Wichita Receives NEA ‘Our Town’ Grant for Cultural Arts

On Thursday, May 25, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that the City of Wichita has been approved for a $75,000 award in support of “A City Where I Belong: A Toolkit for Artists.” This is one of 57 grants nationwide, totaling $4,175,000, that the NEA has approved in the ‘Our Town’ category. These placemaking grants support projects that integrate arts, culture and design activities into local efforts to strengthen and authentically engage communities in order to advance local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes in communities.

The City’s Division of Arts and Cultural Services will partner with Harvester Arts for “A City Where I Belong” to gather community partners and individual artists to analyze and interpret the City’s RFP and percent for art processes, create an accessible toolkit for local artists to participate in public projects and deploy temporary art engagements that collect feedback from the public.

“This funding opportunity will be used to create a public artist toolkit that will expand access and address barriers to enter the public art field for artists,” said City of Wichita Director of Arts and Cultural Services Lindsay Benacka. “We are excited to partner with Harvester Arts for this project to help ensure that local artists are able to participate in the City’s Percent for Art program and grow the City’s public art collection.”

“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects, including “A City Where I Belong,” demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “These organizations play an important role in advancing the creative vitality of our nation and helping to ensure that all people can benefit from arts, culture, and design.”

For more information on the projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.