Artist Communities Alliance (ACA) is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive a Grants for Arts Projects award of $30,000. This grant is one of 1,251 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling nearly $28.8 million that were announced by the NEA as part of its first round of fiscal year 2023 grants.
"Supporting the development of residency environments, so both artists and the people who power residencies can thrive is at the center of our organization's core values," says Lisa Funderburke, ACA CEO and President. "Like most organizations, since 2020 we've been learning to respond to crises in real-time. This award from the NEA reaffirms our commitment to the field."
Through professional development training, workshops, and resources, the awarded project, "Resilience and Continuity: Supporting ACA and Artist Communities in Preparedness and Incident Management" will help to stabilize and strengthen the resiliency of the artist residency field in the face of ongoing and emerging crises (i.e. pandemic, substance use issues, harassment, and natural disasters). Working with partner organizations whose experience and skills align with field priorities — including mental health first-aid training and certification, trauma-informed training, and creating consent cultures — ACA will deepen its capacity to serve arts residency programs and organizations, building technical skills, knowledge, and preparedness in some of the field’s most urgent areas of concern.
"By launching an expansion of our virtual workshops and professional development offerings, ACA is helping address this critical gap," says Funderburke.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “Projects such as this one with Artist Communities Alliance strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy.”
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
You can read the press release here.