. In partnership with Teachers & Writers Collaborative, the center will create an online community to share and discuss research findings, experiences, curriculum, and student work.

Clarion Foundation
Eugene, OR
$10,000
To support the 2011 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop. Established in 1968, the Clarion Writers' Workshop is considered the premier training ground for aspiring writers of fantasy and science fiction.

Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
New York, NY
$52,000
To support technical assistance and capacity-building programs for large, mid-size, and small independent magazines and presses. Services and resources will include an interactive website offering access to media databases and virtual roundtable discussions, as well as workshops, one-on-one mentoring, and networking opportunities.

Gemini Series, Inc. (aka Gemini Ink)
San Antonio, TX
$10,000
To support the fall 2011 season of University Without Walls, featuring workshops, readings, and other literary events in South Central Texas. Aimed at working adults, classes and other events are nominally priced and scheduled to accommodate jobs and families, with topics ranging from family oral histories to journaling.

Grub Street, Inc.
Boston, MA
$15,000
To support The Whole Writer Program, a series of marketing and industry courses and mentorships to help writers sustain their careers in the digital age. Participants will learn from digital industry professionals about current trends in publicity and promotion, including how to use blogs, Twitter, and Facebook for an effective book launch.

Heyday Institute (aka Heyday Books)
Berkeley, CA
$10,000
To support an outreach and publicity campaign to develop new audiences for the literary anthology Best of California 2011. The press will conduct a major book tour throughout California and host events in partnership with local organizations.

Hudson Review, Inc. (Consortium)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support College Now, a program for high school students in all five borroughs of New York. In partnership with the City University of New York, the journal will distribute the anthology Writes of Passage: Coming-of-Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review to participating students, and bring in writers from the anthology for classroom discussions.

Inprint, Inc.
Houston, TX
$10,000
To support the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. Invited speakers for the 2011-12 season include Mary Gaitskill, Mark Jarman, Nicole Krauss, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gary Shteyngart, Cornelius Eady, Deborah Eisenberg, and Haruki Murakami.

Just Buffalo Literary Center, Inc.
Buffalo, NY
$30,000
To support Babel, a program that brings renowned international writers to western New York for readings and related outreach activities. Just Buffalo will promote the readings by distributing brochures, securing radio spots, and making available on its website downloadable readers' guides and other educational material, as well as interactive discussion groups.

Kent State University Main Campus (on behalf of Wick Poetry Center)
Kent, OH
$10,000
To support readings, workshops, and multidisciplinary events targeting students, teachers, veterans, and senior adults at the Wick Poetry Center. Among the programs offered is Traveling Stanzas, which sponsors workshops and discussion groups in schools, hospitals, and veterans organizations throughout northeast Ohio that will result in poetry posters displayed on mass-transit, animated videos, and e-greetings.

Knox County, Tennessee (on behalf of Knox County Public Library)
Knoxville, TN
$10,000
To support the 8th annual Children's Festival of Reading at the Knox County Public Library. The free, one-day festival will feature more than 30 children's authors, illustrators, storytellers, and musicians.

Kundiman, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support readings, an oral history project, and the 2011 Asian American Poetry Retreat. As part of the oral history project, Asian American poets will interview Asian immigrants, record their interviews and use the stories they hear as jumping off points for poetic responses.

Library Foundation of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
$20,000
To support ALOUD at Central Library, a literary outreach program targeting young and ethnically diverse audiences. Events will be promoted through blogs, online chats, Facebook, Twitter, emails, and video podcasts available through the Los Angeles Public Library Web site, iTunes, and a local television station.

Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Inc.
Denver, CO
$10,000
To support classes, workshops, residencies, a festival, and other outreach programs. The center will work towards creating a more robust technical presence through podcasts, blog posts, and Facebook and Twitter updates, allowing more virtual access to the literary community.

Literary Arts, Inc.
Portland, OR
$10,000
To support the Oregon Book Awards & Author Tour. Following their announcement at an awards ceremony in Portland, winners and finalists will participate in tours reaching 8-12 Oregon cities, reading and speaking at events presented in partnership with local arts councils, libraries, and bookstores.

Loft, Inc. (aka The Loft Literary Center)
Minneapolis, MN
$25,000
To support the Minnesota Program for Writers, which offers classes, mentorship opportunities, and workshops for writers of all levels. Additional events include readings, book clubs, and other opportunities for community members to engage in a dialogue with a range of prose, poetry, young adult, and children's writers.

Log Cabin Literary Center, Inc. (aka The Cabin)
Boise, ID
$15,000
To support Readings & Conversations, an annual series featuring internationally acclaimed literary writers. The center is the only venue within 300 miles that provides consistent opportunities to interact with distinguished writers.

Marygrove College
Detroit, MI
$7,000
To support a day of readings and master classes with a critically renowned African American writer as part of the college's Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series. The 2012 series will feature author Thomas Glave.

Mercantile Library Association of the City of New York (aka The Center for Fiction)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support more than 50 free and low-cost public readings, lectures, and writing workshops at the Center for Fiction. Ongoing series include Why We Read, talks by major American writers; Imagined Biographies; On Translation; and New & Tried, which pairs emerging and established writers on one stage.

Montana Committee for the Humanities (aka Humanities Montana)
Missoula, MT
$15,000
To support the 2011 Montana Festival of the Book. The four-day event will feature authors and presenters discussing and reading their work before a sizeable audience.

National Book Foundation, Inc.
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the online publication and promotion of digital "appreciations" of National Book Award fiction finalists from 1950 to 2012. Written by emerging writers, the appreciations will be accompanied by photos of the book and author; a list of the other fiction finalists for that year; information about other awards, the author, and his/her work; click-throughs for direct purchase of the author's current work; and links to additional online resources.

National Book Foundation, Inc. (Consortium)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support BookUp, a 12-week, after-school program in New York and Texas that encourages underserved middle school students to read for pleasure. Presented in partnership with the Children's Aid Society, the reading clubs are led by published writers who allow the students to choose a book to read, engage them in discussions and role-playing, and take them on field trips to libraries, bookstores, and readings.

Passaic County Community College (on behalf of The Poetry Center)
Paterson, NJ
$10,000
To support readings as part of The Poetry Center's Distinguished Poets Series, as well as workshops and other outreach efforts targeting senior adults. Regional poets will conduct writing workshops at senior centers, culminating in an anthology and readings by participants to be broadcast on cable television.

PEN American Center, Inc.
New York, NY
$85,000
To support the 2012 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. The festival will feature readings, performances, discussions, conversations, screenings, and music in both large-scale and intimate public venues.

PEN Center USA West (aka PEN USA)
Beverly Hills, CA
$45,000
To support Freedom to Write, a series of outreach programs targeting writers in underserved communities. The project includes PEN in the Classroom, providing creative writing residencies for at-risk youth; Emerging Voices, a fellowship program for aspiring writers; and Writers' Toolbox, a series of discussions about the craft and business of writing.

PEN/Faulkner Foundation
Washington, DC
$20,000
To support a reading series, literary programming for at-risk groups, and writers in the schools. The foundation will present 60 one-day author visits to 19 District of Columbia high schools, as well as a book group for teenage unwed mothers and a book group to be held at the D.C. Jail.

Poetry Project, Limited (aka Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the Monday Night and Wednesday Night Reading Series. These events allow both emerging and established poets to perform new work for a broad audience.

Poetry Society of America
New York, NY
$60,000
To support Poetry in Motion, which places poetry placards in public transportation systems around the country, as well as nationwide poetry events and chapbooks. Readings and discussions will take place in Los Angeles, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Boston, Austin, New Orleans, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and in New York City for emerging poets selected to have their first chapbooks published.

Poets & Writers, Inc.
New York, NY
$90,000
To support the publication of Poets & Writers Magazine and the expansion of the Poets & Writers website. New columns on the service organization's website include Agents Advice; Inside Indie Bookstores; Why We Write; and Digital Digest, which looks at how technology is transforming both writing and publishing.

Poets House, Inc.
New York, NY
$60,000
To support a series of talks, panels, and readings in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Activities will include Passwords, in which poets discuss an influential poet or poetic tradition, and a celebration of the life and legacy of Stanley Kunitz.

Rattapallax, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the 2011 Literary Film Festival in New York City, as well as online, literary, and poetry-based films, readings, and web series. Rattapallax is producing an original new episodic series called Verse: A Murder Mystery about a young poet who discovers a lost manuscript, available on the journal's website, as well as vimeo, YouTube, blip.tv, babelgum.com, and other sites that show full High Definition (HD) content.

Red Hen Press, Inc. (Consortium)
Pasadena, CA
$10,000
To support poetry workshops and readings throughout southern California. In partnership with the Poetry Society of America, the press will place poets in one high school in Los Angeles and one elementary school in Pasadena, as well as sponsor readings at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood and the Boston Court Theater in Pasadena.

Research Foundation of the City University of New York (on behalf of Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the 11th National Black Writers Conference. The four-day conference will feature such writers as Nikki Giovanni, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Camille Dungy, Patricia Smith, and Quraysh Ali Lansana.

Richard Hugo House
Seattle, WA
$20,000
To support residencies, one-on-one mentoring, group shows, and commissioned new work. The programs are designed to encourage the creation of new work and introduce new writing by both established and emerging writers to broader audiences.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-Camden Campus
Camden, NJ
$10,000
To support Writers at Camden, a series of free monthly workshops, readings, and discussions with visiting writers targeting residents of the city of Camden, one of the most poverty-stricken cities in the nation. Discussion topics will include nonfiction and the social conscience, the collision of race and youth in fiction, and creating a meaningful and profitable writing career.

San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
$25,000
To support the Poetry Center Digital Archive. The university will preserve, transfer, catalog, and make accessible for free 125 rare, at-risk original videos of poetry readings between 1973 and 2000 and early analog audio recordings from 1953 to 1974.

Seattle Arts and Lectures, Inc. (Consortium)
Seattle, WA
$10,000
To support readings and conversations with distinguished poets, as well as intensive writing classes with those poets targeting both youth and adults. In partnership with Richard Hugo House, the organization will select poets from the series to conduct day-long poetry classes for both published and emerging writers.

Small Press Distribution, Inc. (Consortium)
Berkeley, CA
$38,000
To support the expanded distribution of independently published books to booksellers and librarians. In partnership with the American Booksellers Association, Small Press Distribution will extend its reach by attending book festivals and trade shows in targeted regions, and through mailings to independent booksellers nationwide.

Society of the Muse of the Southwest
Taos, NM
$8,000
To support literary events that seek to unite the Hispanic, American Indian, and Caucasian communities of Northern New Mexico. Activities include public readings, youth mentoring, and an annual storytelling festival.

Split This Rock, Inc.
Washington, DC
$15,000
To support the 2012 Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness. The four-day festival in Washington, D.C. will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, open mics, and other events with such poets as Marilyn Nelson, Sonia Sanchez, and Alice Walker.

Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, Inc.
New Orleans, LA
$15,000
To support the 26th annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival and the 10th annual Saints and Sinners Literary Festival. In 2010, the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival presented 47 events featuring 120 authors; the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, which targets the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities, featured 37 literary presentations by 85 authors.

Thurber House, Inc.
Columbus, OH
$15,000
To support a summer writing camp for children in grades two through eight, and writing workshops for older children and adults.

University of Arizona (on behalf of The Poetry Center)
Tucson, AZ
$20,000
To support the 49th Annual Reading Series and Off the Page Symposium, featuring poets who use other media to enhance or inform their poetry. Poets selected for Off the Page see performance and demonstration as poetic techniques, and will present their work using film, digital and audio arts, theater, music, and/or other media.

University of Mississippi Main Campus
University, MS
$10,000
To support the 2012 Oxford Conference for the Book. The free, three-day festival will feature panel sessions and workshops with authors, editors, agents, librarians, and booksellers; and a special tribute to southern authors Ellen Douglas and Elizabeth Spencer.

University of North Dakota Main Campus
Grand Forks, ND
$15,000
To support the 2012 University of North Dakota Writers Conference: (HUM(AN)IMAL), featuring writers whose work explores the intersections between human and animal worlds. The university also will make available free online 40 hours of historical audio footage from past conferences dating back to 1970.

University of Rochester
Rochester, NY
$10,000
To support the Reading the World Conversation Series. Each event will feature a reading by an international author followed by a discussion between the author and his/her translator.

University of Texas at Dallas (on behalf of American Literary Translators Association)
Richardson, TX
$15,000
To support the annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri, of the American Literary Translators Association. The conference features bilingual readings and panel discussions on such topics as professional development for translators, getting published, conveying the author's voice, the future of language, and teaching translation.

Utah Humanities Council
Salt Lake City, UT
$10,000
To support the 14th annual Utah Humanities Book Festival. The festival will take place in 12 different communities around Utah, with each community offering its own workshops, readings, and discussion opportunities.

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Consortium)
Amherst, VA
$10,000
To support two-week residencies targeting African American poets. In partnership with Cave Canem Foundation, the center will select residents to be invited to the Mount San Angelo facility at the foot of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains from among Cave Canem retreat alumni.

Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy (Consortium)
Charlottesville, VA
$25,000
To support the 2012 Virginia Festival of the Book. In partnership with the Charlottesville City Schools, the festival will feature free author readings, panel discussions, lectures, writing workshops, school visits, and youth conferences.

Voices UnBroken
Bronx, NY
$20,000
To support outreach programs for youth who are incarcerated, detained, or in the foster care system. Activities will include creative writing workshops, monthly open-mics, and performances featuring professional writers reading alongside workshop participants.

Woodland Pattern, Inc. (aka Woodland Pattern Book Center)
Milwaukee, WI
$20,000
To support a series of programs aimed at working class, racially mixed, and multigenerational community members. The center will offer readings, master classes, presentations by small presses, writing residencies for seniors, and book art exhibitions.

Words Without Borders
New York, NY
$30,000
To support public readings and school visits in New York featuring international authors. Words Without Borders will bring in writers from such countries as Puerto Rico, Israel, Germany, Hungary, Canada, and Romania and provide classroom discussion materials tailored to each author.

Wordstock
Portland, OR
$15,000
To support Wordstock's week-long, annual book and literary festival in October 2011. The festival will include a two-day book fair featuring 200 authors on 10 author stages, more than 150 exhibitors, a special children's literature stage, and a series of workshops for writers and K-12 teachers.

Writer's Garret
Dallas, TX
$20,000
To support the Writers' Community and Mentorship Project (CAMP), featuring workshops, seminars, and classes for emerging writers. Attendees may participate in a work exchange program in which they help with outreach, teaching, marketing, and other tasks in exchange for free attendance at readings, events, panels, and manuscript clinics.

Writers & Books
Rochester, NY
$20,000
To support readings, workshops, classes, residencies, and other outreach programs in celebration of the center's 30th anniversary. The series will feature year-round, multi-genre writing workshops; If All of Rochester Read the Same Book, a community-wide reading program; and a series of readings featuring writers who appeared at the center during its first 30 years.

Writers Center
Bethesda, MD
$20,000
To support education, enrichment, and professional networking opportunities for writers at every stage of development. Activities include in-person and online writing workshops, several of which are free and aimed at veterans/active duty troops and their families.

Writers Guild of America, East Foundation Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the Actors and Writers Book Club, which will bring established actors and writers to underserved high schools in Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Tucson to read and discuss classic works of literature.

Writers Room, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support subsidized workspace, a community of peers, and related services for writers in New York City. The center provides a clean, quiet, affordable, and accessible workspace 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Young Men's & Young Women's Hebrew Association (aka 92nd Street Y) (on behalf of Unterberg Poetry Center)
New York, NY
$60,000
To support the Unterberg Poetry Center's Main Reading Series. The series features readings, literary tributes, interviews, performances, and dialogues between writers and audiences about literary and related topics.

Young Men's Christian Association of Billings (aka YMCA Writer's Voice)
Billings, MT
$10,000
To support a reading tour in Billings and around eastern Montana of writers from Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The YMCA of Billings will promote the events through local libraries; Yellowstone Public Radio, which reaches all of the participating communities; and The Billings Gazette, the state's largest newspaper.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506

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