This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
Ridgelines Language Arts, a Centre County nonprofit that teaches language arts, including poetry, creative writing, songwriting and storytelling outside of academic settings, was named the recipient of the ArtsHere grant. The $117,000 grant is a part of a new pilot program from the National Endowment for the Arts.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is thrilled to provide resources to a group of exceptional organizations through ArtsHere, a program to help deepen meaningful and lasting arts engagement in underserved communities,” Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, said in a statement. “Everyone should be able to live an artful life, and ArtsHERE is an important step in ensuring we are strengthening our nation’s arts ecosystem to make this a reality.”
Ridgelines Language Arts is one of four nonprofits in Pennsylvania to be selected from the grant. Nationwide, 112 organizations were selected.
The ArtsHere grant aims to support organizations that show a “commitment to equity within their practices and programming and have undertaken consistent engagement,” according to the National Endowment for the Arts website. The funding is given to help nonprofits “sustain meaningful community engagement and increase arts participation for underserved groups and communities,” a press release from Ridgeline Language Arts explained.
“The ArtsHere grant represents a huge investment in the creative lives of under-heard central Pennsylvanians,” Abby Minor, co-director of Ridgeline Language Arts said. “This funding will help us to significantly invest in professional development for our incredible corps of teaching artists, as well as to recruit and train new teachers, to create new platforms for sharing our students’ work and to strengthen our leadership team.
“Ultimately, this grant will go far in empowering new language artists in the ridges and valleys of central Pennsylvania and ensuring that our region’s language arts run strong with many voices, experiences and imaginations.”
Grant recipients will be given learning opportunities in addition to the funding including quarterly peer learning workshops, monthly cohort sessions and individual meetings with technical assistance coaches and experts.
“We are very excited to work with these organizations on their projects,” said Susie Surkamer, president and CEO of South Arts, one of the partners of the ArtsHere program. “The arts are essential to the fabric of our nation, and at the heart of this necessity are the organizations and individuals who champion them. Through ArtsHERE, we are excited to continue expanding and enriching the arts landscape both nationally and within these unique local communities.”
