August 31, 2020

$1,536,000 Awarded in US Regional Arts Resilience Fund Grants

By Margaret A. Keough

A group of dancers perform against a blue background

Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) is pleased to announce twenty-seven grantees receiving funding from the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund within the six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

A program created through collaboration with our five sister US Regional Arts Organizations, Arts Midwest, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts, and Western States Arts Federation, the USRARF was funded through a $10 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and amplified in the Mid-America region through additional funding from The Windgate Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas for visual arts organizations. The grant amounts range between $30,000 and $100,000, a significant investment supporting the resilience of small to mid-sized arts organizations that are led by or supporting communities of color, rural communities, and historically underresourced populations, in response to the impact of COVID-19.

“We are honored to provide this critical support to these extraordinary arts organizations within the Mid-America region,” said Mid-America Arts Alliance President and CEO Todd Stein. “In focusing on organizations led by or supporting communities of color and rural communities, we reinforce the importance of these organizations and their vital role within our arts ecosystems. The arts have the power to unite, uplift, and propel our region forward, and it is a crucial need to fund these organizations that are often overlooked and historically underresourced.”

The United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund provides non-matching grants to arts and cultural organizations across the US that face economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund targets rural and urban organizations that have statewide, regional, or national impact. These grants support small and mid-sized arts organizations of all artistic disciplines, especially those that are historically underresourced, and those representing underresourced populations, communities, and art forms. The grants support expenses associated with general operations, immediate response activities, future scenario planning, support for new media needs, help with the costs of collaborations, and costs associated with helping organizations reimagine their work and increase their resilience. M-AAA acknowledges the close collaborative partnership with the Arkansas Arts Council, Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, Missouri Arts Council, Nebraska Arts Council, Oklahoma Arts Council, and the Texas Commission on the Arts and their advocacy for and understanding of the importance of these crucial funds to support rural and underresourced organizations across the region.

Here is the list of grantees.

American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; $50,000
Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Arkansas; $75,000
Black Archives of Mid-America, Kansas City, Missouri; $30,000
Black Liberated Arts Center, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; $30,000
Cara Mía Theatre Company, Dallas, Texas; $65,000
Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas, Texas; $85,000
Dance of Asian America, Houston, Texas; $40,000
DeltaARTS, West Memphis, Arkansas; $50,000
El Museo Latino, Omaha, Nebraska; $50,000
The Ensemble Theatre, Houston, Texas; $75,000
Greenwood Cultural Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma; $100,000
InterUrban ArtHouse, Overland Park, Kansas; $65,115
Kansas African American Museum, Wichita, Kansas; $40,000
Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Texas; $75,000
Mid-America All-Indian Center Museum, Wichita, Kansas; $30,000
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, San Antonio, Texas; $65,000
National Blues Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; $65,000
Nebraska Writers Collective, Omaha, Nebraska; $40,000
Norman Arts and Humanities Council, Norman, Oklahoma; $65,000
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; $50,000
Prison Performing Arts, St. Louis, Missouri; $33,375
Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas; $85,000
Salina Art Center, Salina, Kansas; $40,000
SAY Sí, San Antonio, Texas; $63,900
St. Louis ArtWorks, St. Louis, Missouri; $63,610
Teatro Dallas, Dallas, Texas; $30,000
Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska; $75,000

(Pictured: Dallas Black Dance Theatre, photo by Amitava Sarkar.)

Margaret A. Keough Staff Writer

Margaret A. Keough is M-AAA's first Director of Advocacy, working to strengthen our region's arts and creativity sector through advocacy. For more than 30 years, she served in marketing and communications roles at M-AAA, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Keough holds undergraduate degrees in art history and advertising from the University of Kansas and a master’s in business administration from Rockhurst University.