$195,000 in NEA project support announced for S.C.
Six S.C. organizations benefit
Six organizations from South Carolina in Aiken, the Charleston area, and Spartanburg were announced among the recipients of $33 million in nationwide arts project funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today.
A total of $195,000 is being spread among:
- the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston ($85,000 for research grants in the arts)
- Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston ($55,000 for presenting and multidisciplinary works)
- Colour of Music, Inc.; Mount Pleasant ($20,000 for music projects)
- Charleston Jazz, North Charleston ($15,000 for music projects)
- the Aiken Symphony, Aiken ($10,000 for a Challenge America grant)
- Hub City Writers Project, Spartanburg ($10,000 for literary projects)
The awards are part of the NEA's first round of recommended awards for fiscal year 2022, with 1,498 awards totaling nearly $33.2 million. Grants for Arts Projects funding spans 15 artistic disciplines and reaches communities in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Recipients of the Challenge America grant program, NEA Literature Fellowships in creative writing and translation, and support for arts research projects are also included in this announcement.
“These National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants underscore the resilience of our nation’s artists and arts organizations, will support efforts to provide access to the arts, and rebuild the creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair
Ann Eilers. “The supported projects demonstrate how the arts are a source of strength and well-being for communities and individuals, and can open doors to conversations that address complex issues of our time.”
The NEA is committed to equity, access, and fostering mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all individuals and groups. Applications for funding demonstrated a commitment by the arts and culture sector to provide more equitable and accessible pathways for arts engagement.
About the grants
Grants for Arts Projects
Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) awards reach communities in all parts of the country, large and small, and with diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. There are 1,248 organizations recommended to receive cost share/matching grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for a total of $28,840,000. These awards represent 15 artistic disciplines/fields: Artist Communities, Arts Education, Dance, Design, Folk & Traditional Arts, Literary Arts, Local Arts Agencies, Media Arts, Museums, Music, Musical Theater, Opera, Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works, Theater, and Visual Arts. Applications were received in February 2021 from 1,879 eligible organizations requesting more than $92 million in support.
Take note: The next Grants for Arts Projects application deadlines are
Thursday, February 10, 2022, and
Thursday, July 7, 2022. Visit
arts.gov for guidelines and application resources and
register for a Grants for Arts Projects guidelines webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, from 3-4 p.m.
Challenge America
Challenge America grants offer support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to populations that have limited access to the arts due to geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. There are 168 organizations recommended in this funding category for a total of $1,680,000. Each grant is for $10,000 and requires a minimum $10,000 cost share/match.
Take note: The next Challenge America application deadline is
Thursday, April 21, 2022. Visit
arts.gov for guidelines and application resources and
register for a Challenge America guidelines webinar on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, from 3-4 p.m.
Literature Fellowships
The National Endowment for the Arts will award $1.2 million in FY 2021 Literature Fellowships to creative writers and translators:
- This includes 35 Creative Writing Fellowships of $25,000 each. These FY 2022 fellowships are in prose and enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career development.
- The NEA approved fellowships to 24 translators ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 to translate works from 16 languages and 18 countries into English.
Learn more about these fellowships.
Take note: The next deadline for
Creative Writing Fellowships is
Thursday, March 10, 2022. In 2022, the NEA is accepting applications in poetry.
Research Awards
The National Endowment for the Arts offers two funding opportunities to support arts research projects:
- Through Research Grants in the Arts, 18 organizations are recommended for a total of $815,000. This program funds research studies that analyze the value and/or impact of the arts.
- Five NEA Research Labs are recommended for funding totaling $648,784. Transdisciplinary research partnerships grounded in the social and behavioral sciences will examine and report on the benefit of the arts in non-arts sectors.
Learn more about these recommended arts research awards. The next Research Awards application deadline is
Tuesday, March 29, 2022. Guidelines and application resources will be posted soon at
arts.gov.
Register for a Research guidelines webinar on February 9, 2022, at 2 p.m.
All of the recommended grants in this announcement were evaluated through the agency’s panel review process. First, applications are submitted for consideration to the agency and staff review them for eligibility and completeness. A panel of experts with knowledge and experience in their respective field then review and score each application in accordance with the published review criteria. Recommendations are then made to the National Council on the Arts. The council makes recommendations to the chair, who makes the final decision on all grant awards. The NEA assembles diverse panels every year with regard to geography, race and ethnicity, and artistic points of view.
Learn more about the grant review process or
volunteer to be a panelist.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the Arts Endowment supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. To learn more, visit
arts.gov or follow us on
Twitter,
Facebook,
Instagram, and
YouTube.
Jamez McCorkle on stage with Malcom MacKenzie. Spoleto Festival USA photo by William Struhs.[/caption]
Omar was composed by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels and awarded "For distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year." It comes with a $15,000 prize.
The 1831 autobiography of Omar ibn Said, a West African scholar uprooted and sold into slavery in Charleston, is the inspiration for Omar.
Opening in Senegal, the opera’s narrative traces Said’s spiritual journey from his life in West Africa to his enslavement in the Carolinas. A Muslim African scholar, Said was 37 years old when he was captured in Futa Toro and brought to Charleston. His story is one of strength, resistance, and religious conviction, a story of truth and of faith.
Upon arrival in the United States, Said was sold to a Charlestonian, but escaped and fled to North Carolina, where he was recaptured, sent to jail, and then resold to James Owen, the brother of one of the state’s governors. Said penned his autobiography in Arabic in 1831. It is considered the only surviving autobiography of an enslaved person in the United States written in Arabic and therefore unedited. According to many scholars, as many as 30 percent of the enslaved Africans who arrived in the colonies, and subsequently the United States, were Muslim, a largely unexplored truth in modern American discussions of slavery.
As the day nears for the 2023 South Carolina Arts Awards, The Hub is focusing on this year's recipients: five receiving the 
Redden was director of the Lincoln Center Festival from 1998 to 2017. He has also served as executive director of the Santa Fe Opera (1991-1995), artistic consultant to Philadelphia’s American Music Theater Festival (1992-1994), and consultant to the chairperson of the New York International Festival of the Arts (1991-1992). He was director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ dance program from 1981 to 1986 and has served on numerous panels for the NEA, regional arts organizations, and various foundations. He is president of the Spaulding-Paolozzi Foundation and serves on the board of South Arts. In 2001 he was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France and was promoted to Commandeur in 2019. He has received honorary doctorates from the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina.
He is currently the project leader for the Anson African Burial Memorial in Charleston which will honor 36 Africans/African Americans buried in the late 18th century whose bodies were disinterred during the renovation of the Charleston Gaillard Center.
The NEA went first, announcing more than $34 million in funding to support the arts nationwide. This is the first of the NEA’s two major grant announcements each fiscal year and includes grants to organizations through the NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects, Challenge America, and Research Awards categories. This announcement also includes grants to individuals for Literature Fellowships in creative writing (poetry) and translation.
Evelyn Berry, a writer from Aiken, was among those latter awards, getting a creative writing fellowship of $25,000. Additional grants awarded in South Carolina include:
Geoff Nuttall, left, performs with the St. Lawrence Quartet at Dock Street Theater in Charleston. William Struhs/Spoleto Festival USA photo provided.[/caption]
“This is a loss not just for Spoleto Festival USA, but for music lovers around the world. Geoff was classical music’s greatest showman, eliciting a rowdy, raucous reception to Haydn that would sound more at home in a club than a concert hall. He didn’t care if people were clapping between movements; he didn’t care that people wore shorts and sandals to performances; he didn’t care for the rigid social formalities that govern classical music performance. All he cared about was the communitarian, cathartic power of music. And because of that, he changed chamber music in America," festival General Director Mena Mark Hanna said in a statement.
Nuttall was claimed by pancreatic cancer and passed away Oct. 19 at his home in California.
Physical theater company Machine de Cirque performs the US premiere of La Galerie at Festival Hall. Photo by Emmanuel Burriel.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_49301" align="alignright" width="300"]
The War and Treaty (shown) performs with Francesco Turrisi at the College of Charleston Cistern Yard as part of the First Citizens Bank Front Row series. Photo courtesy The War and Treaty.[/caption]
Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra and Chorus in concert with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Photo by William Struhs.[/caption]
At the centerpiece of the season is Omar, Spoleto’s world premiere opera with music by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, directed by Kaneza Schaal (May 27, 30, June 2, 5, 8, 12), and conducted by John Kennedy. Expanding the traditional opera canon and providing a platform for marginalized voices, this work is part of a watershed moment that challenges the standard practice and repertoire of opera, questioning how it has been performed and what it can mean today. With a libretto by Giddens, Omar follows the life and autobiography of Omar Ibn Said, an African Muslim scholar who, in 1807, was captured in West Africa and brought to Charleston—a main harbor of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In sharing Omar Ibn Said’s memoir, the opera underscores a largely undiscussed truth: as many as 30 percent of enslaved Africans who arrived in the colonies and the United States were Muslim.
“Within and beyond Omar, Spoleto’s program explores migration—be it forced, exiled, or voluntary. Enslavement is a forced migration, for example. And in looking at our country’s origin points, it’s crucial to include Africa as a key genesis of the United States. That can no longer be ignored,” Hanna said.
These themes distill throughout the program, from jazz and Americana concerts in the College of Charleston Cistern Yard to classical music, dance, and theater performances. Read all about them 
Dael Orlandersmith performs Until the Flood at Festival Hall during Spoleto Festival USA. Photo by Nicholas Hussong.[/caption]
Hanna (right) comes to Spoleto from Berlin’s Barenboim-Said Akademie, where he was Founding Dean. Prior to his tenure in Berlin, he was Assistant Artistic Director at the Houston Grand Opera.
“Mena possesses a depth of knowledge and experience across artistic genres, and also—essential for Spoleto and Charleston—understands and is passionate about the power of artistic expression to bridge differences and bring people together,” said Alicia Gregory, President of the Board of Spoleto Festival USA. “The board is unanimous in Mena’s appointment.”
Writer Maura Hogan asks, "What will the next phase look like?" after several high profile departures dating back to 2019. Among them:
