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Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville Receives Award to Regrant National Endowment for Arts Stimulus Funds
The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help support jobs in local arts and cultural organizations. The Cultural Council was one of only 29 local arts agencies nationwide to receive a grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The award will allow the Council to re-grant funds to support up to 13 local jobs.
“We’re very proud to have been selected through this highly competitive national process,” said Robert Arleigh White, executive director of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. “Our industry has been affected like many others. Local organizations, in many cases, have lost valuable personnel who make Jacksonville a better place to live through their work. These grants will help shore up operational functions which provide direct programming to the public.”
The NEA grants have been awarded to nonprofit cultural organizations to support the preservation of jobs that are threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downtown. More than 2,400 applications were submitted to the NEA, which awarded a total of 631 grants across many artistic disciplines.
Of the 14 grants made in the state of Florida, three of them were awarded to organizations in Duval County. The other grant recipients were the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and the Cathedral Arts Project. “Our success in securing these national dollars makes a strong statement about the value of Jacksonville’s cultural community,” said White.
The purpose of the one-time ARRA award of $250,000 to the Cultural Council is to save jobs in the arts and cultural sector, which has been affected by the economic recession. The funds will be re-granted via a competitive process to organizations already vetted through the Cultural Service Grant Program (CSGP). CSGP, which provides operating support to Duval County’s arts and cultural organizations through funding from the City of Jacksonville, is a rigorous grant program that measures administrative capability, fiscal management, artistic excellence and quality of outreach efforts. By aligning the two grant processes, the Cultural Council will be able to distribute the ARRA funds in an efficient and expeditious manner.
Founded in 1971, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville serves as the local arts agency for Duval County. It works to advance the appreciation and expression of art and culture by increasing community awareness of cultural activities and issues; providing arts education programs; and offering funding and technical assistance to cultural organizations and individual artists.