American Shakespeare Center receives second NEA grant : Augusta Free Press

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016.

Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $15,000 to the American Shakespeare Center to support the 2016/17 ASC on tour. The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.

“The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Supporting projects like the one from the American Shakespeare Center offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”

“We are so thrilled in our second year of funding to receive increased support from this prestigious program,” said ASC Managing Director Amy Wratchford, “and we recognize that the NEA’s vital investment allows our nation’s arts community to thrive.”

The NEA award is specifically targeted to support the 2016/17 Hungry Hearts Tour, which will include three shows performed in repertory: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov

The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA, recovers the joys and accessibility of Shakespeare’s theatre, language, and humanity by exploring the English Renaissance stage and its practices through performance and education.