Five Cincinnati arts orgs receive NEA grant money


The National Endowment for the Arts recently doled out $27.6 million to arts organizations across the country, including $517,000 to organizations in Ohio. Five Cincinnati organizations received a total of $150,000 to support creative placemaking, premieres, renovations and art installations.
 
ArtsWave received $35,000 for professional development workshops on the arts and community engagement. Workshops will be facilitated by Design Impact to provide participants with the chance to brainstorm creative placemaking ideas. The grant will also help ArtsWave create the Creative Placemaking Network, which will yield creative placemaking toolkits for other organizations to use. There are also plans to create a searchable website with a directory of locally-based artists and organizations.
 
In June, Cincinnati Opera will present Fellow Travelers, an opera composed by Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce based on the novel by Thomas Mallon exploring the persecution of homosexuals in the 1950s, particularly by the U.S. Government. Cincinnati Opera received $35,000 from the NEA to support the world premiere.
 
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra received $40,000 to support commissions and premieres of new works, including related educational activities. The CSO will be premiering “Symphonic Triptych” by Gunther Schuller this month and two concertos for orchestra composed by Thierry Escaich and Zhou Tian in May. Accompanying educational activities include pre-concert lectures, residency activities for schools and community groups and panel discussions.
 
The Clifton Cultural Arts Center received $10,000 to help aid designs for renovation of the old Clifton School, home to the CCAC.
 
The Contemporary Arts Center received a $30,000 grant to support the installation of “Solar Bell,” a large kite-like object created by Tomas Saraceno that will be hung from the CAC’s newly renovated lobby, and others like it.
 
Enjoy this story? Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.

Read more articles by Caitlin Koenig.

Caitlin Koenig is a Cincinnati transplant and 2012 grad of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. She's the department editor for Soapbox Media and currently lives in Northside with her husband, Andrew, and their three furry children. Follow Caitlin on Twitter at @caite_13.