Almost 30 Ohio arts organizations — including six in Greater Cincinnati — have received federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Grants for Arts Projects program. Three Ohio poets have also received Creative Writing Fellowships, according to a media release from the Ohio Arts Council.
The awards for Ohio organizations totaled $650,000, with grants ranging from $10-$50,000 and each Creative Writing Fellowship awarding $25,000.
Cincinnati organizations accounted for $150,000 of these awards. Six Cincinnati organizations received a grant:
- Cincinnati Ballet-Dance ($10,000)
- Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra-Music ($15,000)
- Cincinnati Opera Association-Opera ($25,000)
- Cincinnati Shakespeare Company-Theatre ($10,000)
- Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra-Music ($40,000)
- Educational Theatre Association-Arts Education ($50,000)
Established in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations and develop their creative capacities.
In January, the Ohio Arts Council recognized 75 artists with individual excellence awards, including three from Hamilton County and two from Butler County. Each artist will receive a portion of the $300,000 grant funding that was recently approved by the OAC board, coming out to about $4000 per artist.
Applications for the next round of National Endowment for the Arts grants closed in February, but applications for the Literature Fellowships, which focus on creative writing in prose (fiction and nonfiction), are open until March 10.
This article appears in Best Of Cincinnati 2021.