NEA Our Town Press Release – July 10, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ellen Lake, ellen@kala.org, 510-841-7000 x. 204, https://www.kala.org
Date: July 10, 2020
Kala Art Institute to Receive $75,000 Our Town Grant From the National Endowment for the Arts
Berkeley, CA— National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter has approved more than $84 million in grants as part of the Arts Endowment’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2020. Included in this announcement is an Our Town award of $75, 000 to Kala Art Institute to support a new phase of Print Public, a public art initiative and partnership with the City of Berkeley launching a municipal artist-in-residence program. This new program invites artists to work alongside city departments on COVID 19 community recovery with a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion. This is one of 51 grants nationwide that the agency has approved in this category.
“These awards demonstrate the resilience of the arts in America, showcasing not only the creativity of their arts projects but the organizations’ agility in the face of a national health crisis,” said Mary Anne Carter, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “We celebrate organizations like Kala Art Institute providing opportunities for learning and engagement through the arts in these times.”
Perrin Meyer, Kala’s Board President notes the timeliness and transformative possibility of this project and is excited about the opportunity to work with the City of Berkeley to start a municipal artist-in-residence program. “Print Public started as innovative cross-disciplinary art projects that push the boundaries of print media in public space and has evolved to include the idea of artists as cultural strategists working both in Kala’s neighborhood and with city government.”
Through Print Public, Kala Art Institute will continue to invest in arts and artists, providing cultural connections along the busy San Pablo Avenue transit corridor in Berkeley and new this year we will open applications for artists to apply for the pilot municipal artist-in-residence program with the City of Berkeley, with a focus on community recovery and equitable engagement in the midst of the pandemic.
For more information on this National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news
Image from installation of Susan O’Malley’s BE YOU banner along San Pablo Avenue
About Kala: Kala is a vital community hub for artistic experimentation. Located in West Berkeley, Kala annually serves 125+ artist-in-residence and offers workshops open to the public in techniques ranging from letterpress to lithography, photography and media arts. Kala’s youth art programs nurture the next generation of creative problem-solvers and reach 2,500 students in Alameda County public schools and through on-site youth art programs. In addition to core residency and education programs, Kala provides professional development opportunities for artists including commissions for new work, exhibitions, teaching, consulting, and art sales. With access to a wide array of traditional and digital equipment in the print studio and electronic media center, Kala fosters a fresh approach to artistic experimentation, as Kala artists investigate the interface of digital work, work made by hand, and everything in between. To learn more about Kala, please visit our website, https://www.kala.org