Last week we posted the strange fact that Kickstarter had provided more artist funding that the National Endowment for the Arts. While that remains true, at least the NEA is moving in the right direction. They just announced that they will be awarding grants to 59 applicants out of a pool of 254 eligible applicants for its "Our Town" program.
The organization will provide a total of $4.725 million dollars with individual grants ranging between $25,000 and $200,000, with the average being $50,000. A team of 25 panelists chose applicants across various parts of the country, across 14 different disciplines from Opera to Design and Folk Art. One of the lucky recepients (and the only from New York City) is an organization called Groundswell whose "Transform/Restore: Brownsville” project will receive $100,000 to give kids on probation the opportunity and supplies to create murals in Brooklyn and give back to their community.
While $5 million sounds like chump change compared to the hundreds of millions supplied through Kickstarter, the impact is real and these 59 projects will contribute great and meaningful art to their respective communities.
RELATED: Kickstarter Provides More Funding for Artists than the NEA
