DATE:    December 8, 2015

National Endowment for the Arts Awards More Than $27.6 Million Across Nation Includes $25,000 awarded to Wesleyan University Press

 

Middletown, CT—In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every state and U.S. jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so. Today, the NEA announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $25,000 to Wesleyan University Press to support its poetry program.

The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The arts are part of our everyday lives – no matter who you are or where you live – they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like the one from Wesleyan University Press offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day. 

Funding will support the publication and promotion of books of poetry. The press will publish works by Rae Armantrout, Blunt Research Group, Peter Gizzi, Ted Greenwald, and Mark McMorris. Books will be accompanied by online reader companions for teachers, students, and general readers, and will be promoted through social media, the press’s website and newsletter, and author events.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEAFall15. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov