NEA grants to 18 Virginia groups

Three Richmond organizations are among the recipients of grants in the Art Works program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Richmond Symphony received $10,000 to support performances under its Big Tent portable stage and educational initiatives.

1708 Gallery received $20,000 to support InLight Richmond, an exhibition of of light-based video, sculpture, interactive projects and new media works on building façades, storefronts, sidewalks, green spaces and alleyways.

The Latin Ballet of Virginia received $10,000 to support its EverybodyReads! program, which promotes a love of reading, writing and literature through dance.

The NEA’s Art Works program is disbursing $82 million this spring to 1,029 organizations and programs in music, dance, theater, visual arts, folk and traditional arts and media programs, as well as institutions such as museums, arts agencies and festivals.

Other Virginia recipients of Art Works grants:

– Virginia Commission for the Arts: $701,500.

– Virginia Symphony, Hampton Roads: $15,000 to support the commissioning of “Steel, Smoke, Stars and Steam,” a concerto for orchestra by Michael Daugherty.

– Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Vienna: $65,000 to support professional training for singers and opera performances.

– Synetic Theater, Arlington: $10,000 to support the premiere of “The Mark of Cain,” a company-devised distillation of human history as seen through the eyes of Cain, civilization’s first criminal.

– The Art League, Alexandria: $20,000 to support Injured Military Personnel and art (IMPart), a visual-arts educational outreach program for wounded soldiers and their families and caregivers.

– Jefferson School Foundation, Charlottesville: $34,000 to support the commissioning of a sculpture by Melvin Edwards commemorating Vinegar Hill, which was the principal African-American business district in Charlottesville from the 1920s until it was razed in 1962.

– James Madison University, Harrisonburg: $20,000 to support a study examing potential impacts of arts programs that uses songwriting to explore issues of incarceration, equity, justice and community.

– Longwood University, Farmville: $25,000 to support the exhibition “Rural Avant-Garde: the Mountain Lake Experience” and accompanying catalogue.

– The Crooked Road (Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail), Abingdon: $30,000 to support the Mountains of Music Homecoming concert series.

– Town of Pulaski: $75,000 to support the Spectrum, Scheme, Synergy cultural planning initiative for the town’s central business district.

– National Arts Strategies, Alexandria: $75,000 to support the Creative Community Fellows program.

– National Arts Education Association, Alexandria: $25,000 to support professional leadership development programs.

– Association of Writers & Writing Programs, Fairfax: $75,000 to support an annual conference, online literature resources and publication and promotion of “The Writer’s Chronicle.”

– Fall for the Book, Fairfax: $10,000 to support the Fall for the Book literary festival.

– WETA (Greater Washington Telecommunications Association), Arlington: $50,000 to support “Art Takes Us,” a series of video segments on artists to be broadcast of PBS’ “NewsHour.”

In addition, eighth blackbird, the Chicago-based new-music sextet that maintains a residency at the University of Richmond, received a $10,000 grant to support workshops and performances of “Olagon: a Cantata in Doublespeak” by Dan Trueman, Paul Muldoon and Iarla Ó Lionáird. The piece will be performed on March 23, 2018 at UR.