A Great Nation Deserves Great Art.

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20506-0001

(202) 682-5400

www.arts.gov
The National Endowment for the Arts is the largest 

annual funder of the arts in the United States. An independent 

federal agency, the NEA is the official arts organization of the 

United States government, dedicated to supporting excellence 

in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all 

Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.
Dear Mr. President:

It is my pleasure to submit the Annual Report of the National Endowment 

for the Arts for Fiscal Year 2004. 

Since its establishment in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts has 

awarded approximately 125,000 grants to organizations and artists residing 

in all 50 states and the six U.S. jurisdictions, in communities large and small. 

The activities highlighted in this report illustrate the National Endowment 

for the Arts’ continuing commitment to a nation in which artistic excellence is

celebrated, supported, and available to all Americans. 

Sincerely,

Dana Gioia

Chairman

2004 ANNUAL REPORT iii

Chairman’s Statement 1

National Initiatives 8

State & Regional Partnerships 15

Lifetime Honors 18

National Medal of Arts 19

NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships 20

NEA National Heritage Fellowships 22

Grant Highlights 24

State-by-State listing

Literature Fellowships 128

National Council on the Arts 134

Financial Summary 137

Appropriations History 139

Credits 140

Table of Contents

Eric Fennell and Leah Partridge star 

in Opera North’s production of Charles

Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet as part of 

A Festival of Shakespeare in Song in

Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Photo by Carl S. Brandon
NEA National Heritage Fellow 

Nati Cano’s Mariachi Los Camperos

perform at the 2004 Smithsonian 

Folklife Festival as part of the series of

evening concerts sponsored by the NEA.

Photo by Jim Saah
Most important, the Arts Endowment made enormous

progress in strengthening the core mission set at 

the beginning of my term—to support excellence 

in the arts, bring the arts to all Americans, and 

provide leadership in arts education. The results 

have been impressive:

l Nearly 50 million Americans were reached by NEA

grants in FY 2004—not counting television and radio

broadcasts, which reach additional millions. 

l Nearly 4,000 communities throughout the 

country benefited from Arts Endowment support

through both direct grants and touring/outreach

projects. 

l Grants supported an estimated 30,000 concerts,

readings, and performances, and about 4,000

exhibitions, enabling approximately 160,000 artists

to share their work through NEA-supported projects.

l NEA grants provided support for more than 10,000

artist residencies in schools and other locations. 

l Approximately three million children and youth 

were expected to benefit from our Learning in 

the Arts efforts alone. 

In FY 2004, we made a substantial impact on the

cultural life of the country, as this annual report 

will demonstrate. We have expanded the agency’s 

reach, especially in underserved communities, 

through our National Initiatives and Challenge 

America grants. We have expanded our commitment 

to arts education with new nationwide programs, 

such as the Summer Schools in the Arts project. 

The NEA also has identified issues of concern to the

nation, such as the decline in literary reading as

documented in our research report, Reading at Risk. 

Chairman’s Statement

CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 1 Photo by Vance Jacobs

F

iscal Year 2004 represented a year of growth 

and renewal for the National Endowment for the

Arts. Through the appropriations process, the

budget increased by more than $5 million over the FY03

level, and the agency received an unprecedented $1

million from the Department of Defense to bring theater

to military bases. 
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

We have addressed accessibility needs such as arts

programming for older Americans. All these activities

lead toward the NEA’s goal of fostering a nation in

which artistic excellence is celebrated, supported, 

and made available to all Americans. 

BUDGET

Our appropriation in FY 2004 was $120,971,000. Of this

total appropriation, approximately $40 million went to

our important partners, state arts agencies and regional 

arts organizations.

In 2004, the NEA once again funded the Challenge

America initiative, with more than $20 million going

toward bringing the arts to underserved communities

throughout the country and better serving the

Challenge America goal of providing artistic excellence

and extensive outreach. 

The Endowment provided grants to arts organizations 

of all sizes, in all areas of the country, in all disciplines.

In FY 2004, the NEA awarded more than $102 million in

funding, totaling more than 2,100 grants. These include

not only the Challenge America grants and partnership

agreements with state arts agencies and regional arts

organizations, but grants to organizations in creativity,

heritage and preservation, arts on radio and television,

arts learning, and services to arts organizations and

artists; fellowships for creative writing in prose and

translation; and lifetime achievement awards in jazz

(the NEA Jazz Masters Award) and the folk arts (the

NEA National Heritage Fellowship).

EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS

The NEA has worked toward supporting access to art 

of the highest quality to Americans and showcasing 

the cultural diversity and distinction of the country.

One such grant was $22,000 to the Eastman Memorial

Foundation in Laurel, Mississippi. The grant was to

support the exhibition, Sam Gilliam: Folded and Hinged,

at the Baton Rouge Arts and Science Center and the

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel. Sam Gilliam is

one of the most inventive colorists of the past 30 years

and arguably the most prominent African American

abstract painter working today. Received

enthusiastically by both the press and public, the Laurel

exhibit was Gilliam’s first show in his native Mississippi.

Grants such as this are highlighted throughout this

report, showing some of the stellar art the NEA is

supporting in every state in the country. 

NATIONAL INITIATIVES

NEA Jazz Masters

The Arts Endowment also has created several National

Initiatives that support excellence in the arts. One

builds on a program that has been one of NEA’s premier

lifetime achievement awards: NEA Jazz Masters. In

addition to expanding the program in terms of number

and amount of awards, the Arts Endowment added

special components that together bring a higher 

profile to this extraordinary American art form and 

help to ensure its continued existence, evolution, 

and excellence. These include the NEA Jazz Masters 

on Tour, a series of presentations featuring NEA Jazz

Masters in performances, educational activities, 

and/or speaking engagements for audiences in all 50

states that will run through 2006; NEA Jazz in the

Schools, an educational resource for high school

2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
teachers of social studies, U.S. history, and music,

including a five-unit, Web-based curriculum and DVD

toolkit, developed in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln

Center and supported by the Verizon Foundation; 

and radio and television programming in partnership

with National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting

System.

Shakespeare in American Communities

A National Initiative begun in 2003, Shakespeare in

American Communities continued providing high quality

theater programming throughout the country with

support from The Sallie Mae Fund and in partnership

with Arts Midwest. In 2004, the initiative, through an

unprecedented partnership with the Department of

Defense, provided Shakespeare performances on military

bases, the first such outreach for the agency. The

Alabama Shakespeare Festival performed Macbeth on 13

military bases in 11 states, with an additional three

companies performing on five bases in three states. 

NEA Arts Journalism Institutes

The arts do not survive alone; they depend on lively

and informed criticism, especially on the local level.

That is why the Endowment has funded the NEA Arts

Journalism Institutes, a new National Initiative in

2004. Aimed primarily at journalists from outside of

major cities, the initiative provides crucial professional

development not ordinarily available to journalists in

smaller communities. These institutes in the disciplines

of dance, classical music, opera, and theater provide

performances, lectures, and seminars with leaders in

higher education, the arts, and journalism to improve

participants’ ability to analyze and write about the arts. 

Operation Homecoming

In another partnership with the Department of Defense,

and with support from The Boeing Company, the NEA

created Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime

Experience. This new National Initiative provides writing

workshops for U.S. military personnel and their families

by nationally known writers—novelists, poets,

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 3

1990 NEA Jazz

Master Gerald

Wilson leads his

orchestra during the

NEA Jazz Masters

ceremony and

concert in Long

Beach, California.

Photo by Vance Jacobs
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

historians, and journalists—at various military bases

throughout the country (and in four foreign countries).

The workshops will occur at 20 bases in at least ten

states in 2004-2005. 

More on all the National Initiatives can be found 

in the National Initiatives section of this report.

ACCESS TO THE ARTS

Bringing art to military bases is just one illustration of

the Arts Endowment’s commitment to provide better

access to the arts for underserved communities. In FY

2004, the NEA awarded a direct grant in 433 of 435

Congressional districts in the country—the broadest

reach in the agency’s history. 

The major funding mechanism for providing access to

the arts to all Americans is Challenge America. These

grants offer support primarily to small and mid-sized

organizations for projects that extend the reach of the

arts to underserved populations. In Brevard, North

Carolina, for example, a town of fewer than 7,000

people, an NEA Challenge America grant of $10,000 to

the Brevard College Corporation helped support the A

Little Now Music festival, which presented a series of

concerts, lectures, and school presentations for town

residents in 2004.

Challenge America grants also serve to enhance and

invigorate the arts and culture already embedded in 

the community. The NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to the Northern Tier Cultural Alliance in

Mansfield, Pennsylvania supported the Forest Heritage

Intergenerational Project, in which traditional artists

and Native American community residents shared their

art with the community in workshops, storytelling

sessions, visits to artists’ studios, and performances.

In addition, the NEA works in myriad ways to 

provide the greatest access to the most Americans. 

In Washington, DC, the Arts Endowment has worked

with fellow agencies such as the Library of Congress

and the Smithsonian Institution to support arts events,

such as the Poetry Pavilion of the National Book

Festival, held every fall since its inception by Mrs. Laura

Bush in 2001. In 2004, with NEA support, the Poetry

Pavilion featured poets William Jay Smith, Suji Kwock

Kim, and United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser,

among others. 

As part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, held 

every summer to highlight the folk and cultural arts of

various regions of the country and world, the NEA in

2004 sponsored a series of evening concerts of NEA

National Heritage Fellows. In keeping with the theme 

of the festival, the NEA Fellows were artists working in

the Latino/Hispanic traditions, such as mariachi master

Nati Cano, Puerto Rican percussionist Juan Gutiérrez,

and New Mexican musicians Robert and Lorenzo

Martínez. 

Actor/writer Stephen Lang greets Senator Daniel Inouye

(Hawaii) after a special Operation Homecoming performance 

of Lang’s one–man play Beyond Glory on Capitol Hill.

Photo by Steven Purcell
LEARNING IN THE ARTS

Ensuring that future generations of Americans enjoy

and appreciate the arts is an important goal of the

NEA. Through its grants and National Initiatives, the

Arts Endowment has been supporting arts education

projects in every part of the nation. 

NEA Jazz in the Schools, part of the NEA Jazz Masters

National Initiative mentioned previously, will provide a

better understanding of this indigenous art form, 

one that is such an important part of our American

history, by integrating jazz into social studies curricula. 

Shakespeare for a New Generation

Arts education is the main component of another

National Initiative, the second phase of Shakespeare 

in American Communities: Shakespeare for a New

Generation, which tours exclusively to middle and 

high schools. By the end of 2005, the Shakespeare in

American Communities initiative will have engaged 47

theater companies to tour more than 550 communities

and approximately 900 high schools in all 50 states,

and 18 military bases. The program aims to bring one

million students to a live, professional production of

Shakespeare. For most of these students, these

performances will be their first experience with

professional theater.

The tour also includes artistic and technical workshops,

symposia about the productions, and educational

programs in local schools. The Arts Endowment has

developed an educational resource package of

exceptional quality that is available free to teachers. 

It includes a teacher’s manual, recitation booklet,

brochure for students, timeline poster, audio CD,

educational video, and bookmarks. Using these

materials and events, we are helping to integrate

Shakespeare into the arts education programs of our

middle and high school students. More on Shakespeare

in American Communities can be found in the National

Initiatives section of this report.

An additional offshoot of the Shakespeare in American

Communities initiative was Shakespeare Comes to LA, a

program in partnership with Shakespeare Festival/LA,

which brought professional Shakespeare productions and

educational activities to stages and schools throughout

the Los Angeles metropolitan area. This special festival

offered free performances and workshops to the more

than 70,000 students in Los Angeles schools during the

summer months. 

Summer Schools in the Arts

In 2004, the NEA announced a new arts education

initiative, Summer Schools in the Arts. Ten sites in ten

states received grants for the pilot phase of the

initiative to support summer learning programs in the

arts. Each site will measure students’ gains in artistic

CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 5

Poet Suji Kwock Kim (2002 NEA Literature Fellow) reads at the

NEA–sponsored 2nd Annual Poetry Pavilion, part of the National

Book Festival in Washington, DC.

Photo by Jim Saah
knowledge based on national and state standards.

Additional goals are to enhance the students’ study

habits and create a life-long interest in the arts. In

Boise, Idaho, for example, the Log Cabin Literary Center

managed the Writing Camp at the Fort Hall ShoshoneBannock Reservation in which students interacted with

tribal elders and explored natural sites to develop their

creative writing skills. 

The Arts Endowment will use the results of the pilot

program to expand the initiative in 2005 and document

effective practices in the teaching of art. Twenty-five

sites will be included in the 2005 Summer Schools in

the Arts. 

The Arts Endowment created a new arts education 

tool in 2004 for parents and caregivers: Imagine:

Introducing Your Child to the Arts. This new issue of 

the 1997 NEA publication revises and updates the

previous edition’s material and includes activities 

and suggestions in literature, dance, music, theater,

visual arts, folk arts, and media arts aimed specifically

at children ages 3-8 years old.

Also included is a pull-out

guide of arts activities that

parents and children can do

together. 

RESEARCH

The NEA funds research that

examines various aspects of

the arts to provide a better understanding of the arts

world and to broaden the conversation about American

culture. In 2004, the NEA released Reading at Risk: A

Survey of Literary Reading in America, a comprehensive

survey that suggested, for the first time in modern

history, that less than half of the U.S. adult population

now reads literature. The report presented a detailed

assessment of the decline of reading’s role in the

nation’s culture. The report can be summarized in a

single sentence: literary reading in America is not only

declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of

decline has accelerated, especially among the young.

Reading at Risk is not a collection of anecdotes,

theories, or opinions. It is a descriptive survey of

national trends in adult literary reading. Based on an

enormous sample size of more than 17,000 adults, it

covers most major demographic groups—providing

statistical measurements by age, gender, education,

income, region, race, and ethnicity. 

The data source for Reading at Risk was the NEA’s

Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, which was

conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, spanning

20 years of polling. While not every measurement of

CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

Malvolio (Tim Choate) is duped into fancying himself an object 

of romantic fantasies as his concealed detractors Sir Toby Belch

(Harold Surratt), Fabian (Will Beinbrink) and Sir Andrew

Aguecheek (Bryan Cogman) listen in on his musings in

Shakespeare Festival/LA’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth

Night, directed by Jason King Jones, as part of the NEA’s

Shakespeare Comes to LA program.

Photo by Craig Schwartz
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

reading was built into the study, the report provides so

much data in such detail that it constitutes a

comprehensive factual basis for any informed

discussion of current American reading habits.

ARTS AND ACCESSIBILITY 

The NEA also has continued championing accessibility

issues through the activities of our Office for

AccessAbility. Over the past four years, the NEA has

funded a study to measure and evaluate the effects

that professional arts programming has on the quality

of life of older adults. The study measured the mental

and physical health, as well as social activity, of 300

older people from ages 65 to 99 at arts centers in

Brooklyn, San Francisco, and the Washington, DC

metropolitan area. The preliminary final report of this

study, Creativity and Aging, highlighted some

interesting results. Participants who were actively

involved in high-quality arts programs reported better

overall health, more energy, and increased involvement

in social activities than those in the non-arts control

group. In addition, arts participants reported lower

levels of loneliness and higher morale than their

counterparts. As Dr. Gene Cohen, primary investigator

for the study, pointed out, “These findings are indeed

remarkable in the amount of stabilization and

improvement observed in those with an average age 

of 80 who are engaged in arts programs.” 

EXPANDING OUR REACH

The NEA is continuing to evolve as an agency, and

continuing to find new resources and new partnerships.

On the state and regional level, the Arts Endowment is

now working with regional arts organizations on several

National Initiatives. On the federal level, an innovative

relationship with the Department of Defense has led 

to two important initiatives for our troops and their

families. And in the private sector, important funding

from corporations not normally known for their arts

support—The Boeing Company, The Sallie Mae Fund,

and Verizon—has sponsored projects and provided

educational materials to hundreds of thousands 

of Americans.

This report provides examples of projects the NEA 

has supported in every state, projects representing 

the vast array of lively, rich, and diverse art being

created in this country. It demonstrates the NEA’s

ability to provide much-needed support to small arts

communities like Topeka, Kansas as well as larger ones

like New York City, to partner with small as well as 

large organizations. Our motto—A great nation

deserves great art—includes the entire nation, and 

it is our goal to bring great art to every community. 

Dana Gioia

Chairman

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 7

The NEA-sponsored study, Creativity and Aging, showed that arts

activities, such as Susie Robinson of the CEYA Poetry Ensemble

rehearsing with guitarist Paul Finocchiaro (pictured), make older

adults happier and healthier. 

Photo by Chenoa Estrada
Macbeth (Jake Waid) meets Assassin Wolf

(Shadow Hotch) in Perseverance Theatre’s

production of Macbeth, set in the context of

southeast Alaska’s indigenous Tlingit culture

and performed by an all-Native Alaskan cast

as part of the NEA’s Shakespeare in American

Communities initiative. 

Photo by Eric Torgerson
2004 ANNUAL REPORT 9

SHAKESPEARE IN 

AMERICAN COMMUNITIES

The National Endowment for the Arts created

Shakespeare in American Communities to introduce a

new generation of audiences to the greatest playwright

in the English language. In partnership with regional

arts organization Arts Midwest, which administered the

initiative, the NEA helped create new audiences and a

new appreciation for live theater and Shakespeare.

The first phase of touring, supported by The Sallie Mae

Fund, involved seven professional theater companies,

which provided more than 270 performances to

audiences in all 50 states. Touring concluded in

November 2004, having brought live Shakespeare to

more than 190,000 Americans, primarily in small and

mid-sized communities. These activities included 

an unprecedented tour to military bases in September

and October 2004 in partnership with the Department

of Defense, which provided $1 million for this part 

of the initiative.

Alabama Shakespeare Festival conducted the major 

part of the military base tour, bringing Macbeth to 

13 military bases in 11 states. Their performance of 

the Scottish play, which included garbing the actors 

in kilts, was met with widespread enthusiasm at every

performance. In addition, five military bases in three

National Initiatives

NATIONAL INITIATIVES

Now in their second year, NEA National

Initiatives continue to grow in number and in

individual scope. These are programs that,

unlike our direct grants, have a national focus. Like our

direct grant programs, however, they are done in

partnership with local communities, arts organizations,

and presenters. These programs frequently target

communities and constituencies that otherwise would

not be accessible to them. In FY 2004, four National

Initiatives were underway: Shakespeare in American

Communities, NEA Jazz Masters, Operation

Homecoming, and NEA Arts Journalism Institutes.
NATIONAL INITIATIVES

1 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

states were served by other theater companies as part

of the first phase of the initiative.

Beginning in September 2004, the second phase of 

the initiative was launched, Shakespeare for a New

Generation, focusing primarily on reaching middle and

high school students. By May 2005, the 21 selected

companies will have provided as many as 930

performances of more than 15 Shakespeare plays.

Companies such as the Utah Shakespearean Festival

exemplify the ambitious reach of the initiative. This

company alone will tour to four states and provide

almost 50 school performances under the banner of

Shakespeare for a New Generation. Funding from the

Arts Endowment has allowed Utah Shakespearean

Festival to expand its regular touring activities to

include additional small, rural communities in Idaho,

Arizona, the Navajo Nation, and Nevada. In addition,

students at each school have the opportunity to

participate in workshops on text, voice, movement, 

and improvisation.

In Alaska, performances by Perseverance Theatre are an

exceptional example of the universality of Shakespeare’s

work. Perseverance’s production of Macbeth was set in

the context of southeast Alaska’s indigenous Tlingit

culture and performed by an all-Native Alaskan cast.

This unique production reached nearly 4,000 middle

and high school students in remote areas of Alaska.

As an additional educational component of the

initiative, the Arts Endowment has developed and

distributed 25,000 multimedia educational toolkits 

to teachers across the United States, enhancing the

educational experience of Shakespeare for millions 

of students with films, recitation contests, and 

teacher lesson plans. 

NEA JAZZ MASTERS

Established in 1982, the NEA Jazz Masters awards

annually elevates a select number of living jazz artists

to its ranks, conferring on them the nation’s highest

honor for this uniquely American art form. In 2004,

Chairman Gioia launched a major expansion of the

program, celebrating the NEA Jazz Masters and the art

of jazz through an awards ceremony and television

broadcast, recordings, radio programs, and NEA Jazz

Masters performances. 

For the first time, the NEA Jazz Masters awards

ceremony and concert was broadcast nationally. BET

and BET Jazz aired the 2004 ceremony and concert 

five times in April 2004 as part of Jazz Appreciation

Month. In addition, the Verve Music Group issued a

commemorative two-CD set of recordings with

selections from the NEA Jazz Masters (1982 to 2004) 

in January 2004. 

As part of the new National Initiative portion of the

NEA Jazz Masters program, in 2004 the Endowment

inaugurated NEA Jazz Masters on Tour. This touring

component of the NEA Jazz Masters program is

intended to bring NEA Jazz Masters to all 50 states.

Each engagement includes educational activities,

ranging from master classes and lecture-demonstrations

to meet-the-artist sessions. The first phase of the tour,

co-sponsored with the Doris Duke Charitable

Foundation, began in spring 2004 and included events

in 13 states and the District of Columbia. The second

phase, through a partnership with Arts Midwest and

with support from Verizon, will bring jazz to the

remaining states over the next two years. 

In 2005, two innovative parts of the initiative will be

added: a radio show, Jazz Profiles, in partnership with
2004 ANNUAL REPORT 1 1

National Public Radio, and an episode of a new

television series, Legends of Jazz. Both programs 

are being supported by Verizon. Jazz Profiles is a series

of 14 hour-long documentaries on NEA Jazz Masters

that will air in spring 2005 on more than 100 NPR

member stations. NEA Jazz Master Nancy Wilson hosts

the program. Legends of Jazz is 13 weekly 30-minute

episodes on jazz, combining live performance, intimate

conversation, and archival material on the memorable

people and events in jazz. Hosted by noted jazz

pianist and radio personality Ramsey Lewis (and based

on his radio series of the same name), the program

will have a special one-hour feature in June 2005 on

NEA Jazz Masters. 

A new arts education program will be added to the 

NEA Jazz Masters initiative as well: NEA Jazz in the

Schools. This educational resource for high school

teachers of social studies, U.S. history, and music is a

five-unit, Web-based curriculum and DVD toolkit that

explores jazz as an indigenous American art form and 

as a means to understand American history. The

curriculum is produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center and

supported by a $100,000 grant from the Verizon

Foundation. The complete kit and curriculum will 

be available in fall 2005. 

Jazz singer Dee Dee

Bridgewater performs at

the NEA Jazz Masters

ceremony and concert in

Long Beach, California.

Photo by Vance Jacobs
NATIONAL INITIATIVES

1 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

OPERATION HOMECOMING

Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime

Experience, a program for U.S. military personnel and

their families, documents the thoughts and reflections

of our troops—in their own words—during the time of

their service. Through an unprecedented partnership

with the Department of Defense and with support from

The Boeing Company, the initiative provides writing

workshops by nationally known writers—novelists,

poets, historians, and journalists—at domestic and

overseas military bases representing all four branches 

of the U.S. armed services. The workshops will occur 

at 20 bases located in ten states and territories, as 

well as four foreign countries, in 2004-2005.

The Web site established for the program,

www.OperationHomecoming.org, contains educational

articles and literary video and audio clips to help the

troops develop their writing skills. In addition, the Arts

Endowment has produced an accompanying audio CD

that explores the variety of literary responses by

previous generations of American troops. More than

13,000 copies have been distributed to military bases,

Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, Armed Forces

YMCAs, public libraries, troops across the world, and 

the American public. 

The best writing emerging from this initiative will be

published in a nationally promoted anthology that will

be sold in bookstores and distributed free by the Arts

Endowment to military installations, schools, and

libraries. The anthology is scheduled to be published in

2006; those works not chosen for the anthology will be

housed in an existing permanent government archive

for use by future generations of historians and citizens.

The program has received more than 1,500 submissions

containing 10,000 pages of writing.

The response to the program has been overwhelming.

Here are a few examples of the letters received:

Author Richard Bausch at a Operation Homecoming workshop at Fort Drum, New York in June 2004.

Photo by Betty Doherty, US Army MWR
NATIONAL INITIATIVES

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 1 3

From an Army Reservist in Iraq:

“I am an Army Reservist, called to duty for one year.

Without the reserves, this war could not be pulled off. I 

think my essay reflects the hardships that many citizen

soldiers endure when they leave their lives behind to 

serve. It’s an important story that should be told and I

hope you will use my piece to tell it.”

From a recently retired Army veteran in Texas:

“Writing about those things that we combat veterans

keep locked up inside is tremendously cathartic. I lost 

my creative voice after Mogadishu; putting things into

perspective took a long time, especially without any

encouragement or understanding. Thank you again for

this project.”

The NEA is extending its Operation Homecoming

initiative with Operation Homecoming: Beyond Glory, 

a tour of the one-man play Beyond Glory, adapted and

performed by Stephen Lang, to more than 25 overseas

and domestic military installations beginning in May

2005. Adapted by Lang from Larry Smith’s book, Beyond

Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words, this

acclaimed production features the stories of eight

veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam,

including Admiral James Stockdale and Senator Daniel

Inouye. By presenting the military audiences of today

with the recollections of decorated veterans, the

Operation Homecoming tour of Beyond Glory 

encourages service men and women to preserve 

the stories of their own wartime experiences.

NEA ARTS JOURNALISM INSTITUTES

In June 2004, the NEA established three NEA Arts

Journalism Institutes to address a chronic problem

throughout the country: the lack of quality arts

criticism in the press. The institutes’ focus is on

improving arts criticism in classical music, opera,

theater, and dance. The institutes are designed for

journalists who cover the arts for print and broadcast

outlets located mostly outside the country’s largest

media markets, where professional development

opportunities are limited. Institutes for dance critics

will be hosted by the American Dance Festival (ADF) at

Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; for classical

music and opera critics at Columbia University in New

York City; and for theater and musical theater critics 

at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. 

A pilot program for the Institutes was held in 2003 

for dance critics at the American Dance Festival. The

success of that program encouraged Chairman Gioia 

to expand the program into a National Initiative that

addressed additional disciplines in additional locations.

The NEA provided $1 million to fund the first two years

of the program. Each Institute will offer a two- or

three-week program each year for up to 30 attendees

and cover the participants’ expenses. 

The first Institute was held June 18 to July 13, 2004,

for dance critics at the American Dance Festival. Nine

Fellows of the NEA Arts Journalism Institute at Columbia

University in October 2004.

Photo by Matt Peiken
NATIONAL INITIATIVES

1 4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

critics from six states and Dublin, Ireland spent three

weeks at ADF in North Carolina attending performances,

classes, seminars, and panel discussions focusing on

the history of dance and dance criticism, as well as the

function and responsibility of the dance critic today.

Participants heightened their awareness and sharpened

their observation skills through movement sessions, and

gained practical knowledge by writing reviews and

participating in analytical discussions. “It not only

gives critics the opportunity to exchange ideas about

dance writing,” said Suzanne Carbonneau, project

director, “but also, by virtue of its setting at the

American Dance Festival, to take a crash course in 

the contemporary dance world itself.” 

Columbia University’s Institute took place October 18 

to 28, 2004, drawing 25 critics from 20 states. Sessions

included history, concepts, and current practices in

classical music and opera, as well as classical 

music journalism. Evenings were spent attending

performances, and then writing reviews for discussion

in next day sessions. One participant, Erin Auerbach 

of The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California, said, “I

was a participant in the program, and I learned more

about classical music and opera in two weeks than I

did in my formal education. (I hold a master’s degree 

in Theater Arts and I trained classically as a singer 

for many years.)”

The third Institute took place at USC in Los Angeles

February 21 to March 4, 2005 for 25 critics from 21

states. The sessions were broken into four modules:

basic elements of dramatic production; instruction in

the basic skills of producing thoughtful, intelligent

theater reviews; informal discussions with leading

professionals and faculty members; and attendance at

theater performances. “Better informed and trained

theater critics will offer audiences beyond our largest

urban centers more exciting choices for cultural

participation and appreciation,” said Michael Parks,

director of USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism.

In just 18 months since the first pilot program in 

2003 to the March 2005 Institute in theater and

musical theater, 71 writers from 58 cities, 38 states,

and two foreign countries have participated in the

Institutes. Three papers were so enthused by the

Institutes that they had two different staff writers

attend two Institutes. This initiative will help

communities across the country benefit from

substantially enhanced writing about the arts. 
An example of these partnerships is Mississippi Arts

Commission’s Whole Schools Initiative, which promotes

quality teaching and learning by integrating arts into

the curriculum at 20 public schools throughout the

state. In support of this program, more than 284 artists

and teachers participate in a week-long Summer

Institute with intensive seminars on incorporating arts

into standard curricula, hands-on arts workshops, and

site visits to local arts organizations. 

Another example is the Virgin Islands Council on the

Arts, which used its partnership grant to fund outreach

programs such as choir, art classes, and

cultural dance presentations to more

STATE AND REGIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

S

ince its beginnings in 1965, the Arts

Endowment has been a partner to thousands of

arts organizations, agencies, and artists. Our

entire mission of supporting excellence in the arts, both

new and established, and bringing the arts to all

Americans is achieved through our partnerships. Among

the most critical of these partnerships are those we

have enjoyed with 50 state arts agencies (SAAs), six

jurisdictional arts agencies, and six regional arts

organizations (RAOs). 

Forty percent of the Arts Endowment’s funding is

distributed among those agencies and

organizations. Through this

federal funding mechanism, we

are able to support projects

that are meaningful to

local communities, while at

the same time leveraging

financial support from

other sources.

State and Regional Partnerships

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 1 5

Tammy Farrens of Davenport School of

the Arts in Florida and D.D. Ward of

Laurel High School in Mississippi

present their version of Little Red Riding

Hood during a storytelling workshop at

the Mississippi Arts Commission’s

Whole Schools Summer Institute.

Photo by Shelley Powers
STATE AND REGIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

1 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

than 500 students at area schools, as well as “A Summit

on St. John Musical Traditions,” at which more than

200 community members participated in performances

and lectures honoring the music and cultural practices

of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Regional arts organizations (RAOs) were created by

state arts leaders, in partnership with the Arts

Endowment and the private sector, to transcend state

boundaries and give the public access to a greater and

richer variety of arts experiences. A critical role of the

RAOs is to make excellent dance, theater, musical

theater, opera, and literature presentations available in

underserved communities. 

One of the ways RAOs do this is through the NEA

Regional Touring program, which helps bring highquality performing artists and companies to

communities across the country with the help of

federal, state, and private funds. Through a partnership

of the NEA with the six regional arts organizations, the

program provides assistance for interstate touring and

gives priority to underserved communities.

RAOs also assist the Arts Endowment and other 

funders in providing programs nationally. Regional 

arts organizations have worked with the NEA on two 

of its National Initiatives: Shakespeare in American

Communities (Arts Midwest) and Operation Homecoming

(Southern Arts Federation). More information on these

important projects can be found in the National

Initiatives section of this report.

Another national project that resulted from

collaboration between the NEA and an RAO is the New

England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project

(NDP). The NDP supports the growth of contemporary

dance by encouraging the creation of new work by

individual dance artists and companies and also

fostering collaboration among dance presenters to

mount tours of these new works. The NDP is

administered by a group of 12 “hub sites,” which 

are key presenters around the country committed 

to developing dance, and six leaders from the dance

field who act as advisors. The hub sites provide funding

recommendations that are then reviewed and approved

by the advisory board.

Each season, the NDP awards 15-20 production grants

ranging from $15,000 to $35,000 each. The NDP also

administers touring and infrastructure grants directly to

presenters. As of 2004, the NDP has presented 152 new

dance works by more than 100 artists and dance

companies in 47 states. 

This season, the NDP supported a national tour of

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s The Flight

Project, six individual pieces around the theme of flight

and invention. The individual works, in honor of the

centennial of the Wright Brothers’ first flight, were

initially commissioned in 2001, with support from a

NDP production grant. During the 2003-2004 season,

the dance company performed The Flight Project in 

14 states for more than 13,000 audience members.

More than half of these participants were students. 

To meet NDP’s goal of building new audiences for

contemporary dance, additional components of the 

tour included master classes, pre-performance talks, 

and school outreach.
Alvin Rangel and G.D. Harris in

the Dayton Contemporary

Dance Company’s production of

The Flight Project, which toured

to 14 states through the New

England Foundation for the Arts’

National Dance Project. 

Photo by Andy Snow
NEA National Heritage

Fellow Yuqin Wang,

who received the award

with husband Zhengli

Xu, demonstrates the

art of Chinese rod

puppetry. 

Photo by Jim Saah
2004 ANNUAL REPORT 1 9

t the risk of stating the obvious, there 

could be no art without artists. Throughout

its history, the United States has produced a

wealth of creative and interpretive artists who have

given the world a trove of works to be studied,

performed, admired, and treasured. 

The Arts Endowment is proud to have recognized many

of them over its nearly 40 years through three awards

honoring lifetime achievements in the arts: National

Medals of Arts, NEA Jazz Masters, and NEA National

Heritage Fellows.

NATIONAL MEDAL OF ARTS

Created by Congress in 1984, the National Medal of Arts

is conferred annually by the President to honor persons

and organizations that have made extraordinary

contributions to the excellence, support, growth, and

availability of the arts in the United States. Unlike

other arts awards, the National Medal of Arts is not

limited to a single field or area of artistic endeavor.

The National Endowment for the Arts solicits the public

for nominations for the award, which are reviewed by

the National Council on the Arts and then forwarded 

to the President for final selection. The awards, which

are non-monetary, are presented each year at a special

White House ceremony. The National Medal of Arts 

was designed by internationally renowned sculptor

Robert Graham. 

Information on submitting a nomination can be found

on the NEA Web site at www.arts.gov. 

Lifetime Honors

LIFETIME HONORS

A
LIFETIME HONORS

2 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

National Medal of Arts Recipients 

NEA JAZZ MASTERS FELLOWSHIP

The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships are the highest

honors that our nation bestows upon jazz musicians.

Since 1982, 80 of America’s greatest jazz artists have

received the award. Each year, a one-time award of

$25,000 is presented in the following categories:

rhythm instrumentalist, solo instrumentalist,

keyboardist, vocalist, or arranger/composer. 

Additionally, an award is given in a non-musician

category—jazz advocate, which is awarded to

individuals who have made major contributions to the

appreciation, knowledge, and advancement of the

American jazz art form as a writer, patron, or presenter.

This year, Chairman Gioia announced that the award

would now be known as the A. B. Spellman NEA Jazz

Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy, named after the 

NEA’s own noted jazz writer, accomplished poet, and

innovative arts administrator, who has dedicated much

of his life to bringing the joy and artistry of jazz to as

many Americans as possible.

The selection criteria for all the awards are the same:

artistic excellence and significance of the nominee’s

contributions to the jazz art form. The NEA Jazz 

Masters form a veritable jazz hall of fame, including

such luminaries as Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman,

Marian McPartland, and Ella Fitzgerald. More information

about submitting a nomination and the NEA Jazz

Masters award is available on the NEA Web site:

www.arts.gov.

In addition, a series of activities—as part of the

National Initiatives component of the program—were

added in 2004. A description of these activities can be

found in the National Initiatives section of this report. 

This year, a special award was given to Artie Shaw 

for his innovative musicianship and for popularizing 

the art form in the 1930s and 1940s. Sadly, Mr. Shaw

passed away the week before the awards ceremony 

held at the annual International Association for 

Jazz Education conference.

Andrew W. Mellon

Foundation

Philanthropic Foundation

New York, New York

Ray Bradbury

Author

Los Angeles, California

Carlisle Floyd

Opera Composer

Houston, Texas

Frederick Hart

Sculptor

deceased

Anthony Hecht

Poet

deceased

John Ruthven

Wildlife Artist

Georgetown, Ohio

Vincent Scully

Architectural Historian 

and Educator

New Haven, Connecticut

Twyla Tharp

Choreographer, Artistc

Director, Dancer

New York, New York

Author Ray Bradbury received the National Medal of 

Arts from President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura 

Bush in the Oval Office in 2004. 

White House photo by Susan Sterner
LIFETIME HONORS

Kenny Burrell, Rhythm Instrumentalist

Kenny Burrell pioneered the guitar-led trio with bass

and drums in the late 1950s. Known for his harmonic

creativity, lush tones, and lyricism on the guitar, he is

also a prolific and highly regarded composer. 

Paquito D’Rivera, Solo Instrumentalist

The winner of four Grammy Awards, Cuban-born Paquito

D’Rivera is celebrated both for his artistry in Latin jazz

and his achievements as a classical composer. His

mastery on the saxophone and clarinet is unquestioned,

having been tutored from an early age by his father

Tito, a classical saxophonist and conductor. 

Slide Hampton, Arranger/Composer

Slide Hampton’s distinguished career spans decades 

in the evolution of jazz. A charismatic figure, master

arranger, and formidable trombonist, Hampton has

served as music director for various orchestras and

artists since the 1950s, including Maynard Ferguson,

Woody Herman, and NEA Jazz Masters Dizzy Gillespie

and Max Roach. 

Shirley Horn, Vocalist

Shirley Horn began leading her own group in the 

mid-1950s, and in 1960 recorded her first album Embers

and Ashes, establishing her reputation as an

exceptional and sensitive jazz vocalist. After taking a

10-year hiatus to raise her family, she has re-emerged

in recent years as a world-class jazz artist. 

NEA Jazz Masters

NEA Jazz Masters George Wein, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Smith (who passed away on February 8, 2005),

Kenny Burrell, Paquito D’Rivera, and NEA Chairman Dana Gioia in Long Beach, California. 

Photo by Vance Jacobs
Artie Shaw, Big Band Leader

Immensely popular and startlingly innovative, Artie

Shaw rose to prominence in the 1930s as a swing

bandleader, master clarinetist, and boundary-crossing

artist, who infused jazz with the influences of modern

European composers. He retired from music in 1954 to

pursue a literary career, but his music still is performed

today through a big band bearing Shaw’s name, fronted

by Dick Johnson. 

Jimmy Smith, Keyboardist

Jimmy Smith personifies the jazz organ revolution. He

raised the organ—specifically the legendary Hammond

B3—from a novelty instrument in jazz to primary status

in the 1950s and 1960s. Inspired by the great horn

players of the day, he cut the tremolo off and began

playing horn lines with his right hand, establishing the

standard for jazz organists who would follow. 

George Wein, Jazz Advocate

Jazz impresario George Wein is renowned for his 

work in organizing and booking music festivals, and 

in particular for creating the Newport Jazz Festival, an

event that, in the words of the late jazz critic Leonard

Feather, started the “festival era.”

NEA NATIONAL HERITAGE

FELLOWSHIP

The United States, with all its many ethnicities and

native peoples, has a rich and diverse history of

appreciation for and perpetuation of folk and traditional

arts. Since 1982, the NEA has recognized the artists

who dedicate their lives to cultural traditions and arts

and who maintain the folk arts’ vibrancy and relevance

for future generations. The NEA has honored some 300

artists with NEA National Heritage Fellowships.

Ten NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the country’s

most prestigious honor in the folk and traditional arts,

were awarded in 2004. The fellowships include a onetime award of $20,000. Artists who received the award

included performers, such as sacred steel guitar player

Chuck T. Campbell, and craftspeople, such as straw

appliqué artists Eliseo and Paula Rodriguez.

Chum Ngek received the Bess Lomax Hawes Award for

his long history of teaching Cambodian music and

culture. This award recognizes individuals who have

made major contributions to the excellence, vitality,

and public appreciation of the folk and traditional arts

through teaching, collecting, advocacy, and

preservation work.

Interviews with the 2004 awardees, as well as

presentations of their work, can be found on the NEA

Web site, www.arts.gov. In addition, a publication

celebrating the 20th anniversary of the program is

available in the publications section of the Web site. 

LIFETIME HONORS

2 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
LIFETIME HONORS

Representative Norman Dicks

(Washington) presents Gerald

“Subiyay” Miller (who passed

away on February 5, 2005)

with his NEA National

Heritage Fellowship at a

ceremony on Capitol Hill. 

Photo by Robert Burgess

NEA National Heritage Fellows

Anjani Ambegaokar

North Indian Kathak Dancer 

Diamond Bar, California

Charles “Chuck” T. Campbell

Sacred Steel Guitar Player 

Rochester, New York

Joe Derrane

Irish-American Button Accordionist 

Randolph, Massachusetts

Jerry Douglas

Dobro Player 

Nashville, Tennessee

Gerald “Subiyay” Miller

Skokomish Oral Tradition Bearer, Carver, Basket Maker 

Shelton, Washington

Milan Opacich

Tamburitza Instrument Maker 

Shererville, Indiana

Eliseo and Paula Rodriguez

Straw Appliqué Artists 

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Koko Taylor

Blues Musician 

Country Club Hills, Illinois

Yuqin Wang and Zhengli Xu

Chinese Rod Puppeteers 

Aloha, Oregon 

Chum Ngek (Bess Lomax Hawes Award)

Cambodian Musician and Teacher 

Gaithersburg, Maryland

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 2 3
Situation—Work No.22 (1987) 

by Katsunori Hamanishi, one 

of the works on display during the

Worcester Art Museum’s exhibition,

Japanese Masters of Mezzotint.

Image courtesy of Worcester Art Museum
GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 2 5

FY 2004 APPLICATIONS: GRANTS: GRANTS:

Grant Category Number Received Number Awarded Amount Awarded

Creativity 2,956 844 $19,960,000

Challenge America: Access 991 448 $7,815,574

Learning in the Arts 832 240 $7,722,680

Heritage/Preservation 374 196 $4,231,000

Arts on Radio and Television 159 42 $3,860,000

Service to Arts 

Organization and Artists 112 72 $2,525,000

Challenge America:

Reaching Every Community* 128 128 $1,280,000

Grant Highlights

The following pages highlight successful projects that the NEA has supported in every state. While these

examples are by no means comprehensive, they are highly illustrative of the diverse, quality art that the NEA

funds. 

* Note: Grants were made through the invitational Challenge America: Reaching Every Community initiative to eligible arts organizations in

identified communities across the nation where the Endowment had not awarded any funds, fulfilling the Chairman's public pledge to ensure the

Agency's program reach is truly national.
Alabama School of

Fine Arts Foundation

Birmingham

T

he Alabama School of 

Fine Arts (ASFA) serves 

350 full-time students with

dormitory facilities on campus in

downtown Birmingham. ASFA

accepts students in grades 7-12 in a

selective audition/interview process

in six areas: creative writing, dance,

music, theater arts, visual arts, and

math-science. Students accepted by

ASFA pay no tuition for the classes.

Of the 350 students, 50 enter the

dance program. In recent years, as

part of the curriculum, ASFA has

brought in nationally and

internationally known dancers for

master classes. In FY 2004, the

Alabama School of Fine Arts

Foundation received an NEA

Learning in the Arts grant of

$15,000 to support a modern dance

residency by the New York-based

dance company Complexions

Contemporary Ballet Company 

for two weeks during June and 

July 2004. 

Led by artistic director Dwight

Rhoden and dancer Desmond

Richardson, both formerly of 

the Alvin Ailey American Dance

Theater, and including a diverse

group of dancers, Complexions

worked with students during ASFA’s

first summer dance intensive from

June 28 to July 10, culminating 

in two performances. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Alabama

Students in the Alabama 

School of Fine Arts’ summer 

dance workshop perform

with noted modern dancer

Desmond Richardson of the

Complexions Contemporary

Ballet Company. 

Photos by Steve Johnson,

As You Like It Photography
Students in the summer program

ranged from 15 to 24 years old, 

ten from ASFA and 20 from

elsewhere, all earning a place in 

the program through auditions. 

The summer workshop was set up 

to simulate the daily rigors of a

professional dancer, taking dance

and choreography classes in the

morning with five hours or more 

of rehearsals in the afternoon. 

The students performed two 

shows of works by noted

choreographers Arturo Fernandez,

Donald Byrd, Thaddeus Davis, 

and Rhoden, followed after an

intermission by performances by

Complexions dancers.

Huntsville Museum 

of Art 

Huntsville

F

ounded in 1970, the

Huntsville Museum of Art is

the leading visual arts

institution in northern Alabama. Its

collection includes historic and

contemporary American art in all

media, with special attention to

regions of the South. 

In FY 2004, the Huntsville Museum

of Art received an NEA Challenge

America grant of $10,000 to

support development of the

catalogue for a touring exhibition

of the museum’s Gianmaria

Buccellati silver animal figures. 

Ten thousand of the four-color, 

fully illustrated catalogue will 

be produced. The catalogue will

contain an introduction by museum

president Clayton Bass, an interview

with artist Gianmaria Buccellati 

by chief curator Peter Baldaia, a

pictorial overview of the process of

designing and creating the animals,

and professional photography of 

the Buccellati collection. The

catalogue will showcase for the

first time Buccellati’s works,

donated to the museum by 

Betty and Charles Grisham. 

The Buccellati family of goldsmiths

has been active in Milan since 

the mid-18th century, where the

“Buccellati style” originated. The

style utilizes Renaissance-period

techniques, luxury metals such 

as gold and sterling silver, and

extensive textural engraving.

Buccellati’s works are made in 

925 sterling silver using a method

he created to capture realistic

details such as feathers and fur

called lavorazione a pelo, or 

“hair-like workmanship.” 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 2 7

(from left to right) The intricate process of creating the silver animals 

begins with designer Gianmaria Buccellati sketching the animal; then a 

clay model is created and the silver prepared; the silver pieces are then 

welded on the clay model and finally brushed gently but thoroughly. 

Photos courtesy of Huntsville Museum of Art
Ketchikan Indian

Corporation

Ketchikan

O

ne of the mission priorities

of the Ketchikan Indian

Corporation (KIC) in Alaska

is the promotion and preservation of

local Native Alaskan cultural

heritage in a community of which

one-third are Native. It has

supported a variety of programs to

teach youth about Native Alaskan

culture, including language, music,

and dance. 

In FY 2004, KIC received an NEA

Heritage & Preservation grant of

$35,000 to support the carving of

one of three traditional southeast

Native Alaskan totem poles, and the

culturally significant pole-raising

ceremony, called potlatch. Totem

poles are among the most important

artifacts of Native Alaskan culture.

The KIC Elders Committee met and

determined that the three totem

poles would be carved by artisans

indigenous to the tribal community.

The project also included an

apprenticeship program in which

master carvers taught young Tlingit,

Tsimshian, and Haida carvers to

shape the poles with the design of

the clans’ crests (killer whale, eagle,

wolf, and raven), three “watchmen,”

and a shaman to represent health

care. The center pole stands 42 feet

tall, and the two flanking poles are

25 feet—together they tell the story

of the southeast Native Alaskans. 

The totem poles were completed on

September 29, 2004, and the poles

were raised in front of the newly

built KIC Tribal Health Clinic on

October 1. The potlatch celebration

was held on October 2, with

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2 8 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Alaska

A drawing of one of the totem poles

carved for the Ketchikan Indian

Corporation with NEA support.

Image courtesy of Ketchikan Indian Corporation
approximately 550 community

members in attendance. Traditional

dance groups from Seattle,

Washington and Metlakatla and

Prince of Wales Island, Alaska

performed at the ceremony.

Perseverance Theatre

Douglas

F

ounded in 1978,

Perseverance Theatre 

has acquired a national

reputation as a quality theater

company while serving the 

Juneau, Alaska area with classical

and contemporary productions.

Perseverance has premiered 

more than 50 new plays, including

Paula Vogel’s 1998 Pulitzer Prizewinning play, How I Learned to

Drive, which Vogel wrote during 

her residency there. 

In 2001, Perseverance created

SPRING, a three-month festival 

of emerging theatrical works,

featuring world premiere

productions and development work

on future SPRING productions. In 

FY 2004, Perseverance received an

NEA Creativity grant of $30,000 to

support the West Coast premiere 

of Julie Jensen’s Wait! and the

statewide tour of Bridget Carpenter’s

Up (The Man in the Flying Lawn

Chair) during SPRING 2004.

Director Anita Maynard-Losh called

Wait! an “unsentimental valentine”

to the theater life as it follows

Wendy Burger, a socially awkward

UPS truck driver who finds herself

through her involvement in

community theater. The play was the

last that Maynard-Losh directed for

Perseverance before moving to

Washington, DC’s Arena Stage. 

Jensen wrote her comedy as a

participant of the NEA/Theatre

Communications Group’s Theatre

Residency Program for Playwrights,

being the resident playwright at 

Salt Lake Acting Company in Utah.

The play is based on Jensen’s own

experiences in theater. 

SPRING 2004 saw the West Coast

premiere of Wait! May 7-30, 2004 to

enthusiastic audiences. The theater

company also toured Carpenter’s

Up—based on the real-life story 

of Larry Walter, who attached 32

weather balloons to his lawn chair

and flew 16,000 feet over the

Mojave Desert—to Anchorage,

Fairbanks, and Whitehorse (capital

of Canada’s Yukon Territory).

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 2 9

Ekatrina Oleksa 

(left) and Doneice Falcon

perform in Perseverance

Theatre’s production of Julie

Jensen’s play Wait! 

Photo courtesy of Perseverance Theatre
Frank Lloyd Wright

Foundation

Scottsdale

T

he Frank Lloyd Wright

Foundation of Scottsdale,

Arizona was established by

Wright in 1940 to be the repository

of his life’s work. The Foundation’s

holdings include two national

historic landmark properties—

Taliesin (in Wisconsin) and Taliesin

West (in Arizona), the Frank Lloyd

Wright Archives, and an accredited

architectural school. 

In FY 2004, the Foundation received

an NEA Heritage & Preservation

grant of $20,000 to support the

restoration of Wright’s living

quarters at Taliesin West. The worldfamous architect designed and built

Taliesin West, which became

Wright’s winter residence/studio/

campus, from 1937 to 1942. The

site provides educational tours and

seminars for the public, attracting

more than 125,000 visitors annually. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

3 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Arizona

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

living quarters at Taliesin

West in Arizona, recently

restored and open to the

public for the first time. 

Background: Portrait of

Frank Lloyd Wright

Photos courtesy of the Frank 

Lloyd Wright Foundation
Taliesin West was built to coexist

harmoniously with its desert

environs, using local materials such

as rocks and sand in the making of

the structure. At first more of a

studio and campus than residence,

in 1940 Wright added the living

quarters, containing a private

bedroom, small studio, and private

living space, adjacent to the famous

Garden Room. 

Based on historic photographs and

documents from Wright’s lifetime,

the restored quarters include books,

artifacts, art, lighting, and

furnishings. The NEA grant assisted

in rehabilitating the furniture—

custom-made by a local master

artisan according to Wright’s

specifications—in the sitting room

and bedroom. In November 2004,

the newly refurbished living

quarters were opened to the public

for the first time. 

Mesa Symphony

Orchestra Association

Mesa

T

he Mesa Symphony Orchestra

(MSO) in Arizona was formed

in 1956 to bring quality

musical performances and

educational programs to the East

Valley community, encompassing

such cities as Mesa, Tempe,

Chandler, and Scottsdale. Annually,

MSO performs six classical concerts

in addition to a New Year’s Eve

concert, July Fourth concert, and

performance of Peter and the Wolf

for more than 9,000 community

fourth- and fifth-graders. 

In FY 2004, MSO received an 

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support the opening

concerts of the 2004-2005 season.

MSO will be moving into a new

concert hall in the 2005-2006

season, and desired to increase its

audience before the move.

The opening program for 2004-2005

was entitled “A Dark and Stormy

Night,” and was geared especially

for families. The program included

Modest Mussorgsky’s A Night on

Bald Mountain, Alexander

Glazunov’s saxophone concerto, and

Bernard Herrmann’s score for Alfred

Hitchcock’s movie Psycho. The

concert was promoted through 

press releases, radio advertisements,

season brochures, and special

material being sent to the public

schools’ band and orchestra 

music programs. 

The opening program was performed

at two locations to reach even more

audience members: October 15,

2004 at Word of Grace in Mesa, 

and October 17, 2004 at the

Chandler Center for the Arts. An

estimated 3,000 people attended

the two concerts. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 3 1
Arkansas Arts Center

Foundation

Little Rock

T

he Arkansas Arts Center in

Little Rock is the state’s

oldest and largest arts

institution, with programs and

events reaching 430,000 residents

annually in both urban and rural

communities. The Arts Center,

which is free to the public,

operates as both a museum of

visual art and a center for the

performing arts, offering classes

throughout the year in the fine and

performing arts as well as

community outreach initiatives. 

One of the Arts Center’s outreach

programs is the Artmobile, a

traveling art exhibition drawn from

the museum’s permanent collection.

In FY 2004, the Arkansas Arts

Center Foundation received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $25,000

to support the Artmobile project. 

Artmobile carries themed

exhibitions, which are changed

every two years, to approximately

100 venues annually, reaching more

than 90,000 people. For 2004-2006,

the theme of the exhibition is

Natural Insights: Art and the Earth.

The exhibition examines the many

ways that artists take inspiration

from nature, and includes paintings,

drawings, lithographs, photographs,

and three-dimensional works such

as ceramics and hand-blown glass.

In addition, educational materials

accompanying the exhibition

provide material on the chemistry 

of paint, paper, and canvas; the

physics of ceramics; and the

sources of various media in nature.

An in-depth study guide for

teachers and parents is included

and also available online with

cross-curricular lessons and handson activities based on the pieces 

in the exhibition.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

3 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

The Arkansas Arts

Center Foundation’s

Artmobile carries

themed exhibitions to

approximately 100

venues annually,

reaching more than

90,000 people. 

Photo courtesy of Arkansas

Arts Center Foundation
GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 3 3

Arkansas

Ozark Foothills

FilmFest

Locust Grove

T

he Ozark Foothills FilmFest

began in 2002 as a 

two-city, five-day festival 

to bring independent and regional

films to the mostly rural north

central Arkansas area. The festival

now spans three weeks and involves

three Arkansan communities:

Batesville, Heber Springs, 

and Searcy. 

In FY 2004, the Ozark Foothills

FilmFest received an NEA Challenge

America grant of $10,000 to support

its 2005 festival. Running April 1-

17, 2005, the festival included a

Southern Filmmakers Showcase

featuring independent regional

filmmakers; “The James Dean Era,” a

two-day multimedia exploration of

the artistic genesis and lasting

impact of James Dean; and

Miniature Graceland, a film/

performance piece by Arkansans 

Phil Lancaster and Alison Moore.

The festival showcased 51 films and

hosted 33 guest artists and

presenters, as well as participating

composers and musicians.

The Alloy Orchestra, the premiere

national orchestra of scores for

silent films, presented its original

scores to accompany the silent

classics The Black Pirate and

Steamboat Bill, Jr. The Alloy

Orchestra also performed during the

FilmFest Gala at Bradley Manor on

the Lyon College campus. 

The Southern Filmmakers Showcase

included films from programs such

as Best of Indie Memphis, New

Films from Appalshop, and Films

from the Foothills. “The James Dean

Era” included screenings of Dean’s

early television work and other rare

footage, a memorabilia exhibit, and

scholar-led discussions about the

actor. Approximately 4,000 people

attended activities and screenings

during the festival. 

The Ozark Foothills FilmFest in Locust Grove, Arkansas introduces

independent and regional films to the local community.

Image courtesy of Ozark Foothills Filmfest 
Smith, AXIS has commissioned

repertory works from preeminent

choreographers, such as Bill T.

Jones, Joanna Haigood, and Joe

Goode. AXIS also maintains a 

model education/outreach 

program, Dance Access.

In FY 2004, AXIS received an NEA

Creativity grant of $20,000 to

commission a new repertory work 

by choreographer Ann Carlson. The

17-minute piece, entitled Flesh, was

set to the music of Meredith Monk

and was performed at St. Mark’s

Church in New York City in

November 2004 as part of the

Dances With Monk program

celebrating Monk’s 40th anniversary.

The piece was performed at eight

venues in fall 2004 and will tour

extensively in 2004-2006 as a

regular part of the company’s

repertory. An estimated 3,500 

saw the performances in 2004. 

Ann Carlson is an award-winning

choreographer, director, and

performance artist who combines

movement, voice, and visual

elements. Flesh is loosely based on

the E. M. Forster short story, “The

Machine Stops,” in which humanity

lives in an underground mechanized

complex. A youth journeys to the

surface and finds people still living

above ground. Flesh starts from this

point, following the youth’s

interaction with the surface people

as he learns about their survival

outside the machine. 

Shakespeare

Festival/LA 

Los Angeles

S

hakespeare Festival/LA

(SFLA) has been bringing

American interpretations 

of Shakespeare’s plays to the people

of Los Angeles for nearly 20 years.

SFLA hosts an annual Summer

Festival at Pershing Square, a large,

grassy park in downtown Los

Angeles. The free five-week festival

draws audiences of roughly 7,000.

In addition, SFLA offers a youth

employment program, Will Power to

Youth, and a professional

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

California

AXIS Dance

Company

performs a new

repertory work 

by choreographer

Ann Carlson,

Flesh. 

Photo by 

Margot Hartford

3 4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

AXIS Dance Company

Oakland

S

ince 1987, the AXIS Dance

Company has been creating

and performing high quality

contemporary dance by dancers

with and without disabilities. Under

the artistic direction of Judith
development program for high

school teachers, Will Power 

to Schools.

In FY 2004, SFLA received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $20,000

to support free performances of

Twelfth Night during the 19th

annual Summer Festival,

incorporating it into the NEA

National Initiative, Shakespeare

Comes to LA. SFLA set the play in a

seaside community strikingly similar

to Venice Beach, with the Feste

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

character, played by Cedric Hayman,

appearing as a street musician on

the beachfront property. The play

was directed by Jason King Jones

and performed July 14-18 in

Pershing Square and July 22-25 and

July 29 – August 1 in Palos Verdes’

South Coast Botanical Garden. 

Through the Shakespeare Comes 

to LA initiative, SFLA selects

performance locations and 

conducts promotional activities 

in communities that have not

traditionally had the opportunity 

to experience live theater. 

SFLA implemented new 

promotional and marketing

strategies to attract new audiences,

such as disadvantaged youth and

individuals with disabilities. Using

leaders from the Will Power to 

Youth program, SFLA was able to

target specific area schools and

youth employment service programs

for audience development. 

Cedric Hayman and Harold Surratt in

Shakespeare Festival/LA’s Twelfth Night,

directed by Jason King Jones, as part of

the NEA’s Shakespeare Comes to LA

program. 

Photo by Craig Schwartz

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 3 5
Denver Center for the

Performing Arts

Denver

F

ounded in 1972 and

dedicated to excellence in

the arts, the Denver Center

for the Performing Arts (DCPA) in

Colorado is a showcase for live

theater, an award-winning

multimedia production facility, a

national training school for actors,

and the site of a voice clinic and

research facility. In addition, DCPA

offers various educational and

outreach initiatives, including inschool programs, professional

development for teachers, and

distance learning. 

In FY 2004, DCPA received an 

NEA Learning in the Arts grant 

of $24,000 for its Living History

educational residency program. 

The program—a collaboration

between the DCPA Education

Department and the Denver Center

Theatre Company, one of the

resident companies at DCPA—is

designed to show the value of

including drama in school curricula. 

Living History took place in 23

metro-area high schools during 

the fall semester of 2004. Three

professional theater artists

performed four scenes from 

classical and contemporary plays 

for the entire school. The ethical

dilemmas posed by the scenes are

the basis for a series of classroom

workshops that utilize exercises

such as Hot Seat Improvisation, in

which two actors become characters

with opposing views from the play,

while a third artist encourages the

student audience to question the

characters about themselves and

their society.

Living History conforms to 

Colorado State Standards for

Reading and Writing, Theatre, 

and History, and enhances learning

of history, language arts, social

studies, and theater. More than

25,000 students participated in 

the program in 2004. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

3 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Colorado
Jefferson Symphony

Association 

Golden

T

he Jefferson Symphony

Association (JSA) in

Golden, Colorado was

founded in 1953 as the Golden Civic

Orchestra, and has since grown to

include 95 volunteer musicians in

the Jefferson Symphony Orchestra

from across the metropolitan Denver

area. In addition to performances,

JSA provides a Young Artists

Competition and a “Hands-On”

educational outreach program for

area schools. 

In FY 2004, JSA received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $10,000 

to support its first concert of 

the 2004-2005 season. To increase

audiences comprising underserved

populations, free tickets were

offered to at-risk students and 

their families, bringing 110 

youth and their parents to the

opening concert. 

The concert was held on October

17, 2004, at the Green Center on 

the Colorado School of Mines

campus, drawing 875 people to 

the event. The orchestra, under 

the direction of Dr. William Morse,

performed music from Baroque,

Romantic, and Neo-Romantic (from

the twentieth century) periods:

Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,

Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic

Dances, and Tomas Svoboda’s

Overture of the Season. For the

Vivaldi piece, translations of

Vivaldi’s sonnets were printed in 

the program and read before each

movement. Orchestra concertmaster

Tamara Mulliken was the violin

soloist for Four Seasons, and

received a standing ovation from

the audience for her performance.

Post-concert interviews with

attendees were all favorable, in

some cases glowing, reviews. The

concert sustained the Jefferson

Symphony Orchestra’s reputation as

the premier orchestra in the region. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 3 7

Teaching artist Amy

Perry and students in a

class workshop on

Arthur Miller’s The

Crucible as part of the

Denver Center for the

Performing Arts’ Living

History educational

program. 

Photo courtesy of Denver Center

for the Performing Arts
Hartford Stage

Company 

Hartford

Hartford Stage Company

has become one of the

country’s leading

nonprofit theaters, known for its

high-quality productions of classics,

neglected modern works, and new

plays. In FY 2004, Hartford Stage

received an NEA Creativity grant 

of $35,000 to support a new

production of work by renowned

playwright (and 1996 National

Medal of Arts recipient) Edward

Albee to celebrate the theater’s

40th anniversary season. The new

full-length play, Peter and Jerry, is

an expansion of Albee’s first play,

The Zoo Story. Albee has written a

new one-act play, Homelife, which is

the first act of Peter and Jerry. The

Zoo Story is the second act. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

3 8 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Connecticut

Frank Wood (left) and Frederick Weller 

in The Zoo Story, the second act of Edward

Albee’s Peter and Jerry, directed by Pam

MacKinnon at Hartford Stage. 

Photo by T. Charles Erickson

Edward Albee, director Pam MacKinnon, and actors Frank Wood

and Johanna Day in rehearsal of Homelife, the first act of Albee’s play

Peter and Jerry. 

Photo by Carol Rosegg
Florence Griswold

Museum 

Old Lyme

T

he Florence Griswold

Museum (FGM) in Old 

Lyme, Connecticut has its

origins as an artist colony in the

late 19th century, where artists

working in the American

Impressionist style would meet 

and work in Griswold’s home, 

soon to be known as the Lyme 

Art Colony. In 1936, Griswold’s 

house—a National Historic

Landmark built in 1817—and the

11-acre rural site became a museum

focusing on American artists,

primarily ones from Connecticut. 

In FY 2004, the Florence Griswold

Museum received an NEA Heritage &

Preservation grant of $15,000 to

support an exhibition of the work of

artist Willard Metcalf. May Night:

Willard Metcalf at Old Lyme is

showing from May 1 through

September 11, 2005, bringing

together FGM’s extensive collection

Hartford Stage’s association with

Albee goes back to the beginnings

of the theater, when founding

director Jacques Cartier presented

the then-new play, Who’s Afraid of

Virginia Woolf? in 1966. Over the

ensuing three decades, the theater

has produced many of Albee’s

subsequent works, sometimes under

the playwright’s direction. 

In Peter and Jerry, a quiet and

unassuming man, Peter, is simply

looking for a quiet place to read 

his book. In Homelife, he is

interrupted by his wife, Ann, who

wants to talk about the stuff of

life—spinach, cats, kids, marriage,

sex, and mortality. In The Zoo Story,

we find Peter on his favorite bench

in Central Park. His attempt to 

read his book is thwarted by Jerry, 

a stranger intent on taking over 

the bench. 

The play ran May 20 – June 20,

2004 and was directed by Pam

MacKinnon. More than 12,000

people attended the performances.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 3 9

of his works and artifacts 

along with loans from private

collections and museums such 

as the Corcoran Gallery of Art 

and Smithsonian American Art

Museum in Washington, DC and 

the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

In addition, in homage to Metcalf’s

love of art and the natural world,

more than 40 plein-air paintings 

are being exhibited along with the

artist’s collection of meticulously

labeled birds’ eggs and nests,

moths, and butterflies.

The exhibition and accompanying

catalogue trace Metcalf’s frequent

visits to Griswold’s house between

1905 and 1907 and how this

launched his career as a major

American artist. His landscape

painting at the Lyme Art Colony

won him national recognition,

including a gold medal and Clark

Prize for the painting May Night—a

moonlit view of the Griswold

House—at the inaugural exhibition

of contemporary American paintings

at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

4 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Christina Cultural 

Arts Center

Wilmington

T

he 60-year-old Christina

Cultural Arts Center (CCAC)

in Wilmington, Delaware

aims to improve access to quality

artistic instruction, performance,

and visual exhibitions. CCAC

adopted its arts mission in 1969

as a response to a lack of local

programs that preserved arts

indigenous to African American

culture. More than 1,800 youth and

adult students participate in weekly

private and group instruction in

music, voice, dance, theater, and

the visual arts. CCAC has also

hosted residencies with professional

jazz artists, including Nnenna

Freelon, Arturo Sandoval, and 

Cyrus Chestnut. 

In FY 2004, CCAC received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $10,000

to support Brownie, Mary Lou, Trane

& Me, a two-part jazz education

project for elementary and 

middle school students living 

in underserved urban areas of

Wilmington. The goal of the

program is to diversify and expand

the audience of young jazz listeners

in the area as well as to increase

the pool of emerging jazz artists. 

In the summer of 2004, 40 students

ages 7-12 participated in an

intensive seven-week program

focused on jazz history, theory, and

ensemble playing, culminating in 

a final performance, What If There

Were No Us? 

From November 2004 to March

2005, 25 fifth-graders took a 15-

week course in African American

Music History. In addition, 15

middle school and high school

students participated in a 20-week

after-school program emphasizing

practice and performance. As part of

the performance program, the youth

ensemble performed for more than

2,000 community members at

venues including the Department 

of Services for Children, Youth and

Their Families. 

OperaDelaware

Wilmington

F

ounded in 1945,

OperaDelaware is one of 

the oldest opera companies

in the United States. The company’s

36-year-old Family Opera Theater

(FOT) supports OperaDelaware’s

OperaDelaware’s Family Opera

Theater production of The

Hobbit presents opera to more

than 9,000 students, many for

the first time. 

Photos by Mark Garvin
GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

mission of introducing teachers 

and youth in underserved areas 

to opera. Each year, Family Opera

Theater mounts an opera in

conjunction with the reading

curriculum in Delaware public

schools. Previous FOT productions

have included operatic versions of

Charlotte’s Web, A Wrinkle in Time,

and The Jungle Book. FOT

productions have also been

performed in 30 states as well 

as in Canada and New Zealand. 

Delaware

incorporating The Hobbit into arts,

language arts, history, geography,

math, science, economics, and

physical education curricula.

Classroom activities included

researching and studying the novel’s

birds in a science class, creating 

a Hobbit-inspired business in an

economics class, and designing

shoebox stage sets in a visual 

arts class. In order to familiarize

students with general opera

concepts, FOT also provided 

teachers with educational materials,

including a map of the different

parts of the stage, a chart of

backstage personnel with job

descriptions, and a compact disc 

of selected music from the opera. 

In FY 2004, OperaDelaware received

an NEA Creativity grant of $10,000

to support FOT’s production of J.R.R.

Tolkien’s The Hobbit. More than

9,000 pre-kindergarten through

eight-grade students from more

than 60 schools were exposed 

to opera, many for the first time,

through public performances 

of The Hobbit. 

To enhance the educational 

aspect of FOT’s project, teachers

involved in the program received

instructional materials for
after President Kennedy, a lifelong

supporter of the arts. The Kennedy

Center also serves as a national

model for arts education and

outreach programs. 

In FY 2004, the Kennedy Center

received an NEA Creativity grant 

of $55,000 to support Tennessee

Williams Explored, a unique

celebration of the great American

playwright. During the spring and

summer of 2004, the Kennedy

Center brought to stage brand-new

productions of Williams’s greatest

works: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The

Glass Menagerie, and A Streetcar

Named Desire. The Kennedy Center

partnered with the Shakespeare

Theatre, which produced “Five by

Tenn,” an evening of five one-act

plays—three of them world

premieres—directed by Michael

Kahn. In addition, Emmy Awardwinning actor Richard Thomas

starred in Letters from Tennessee: 

A Distant Country Called Youth, a

one-man show of letters written 

by Williams. The Washington Opera

also participated separately,

presenting the East Coast premiere

John F. Kennedy

Center for the

Performing Arts

Washington

T

he John F. Kennedy Center

for the Performing Arts in

Washington, DC is the

national center for the performing

arts, opening in 1971 and named

of Andre Previn and Philip Littell’s

operatic reconception of A Streetcar

Named Desire. 

To explore the work of Tennessee

Williams is to explore stories that

are uniquely American, essentially

human, and thus capable of

touching and teaching us a great

deal about ourselves. The Kennedy

Center included educational

programs as well, such as Events 

for Students that involved students

in discussions with cast members

and directors and ArtsEdge, an

online, standards-based curriculum

regarding the plays. 

National Building

Museum 

Washington

C

reated by an act of Congress

in 1980, the National

Building Museum (NBM) in

Washington, DC is America’s premier

cultural institution dedicated to

exploring American achievements in

architecture, planning, construction,

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

4 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

District 

Sally Field and Jason Butler Harner in the Kennedy

Center production of The Glass Menagerie as part of

the Tennessee Williams Explored celebration.

Photo by Joan Marcus
architects, including Frank Lloyd

Wright’s Unity Temple and La

Miniatura, Buckminster Fuller’s

Dymaxion House, Philip Johnson’s

Glass House, and Ludwig Mies van

der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion and

Farnsworth House. The exhibition is

also featured on the museum’s Web

site, which receives approximately

40,000 visitors per month.

engineering, and design. Annually

attracting more than 400,000

people, the museum presents

exhibitions and education programs

as well as publishes books and a

quarterly journal, Blueprints. 

In FY 2004, NBM received an NEA

Creativity grant of $44,700 to

support an architectural exhibit,

symposium, and series of lectures

on a collection of architectural

drawings produced over the past

one hundred years—a period in

which both the discipline and the

medium underwent dramatic

transformations. Envisioning

Architecture: Drawings from the

Museum of Modern Art, New York

exhibited at NBM from March 20 to

June 20, 2004, attracting more than

16,000 people. This was the only

U.S. venue for the exhibition, which

previously had toured in Europe. 

The exhibition presented a visual

history from the 19th century

Viennese architect Otto Wagner to

contemporary deconstructivist Zaha

Hadid. Featured were more than 190

works by more than 60 international

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

Patricia Clarkson and

Adam Rothenberg in

the Kennedy Center

production of A

Streetcar Named Desire

as part of the

Tennessee Williams

Explored celebration.

Photo by Joan Marcus

 of Columbia
Miami City Ballet 

Miami Beach

T

he Miami City Ballet (MCB)

was founded in 1985 by

Edward Villella, a former

George Balanchine protégé and

principal dancer for the New York

City Ballet. Since then, it has

become an acclaimed neoclassical

ballet company. 

Acquiring new works is essential 

to the continued success of MCB. 

In FY 2004, it received an NEA

Heritage & Preservation grant of

$25,000 to introduce a new 

dance to its repertoire: noted

choreographer Jerome Robbins’s

Afternoon of a Faun. 

Jennifer Kronenberg

and Carlos Guerra

in the Miami City

Ballet production of

Jerome Robbins’s

Afternoon of a Faun.

Photo by Joe Gato

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

4 4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Florida
Afternoon of a Faun was staged for

Miami City Ballet by former New

York City Ballet principal dancer

Bart Cook, and was performed in

February 2005 along with a second

Robbins work, Fancy Free, and two

Balanchine pieces: La Valse and

Sonatine. A pre-performance

discussion of the works was held 

by Villella and his artistic staff. 

Hernando County 

Fine Arts Council

Brooksville

T

he Hernando County 

Fine Arts Council in

Brooksville, Florida was

created in 1987 to encourage 

and showcase the arts in the

community, working with local

artists, local governments,and

county schools. One of the events 

is the annual Art, Craft & Music

Festival, which attracts more than

20,000 people from the county and

neighboring communities during 

the spring. 

The work is a variation of Vaslav

Nijinsky’s famous 1912 version,

which was based on Claude

Debussy’s music Prélude à l’Aprèsmidi d’un Faune and a poem by

Stephane Mallarme describing a

faun’s encounter with nymphs. In

Robbins’s contemporary version, 

the faun becomes a male dancer

captivated by a ballerina who falls

under his spell.

Afternoon of a Faun holds a special

place for artistic director Villella:

Robbins was moved to create this

lovely pas de deux upon seeing

Villella as a young student at the

School of American Ballet stretching

during ballet class. It was also the

first piece that Villella performed as

a principal dancer with New York

City Ballet.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 4 5

In 2004, the Fine Arts Council

received an NEA Challenge America

grant of $10,000 to hold the 21st

festival on May 28-29, 2005. 

The Art, Craft & Music Festival

brought nearly 140 artists and

craftsmen from throughout 

Florida and adjacent states to

Brooksville to participate in a 

juried show. In addition, live 

music was performed continuously

during the two-day festival. 

For the 2005 festival, the 

council expanded the musical

entertainment schedule, which

included a wide variety of music 

by local bands including country,

doo wop, funk, reggae, jazz, rock,

pop, and rhythm and blues. A

special section of the festival was

devoted to children, showcasing the

art activities of local students and

providing food and entertainment

specifically for kids. 

The event was co-sponsored by

Hernando Today/The Tampa Tribune,

WFLA-TV Channel 8, and the City of

Brooksville and Florida Arts.
Colquitt Miller 

Arts Council 

Colquitt

T

he Colquitt Miller Arts

Council (CMAC) was the

result of a grassroots

movement to foster and sustain

economic growth in southwest

Georgia. The council’s activities

have included producing compact

discs of locally composed music,

publishing oral histories of local

communities, and presenting annual

productions of Swamp Gravy, 

a folklife play celebrating local

history. Scholarship support is

available for underserved

populations in the community 

for the council’s projects and

programming, ensuring access to 

all activities.

In FY 2004, CMAC received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $25,000

to support Art With Heart, a

multigenerational community arts

project. During the multiphase

project, 150 first- through eightgrade students received hands-on

training from visual artist-inresidence Karen Mervis at the New

Life Learning Center (NLLC), the 

arts council’s cultural art center.

Students learned a variety of 

visual art techniques, including

printmaking, landscape painting,

and pen and ink drawing. 

Students displayed their work 

at two community shows and in 

an ongoing exhibition at NLLC. 

In the next phase of the project,

the participating students will

partner with residents and patients

from Miller County Hospital and

Nursing Home, an arts council

community partner, to create a

number of community visual art

“canvases.” In support of the

project’s aim to foster civic pride,

these communal artworks will then

be installed both in the hospital 

and at the school. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

4 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Artwork in process as part of Colquitt Miller Arts Council’s Art With Heart project.

Photo courtesy of Colquitt Miller Arts Council
Synchronicity

Performance Group

Atlanta

F

ounded in 1997, the

Synchronicity Performance

Group (SPG) of Atlanta,

Georgia aims to support women

artists, forge community

partnerships, and develop new 

work for the theater. During SPG’s

premiere season, the Atlanta

Journal-Constitution dubbed the

company “a refuge where artists can

take on challenging material and

shape a production on their own

terms.” As part of its community

outreach program, the group

conducts theater workshops at a

local girls youth detention center

and offers free and discounted

tickets to low-income and refugee

families and special-needs children.

In FY 2004, SPG received an 

NEA Creativity grant of $8,000 

to support Women + War, a

community-based documentary

theater project, in partnership 

with Refugee Family Services,

around the impact of war. The

project evolved as a response to

the fact that more than 33,000

international refugees have moved

to Atlanta over the past decade.

Award-winning documentary

filmmaker Carol Cassidy trained

project participants in interview

methods during a five-day

workshop. Company members 

then developed the text for 

Women + War using interviews 

with nearly 50 women from the

local community, including military

personnel, human rights workers,

refugees, journalists, and the

families of Holocaust survivors. 

During the rehearsal process, SPG

presented two public performances

of Women + War and used audience

feedback to refine the production.

The finished theater piece debuted

as part of the group’s 2005 season.

More than 2,000 people attended

the mainstage run, which also

included special performances for

Atlanta’s refugee community and a

brown bag series of lectures/

demonstrations for local community

groups, businesses, and schools.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 4 7

Georgia

Kristi Casey (foreground) preparing 

for her performance in the Synchronicity

Performance Group’s production 

of Women + War. 

Background: An actor scribbles down

blocking instructions in preparation for 

the first public showing of Women + War

by the Synchronicity Performance Group. 

Photos by Joel Silverman
Honolulu Theatre 

for Youth 

Honolulu

F

ounded in 1955, the

Honolulu Theatre for Youth

(HTY) produces plays based

on children’s literature and the

classics, as well as new work

drawing on the history, folklore, 

and social issues of Hawaii. The

company mounts eight youthoriented shows each year, most

often performing in non-traditional

theater spaces, including school

gymnasiums and cafeterias. For

many of Hawaii’s residents,

especially those living on outlying

islands, HTY provides the only

access to live theater.

In FY 2004, HTY received an NEA

Creativity grant of $25,000 to

support a production of Dis/Troy,

Yokanaan Kearns’s adaptation of

Homer’s The Iliad. Commissioned 

by HTY artistic director Mark

Lutwak, the play was first

workshopped in 2002 at the

Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New

Voices Festival. In 2004, Dis/Troy

toured to 42 intermediate and high

schools on Hawaii’s six major

islands, serving more than 6,500

children. More than 1,000 people

attended nine additional public

performances held at venues around

Honolulu. HTY also partnered with

the Hawaii State Public Library

System to present performances 

at libraries statewide to an

additional 1,000 people.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

4 8 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Louie Hung and Hermen

Tesoro, Jr. in Honolulu

Theatre for Youth’s

production of Dis/Troy by

Yokanaan Kearns, based

on The Iliad. 

Photo by Brad Goda

Hawaii
In support of its productions, HTY

publishes Second Stage Education

Guides for classroom use by

teachers. The guide for Dis/Troy

included an essay by the playwright

on adapting an epic poem for the

stage, information on the historical

basis of The Iliad, suggestions for

classroom activities including a

debate, and a guide to basic theater

etiquette. As part of the company’s

education mission, actors from each

play also engage with students in

activities ranging from talk-back

discussions to drama workshops

exploring the content and themes 

of each particular show.

Hula Preservation

Society 

Kaneohe

Hawaii’s Hula Preservation

Society (HPS) in

Kaneohe, Hawaii was

founded in 2000 by master hula

dancer and Hawaiian cultural expert

Nona K.D. Beamer and her daughter

Maile K. Beamer Loo. The society is

dedicated to the preservation and

perpetuation of “ancient hula,”

which is hula developed and danced

before 1893. HPS has created a Web

site featuring a free interactive

digital library and museum of hula

to preserve the knowledge of

kupuna (elder) hula masters, many

of them over 80 years old. HPS 

staff collects the oral histories of

the kupuna hula masters and also

documents performances,

workshops, lectures, and other

events in which the masters

participate. Much of the history and

culture of the Hawaiian people is

told through the practice of hula. 

In FY 2004, HPS received an NEA

Heritage & Preservation grant of

$25,000 to support the expansion

of the prototype Web site. During

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004, www.hulapreservation.org

received an average of 103,340 hits

monthly. Web site users can access

interviews with elder hula masters,

video clips of hula movements,

audio clips of hula chants, and

glossaries of hula-related terms.

Many of the Web site’s users come

from outside the state, including

elementary school students, collegelevel researchers, genealogists, and

hula students and teachers from 

the nation’s hundreds of hula

schools. Digitization has also made

these important cultural resources

available internationally; users from

more than 40 countries regularly

visit the Web site. 

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 4 9

Hula Master Lorraine Daniel during an oral history interview

with the Hula Preservation Society’s preservation team. 

Photo courtesy of Hula Preservation Society
University of Idaho

Moscow

T

he University of Idaho 

is the state’s land grant

university, which was

established in 1889 and provides 

a variety of programs from an 

array of disciplines. Its relationship

with jazz began in 1968, when it

inaugurated an annual jazz festival,

now known as the Lionel Hampton

Jazz Festival, which runs for four

days in February. The School of

Music was named after the NEA Jazz

Master in 1987, and in 2000 the

Lionel Hampton Center was created.

The Center gathers the School of 

Music, jazz festival, International

Jazz Collections, and the future

construction of a performance 

and education center under 

one initiative. 

In FY 2004, the University of Idaho

received an NEA Heritage &

Preservation grant of $20,000 to

support the preservation of the

Lionel Hampton Collections, part 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

5 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Idaho

1988 NEA Jazz Master Lionel Hampton, here performing at the 1992 NEA Jazz Masters

ceremony, donated his master and source tapes for Glad-Hamp Records to the University

of Idaho, which is currently preserving the recordings. 

NEA photo
City of Nampa 

Nampa

T

he City of Nampa, Idaho,

located in the southwestern

part of the state, was

founded in 1891 and has a

population of 52,000. In 1989, the

Nampa Civic Center was founded by

the City to provide a venue for a

variety of cultural events to take

place. More than 800 events are

presented at the center every year. 

In FY 2004, the City of Nampa

received an NEA Challenge America

grant of $10,000 to support

performing arts events and related

activities planned for the civic

center in 2004. The wide range 

of performers—including drama,

mask theater, dance, Spanish and

Acadian music, Broadway musicals,

and big band jazz—expanded the

arts experience for this rural area

and exposed the community to 

new art forms. 

of the International Jazz Collections

housed at the Lionel Hampton

Center. Established in 1992 with

Hampton’s donation of historical

materials, the International Jazz

Collections has grown to be one 

of the premier jazz archives in 

the world. 

The recordings to be preserved 

are the master and source tapes 

of Glad-Hamp Records, a company

Hampton and his wife Gladys

created in the 1960s. The company

recorded not just Hampton, but

other jazz greats such as Cat

Anderson, Benny Powell, and Kai

Winding. Many of these recordings

are no longer available

commercially. Once the materials 

are preserved, the collection will 

be archived and made available 

to scholars and students of jazz.

Some of the material for which 

the university has the rights will 

be made available on the Internet

as well. 

In January 2004, Imago, a theater

mask ensemble based in Portland,

Oregon, brought its innovative stage

presentation to Nampa, and held a

creative movement workshop for

Skyview High School drama students

the afternoon of the performance.

In February, the Juan L. Sanchez

Ensemble performed two concerts 

of Arabic and Sephardic music along

with rumbas, bossa novas, and Latin

jazz, one for students and an

evening performance for the general

public. Vishten, an Acadian music

and dance troupe based in New

Brunswick, Canada, performed

afternoon school and evening

performances in March. 

Additionally, from January to 

April 2004, Windwood Theatricals

presented the Broadway play The

Unsinkable Molly Brown, actor David

Roche presented a one-man show,

and the Count Basie Orchestra

performed a concert of the jazz

great’s music. Free tickets to all the

performances were provided to lowincome and underserved students. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 5 1
Art Institute 

of Chicago

Chicago

T

he Art Institute of Chicago

was founded by city artists

in 1866 as both a museum

and a school whose goals were to

exhibit quality art of all types and

to conduct programs of arts

education. The collection now

encompasses more than 5,000 

years of human expression from

cultures around the world, and 

the school’s graduate program is

continually ranked as one of the

best in the country.

In FY 2004, the Art Institute’s

school received an NEA Learning 

in the Arts grant of $57,000 to

support the Teacher Institute in

Contemporary Art (TICA). This

program, designed exclusively 

for experienced high school art

teachers from around the nation,

provides participating teachers the

opportunity to study contemporary

art theory and practice with leading

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

5 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Illinois

artists, critics, and lecturers in 

the visual and media arts. Teachers

will be able to incorporate the

knowledge they gain in the sessions

into their respective curricula. 

TICA offers four one-week 

summer sessions: two in painting

and drawing, and one each in 

visual and cultural studies and art

and technology. Each session

comprises the following

components: studio practice,

visiting artists, museum education,

and curriculum development. 

For the 2004 TICA, 104 teachers

participated from 34 states and the

District of Columbia. “One of the

discussions we have with each TICA

group centers on review of artists

and art work available to each of

them,” said Philip Baranowski, TICA

founder and director. “With many 

of our teachers working in rural

areas, it is fascinating to see the

vast number of projects, objects,

and artists that exist throughout

the country.” 

Chinese Music Society

of North America

Naperville

T

he Chinese Music Society 

of North America in

Naperville, Illinois was

organized in 1969 to increase the

knowledge of Chinese music and

performing arts, and became a

nonprofit organization in 1976. 

The Society often works through

performances by the Chinese

Classical Orchestra, led by Dr. Shen

Sin-yan, an authority on Chinese

music. Today, the Society

membership numbers more than

1,800 musicians and music lovers.

In performance and on recordings,

the Chinese Classical Orchestra has

internationalized Chinese music

over the last two decades, making

it more accessible to the general

public.

In FY 2004, the Society received an

NEA Challenge America grant of
medley, and works by contemporary

Chinese composers. Compositions

performed included Moon over the

Mountain Pass, military music from

the Tang Dynasty; The Flower Sobs

by 20th-century Suzhou Pingtan

ballad singer Xu Lixian; and Yan

Tieming’s Fishing Song featuring 

the haunting sound of the bawu. 

The concert drew a predominantly

Asian-American audience from the

Chicago metropolitan area, northern

Indiana, and Milwaukee and

Madison, Wisconsin. 

$10,000 to support the 2004-2005

season gala concert of the Chinese

Classical Orchestra. The gala concert

was held on November 6, 2004 in

the International House Auditorium

of Chicago. The orchestra uses

traditional Chinese instruments,

such as the bawu, a free-reeded

bamboo flute; the yangqin, a 

grand dulcimer; the erhu, a vertical

python-skin fiddle; and the pipa,

a grand lute. 

The program included traditional

Chinese folk music, a Peking Opera

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 5 3

The Chinese Classical Orchestra, led by Dr. Shen Sin-yan, has made Chinese

music more accessible to the general public over the last two decades.

Photo courtesy of Chinese Music Society of North America
Percussionist Brian Smith coaches 

Dexter Elementary students during a rehearsal of

Olympic Values, part of the Imagine That! program

of Tales and Scales of Evansville, Indiana. 

Photo courtesy of Tales and Scales

Tales and Scales, Inc. 

Evansville

F

or nearly 20 years, Tales

and Scales in Evansville,

Indiana has ignited the

imaginations of children, youth, 

and families with “Musictales,” 

a unique blend of storytelling,

theater, dance, and music. Under

the leadership of artistic director

Deborah Moore, this group of master

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

Indiana
GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 5 5

musicians annually gives more 

than 200 performances; school

residencies under the Imagine 

That! program; and workshops for

students, educators, and artists. 

The ensemble has performed in

more than 36 states, and with 

many symphony orchestras,

including ones in Chicago, Boston,

and Utah. Each year, Tales and

Scales also hosts Camp Imagination,

a week-long summer arts camp 

based in southwest Indiana. 

In FY 2004, Tales and Scales

received an NEA Learning in the

Arts grant of $30,000 to support

Imagine That! residencies in seven

Evansville schools during the 2004-

2005 school year. Almost 200

students in first through fifth

grades participated in the two-part,

week-long programs. Working with

Tales and Scales artists, students at

each school used historical

accounts of Olympic athletes to

create a Musictale around the theme

of Olympic values. 

In the first phase of the program,

students learned basic skills in

music, creative movement, and

theater through a series of games

and activities. The second half of

the program focused on the

creation of the student Musictale

production. In addition to arts

skills, students involved in the

program also broadened their

critical-thinking, problem-solving,

and teamwork abilities. Each

residency culminated with the

students performing their Musictale.

Overall, approximately 1,000

members of the community viewed

the final performances.

Indiana University

Bloomington

T

he Lilly Library, Indiana

University’s library for rare

books, manuscripts, and

special collections, aims to make its

film collection available not only to

university faculty and students but

also to historians, scholars, and the

general public. Upon his death in

1999, David Bradley, a noted film

historian, gifted his archive of

3,000 16-millimeter films and more

than 300 linear feet of manuscripts,

books, and periodicals to the

university. Many of these films date

from the early decades of the 20th

century, however, making them too

fragile to loan.

In FY 2004, Indiana University

received an NEA Heritage &

Preservation grant of $10,000 to

support the preservation of selected

works from its David Bradley Film

Collection. In order to preserve

these historic works and support 

the library’s mission of making these

rare and out-of-print films more

widely available, the University

embarked on a two-phase film

preservation project. The films were

first transferred from film to video

using a flying spot scanner to

minimize the risk of damaging the

original film while still producing a

quality video copy. Next, the master

videos were copied on to DVDs,

which will be available for loan

locally and nationally. 

Burglar on the Roof, a silent film

from 1898, 23 films by pioneering

filmmaker D.W. Griffith, and films 

by screen comedians Charlie Chaplin

and Mack Sennett were some of the

210 films targeted for initial

preservation efforts.
Simpson College

Indianola

S

impson College in

Indianola, Iowa is a United

Methodist-related private

college founded in 1860. Simpson

has an active arts program,

including visual arts exhibitions,

concerts, recitals, and theater and

musical theater productions that

serve the larger central Iowa

community, including Des Moines

and its suburbs.

In FY 2004, Simpson College

received an NEA Heritage &

Preservation grant of $10,000 to

support the preservation of the

collection of Don Berry, an American

photographer who documented rural

Iowa between 1920 and 1970.

Berry, the owner, publisher, and

editor of the local newspaper, The

Indianola Record-Herald and Tribune,

was also an accomplished

photographer, whose collection of

small town life in Warren County

includes photos of farms, schools,

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

5 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Iowa

Official Salvage Depot (1941) and Record and

Tribune & H.C. Criswell Feed Store (1940)

by Don Berry, an American photographer

who documented rural Iowa between 1920

and 1970, whose photographs are being

preserved by Simpson College in Iowa. 
industry, social situations, and

portraits of people at work and at

play. In 1997, the Berry family 

gave the collection of 4,000

photographic negatives to Simpson

College, most stuffed in old

shoeboxes and envelopes. Many of

the negatives had suffered cigarette

smoke damage and were in no

archival order. 

Simpson, over the next two years,

will purchase archival storage

materials, computer equipment to

create an index, and photographic

materials to develop prints. Once

the negatives have been cleaned

and arranged in chronological order,

an exhibition of 40 of the images

will be created and held in 10

locations across Iowa. The

exhibition is scheduled to be ready

by October 2005. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 5 7

University of

Northern Iowa 

Cedar Falls

T

he University of Northern

Iowa in Cedar Falls is the

publisher of the oldest

literary review in the country, The

North American Review (NAR).

Founded in 1815, NAR has been

publishing poetry, fiction, and

nonfiction for almost 200 years. Its

contributors included Walt Whitman,

Henry James, Andrew Carnegie, and

Joseph Conrad. 

Over the last 20 years, NAR won the

National Magazine Award for Fiction

twice and placed stories in the

annual O. Henry anthologies four

times, in the Pushcart Prize annuals

nine times, in Best American Short

Stories eight times, and in Best

American Essays twice. Graphics are

another strength for NAR, which has

twice won the “Ozzie” gold award

for best cover among consumer

magazines with a circulation of less

than 100,000. 

The magazine trains its focus 

on current affairs and politics in

addition to literature. It receives

more than 10,000 submissions 

from authors annually. NAR also

features visual art in every issue.

Circulation is more than 1,800

subscribers in every state and 

more than 15 countries; in addition,

NAR is sent to more than 750

libraries worldwide.

In FY 2004, NAR received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $10,000

to support the publication of three

issues of the literary magazine. The

issues featured the winner of the

Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize, given

for stories taking a strong position

on important social issues; a

celebration of Hispanic Heritage

Month; and more than 15 fiction

pieces, more than 60 poems, and

numerous nonfiction works and

reviews and visual art pieces. 
William Inge Theatre

Festival

Independence

F

ounded in 1982, the William

Inge Theatre Festival in

Independence, Kansas

nurtures, celebrates, promotes, and

presents American theater. Each

April, the organization sponsors a

four-day theater festival of

performances, readings, workshops,

and educational seminars. The

Playwrights-in-Schools program

provides writing and drama

workshops to local high school 

and community college students.

The William Inge Theatre Festival

also provides emerging and

established theater professionals 

a unique collaborative experience

during its 24-Hour Play Festival.

In FY 2004, the William Inge

Theatre Festival received an NEA

Creativity grant of $10,000 to

support a season of Playwrights-inResidence workshops. Six

playwrights and 14 guest actors 

and directors participated in the

program, which gives the writers 

a chance to workshop and develop

new plays. The selected playwrights

were Anne Phelan, Elaine Romero,

Rose Portillo, Richard Broadhurst,

Carson Becker, and Jeremy Kareken.

Many of the plays workshopped in

2004 are currently under

consideration for production 

by professional companies.

Participating playwrights also have

received awards such as an Edward

F. Albee Foundation Fellowship and

commissions from the Mark Taper

Forum and the Irish-American

Heritage Center. Workshop

performances of each play reached

235 audience members, almost a

third of whom were students. More

than 285 people, including 190

students, attended a lecture series

during which the guest artists

shared acting techniques, gave

advice on theater training, and

shared their own personal stories of

life in the theater. The playwrights

and guest artists also presented

workshops to high school and

college-level students in playwriting,

acting, and improvisation.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

5 8 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Kansas
2004 ANNUAL REPORT 5 9

Actress Maricela Ochoa

works with two students

on improvisational skills at

an Independence, Kansas

high school, as well as

acting for playwright Rose

Portillo’s reading of her

new work, titled Twilight’s

End, as part of the

William Inge Theatre

Festival’s Playwright-inResidence season. 

Photo courtesy of William 

Inge Theatre Festival

Hutchinson-Reno

County Cultural

Commission

Hutchinson

C

reated in 1989, the

Hutchinson-Reno County

Cultural Commission is a

support agency for local arts and

humanities councils. The

commission’s mandate includes

fostering tourism through arts

events and attractions, assisting

organizations, promoting events

community wide, and enhancing 

the quality of life of all citizens 

by making the arts accessible to 

the whole community. 

In FY 2004, the Hutchinson-Reno

County Cultural Commission received

an NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support the writing and

promotion of Kansas Murals: A

Traveler’s Guide. The commission

received funding from the Arts

Endowment in 2001 to support

initial research for Kansas Murals

and the design and construction of

a project Web site.

Due to be published in fall 2006 by

the University Press of Kansas, the

250-page volume features color

photographs and narratives of

significant public murals from six

Kansas regions. Featured works

include Work Projects

Administration-era murals and

Kansas Statehouse murals by

American Regionalist painter John

Steuart Curry. The 90 highlighted

murals showcase a diversity of

techniques and approaches with

artists ranging from professionals 

to students and community groups.

Biographies of the selected

muralists and an additional 

400 murals are highlighted in 

the book’s appendix. 

The Hutchinson-Reno County

Cultural Commission will use Kansas

Murals to promote tourism and

economic development in Kansas,

encourage preservation of public

art, provide an educational resource

on Kansas history and art, celebrate

Kansas artists, and foster interest 

in new community mural projects. 

The volume will be available 

for purchase at venues such as

historical societies, museums,

libraries, and arts fairs. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS
Louisville Ballet

Louisville

T

he Louisville Ballet began 

its high caliber dance

programs in 1952. It now

reaches more than 100,000 people

annually and has earned a national

reputation as one of the country’s

leading regional ballet companies.

The ballet company has a repertoire

of 135 works, more than 50 of them

world premieres, and presents five

productions a season plus the 

classic Nutcracker. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

6 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Kentucky

Helen Daigle, with Robert Dunbar and Milan Valko, performs during the Louisville Ballet’s production of Paul Taylor’s Company B.

Photo by Vita Limanovica
Ballet’s touring repertoire with a

focus on Kentucky communities

with nearby military installations,

such as Fort Knox. 

Paducah Symphony

Orchestra 

Paducah

T

he Paducah Symphony

Orchestra (PSO) in rural

western Kentucky has been

bringing audiences from nearby

communities in southern Illinois,

southeastern Missouri, northwestern

Tennessee, and western Kentucky to

hear performances of classical music

since 1979. In addition to its

regular season schedule, the

orchestra performs an annual

Christmas Gala Concert as well as

Youth Concerts that are targeted to

area schools. Also, the PSO

performs an annual “Pops” Concert,

which helps raise funds for its

educational endeavors.

In FY 2004, the PSO received an

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support the opening

concert of its 2004-2005 season.

The program for the concert

In FY 2004, the Louisville Ballet

received an NEA Creativity grant of

$10,000 to support the presentation

of choreographer Paul Taylor’s

Company B. Paul Taylor has been 

a dominant force in dance for

decades, his work having been

performed by more than 65

companies. The Ballet had one

Taylor piece in its repertoire,

Esplanade, which premiered in 1998. 

Company B, set in the 1940s to 

the music of the Andrew Sisters, 

was presented March 4 and 5, 

2005 as part of the Boogie Woogie

Ballet program with Adam

Hougland’s Devolve and Choo-San

Goh’s Variations Serieuses. Company

B, featuring 13 of the Ballet’s

talented dancers, is a dazzling 

and nostalgic piece that recalls 

the World War II era. 

The Ballet hosted public rehearsals

of Taylor’s piece prior to each

production to provide an

introduction to the staging of the

ballet. The addition of the new

piece to its repertoire allows the

Ballet to cultivate new audiences

that revere Taylor or enjoy the

Andrew Sisters’ music. In addition,

Company B has been added to the

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 6 1

featured Edvard Greig’s Piano

Concerto in A Minor and Gustav

Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan,”

and was performed on September

11, 2004 at Paducah’s Luther F.

Carson Four Rivers Center,

overlooking the confluence of the

Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. The 

Four Rivers Center is the new home

of the PSO, and this concert was the

orchestra’s inaugural event at its

new venue. 

Internationally acclaimed pianist

Jeffrey Chappell was the guest

soloist for the Greig concerto, his

premiere performance with the

orchestra. The Mahler symphony,

based on Central European folk and

traditional dance themes, followed.

Jordan Tang was the conductor for

both pieces.

The performance was broadcast on

National Public Radio affiliate WKMS

in Murray, Kentucky. The orchestra

played to an audience of

approximately 1,200 people, and

reached an additional estimated

24,000 through the radio broadcast. 
New Orleans Jazz and

Heritage Foundation 

New Orleans

F

or almost 35 years, the New

Orleans Jazz and Heritage

Foundation (NOJ&HF) has

presented the world-renowned New

Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, 

a seven-day celebration spotlighting

the music, cuisine, and culture of

Louisiana. Jazz Fest, as it’s

popularly called, regularly attracts

more than 400,000 visitors each

year. The festival is part of

NOJ&HF’s mission to promote,

preserve, perpetuate, and encourage

Louisiana’s indigenous arts and

culture. Other foundation initiatives

include youth programs at the

Heritage School of Music; “Raisin’

the Roof,” a homeownership

program for musicians and artists;

and free musical performances in

disadvantaged neighborhoods.

NOJ&HF also provides 40,000 free

and discounted festival tickets to

underserved populations, including

nursing homes and schools.

In FY 2004, NOJ&HF received an

NEA Heritage & Preservation grant

of $25,000 to support three New

Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

exhibits: the Louisiana Folklife

Village, the Folk Heritage Stage, 

and the Native American Village.

Each area featured cultural

demonstrations and performances by

tradition-bearers, including Native

American musicians, Mardi Gras

costume makers, and artisans like

basketweavers and woodworkers.

Together, the three festival sites

boasted more than 100 craftspeople

and performers, many of whom

return annually. Most have learned

their craft through a relative,

community member, or mentor. 

Recent participants have included

the Native Nation Intertribal pow

wow dancers; Larry Miller, a

melodeon (Cajun accordion) 

maker; NEA National Heritage 

Fellow Irvan Perez, a singer and

woodcarver; and YellowFawn

Thornton, a fourth-generation

Choctaw potter. Educational sessions

included folklorist-conducted

interviews with practitioners at 

the Folklife Village and themed

discussions at the Folk Heritage

Stage.

Shreveport Regional

Arts Council

Shreveport

S

ince 1976, the Shreveport

Regional Arts Council (SRAC)

has nurtured, developed,

promoted, and presented arts for

the people of Louisiana’s 

northwest regions. Some of SRAC’s

responsibilities include community

cultural planning, arts in education

programs, maintaining an arts

district, and overseeing public

murals and installations. The

organization’s overarching goal is 

to reach out to underserved

populations through community 

and academic focused arts

education. Previous programs

include interdisciplinary arts

residencies, master classes, and the

annual ArtBreak Festival, which

showcases student artists.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

6 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 
In FY 2004, the Shreveport Regional

Arts Council received an NEA

Learning in the Arts grant of

$50,000 to support ARTSMART, an

arts education program targeted to

middle school students at risk of

failing to advance to high school.

The three-part program, in

partnership with Caddo Parish 

Public Schools, integrates the arts

into math and language curricula

with the aim of improving the

students’ classroom grades, daily

attendance, standardized test

scores, and cognitive skills.

In the 2004-2005 school year,

participating students attended 

an after-school program three 

days per week and a monthly

Saturday off-campus residency. 

In addition, artists from four

disciplines—literature, visual art,

dance, and theater—worked with 

the students for seven weeks during

in-school residencies, which

culminated in a final student

performance and art show. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 6 3

During the school year, participating

classroom teachers and resident 

artists also attended two mandatory

professional development workshops

aimed at helping them to

collaboratively integrate arts learning

into the grade-level curriculum. In

2005, students also participated in 

a four-week Summer Arts Academy

emphasizing the program’s arts

learning component. 

Louisiana

Native Nation Intertribal

pow wow dancers perform 

for fairgoers in Native

American Village at the

New Orleans Jazz and

Heritage Festival.

Photo by Teresa Parker
Alice James Poetry

Cooperative

Farmington

F

ounded in 1973, the mission

of the Alice James Poetry

Cooperative in Farmington,

Maine is to seek out and publish

the best contemporary poetry by

established and beginning poets,

with particular emphasis on

involving poets in the publishing

process. Winners of the regional

New York/New England Award are

active members of the cooperative,

judging future contests and

participating in editorial and

executive decision-making. The

Cooperative’s authors have won

many distinguished literary prizes,

including the American Book Award,

The Nation/Discovery Prize, and 

the William Carlos Williams Award.

My Mojave, the eighth book of

poetry by Alice James author and

NEA Literature Fellow Donald

Revell, won the $25,000 Lenore

Marshall Poetry Prize from the

Academy of American Poets. 

In FY 2004, the Alice James 

Poetry Cooperative received

an NEA Creativity grant of

$24,000 to support the

promotion and

publication of six poetry

titles from its Beatrice

Hawley Award and

New York/New

England Award

competitions. The

Cooperative receives more

than 1,200 entries each year for

these prizes. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

NEA Literature Fellow

Frank X. Gaspar won the

Beatrice Hawley Award from 

the Alice James Poetry

Cooperative for his book,

Night of a Thousand Blossoms.

Image courtesy of Alice James Poetry

Cooperative

6 4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Maine
that younger generations

of the Malisset, Micmac,

Passamaquoddy, and

Penobscot Tribes continue

working in ancestral craft

traditions and develop the

skills necessary to make a

living on disadvantaged

rural reservations.

Members of the alliance

include 125 ash and

sweetgrass basketmakers

and 75 native artisans

working in other craft traditions.

Alliance programs include an arts

apprenticeship program, tribal

community workshops, and the

Wabanaki Arts Center Gallery.

In FY 2004, Maine Indian

Basketmaker’s Alliance received an

NEA Heritage & Preservation grant

of $25,000 to support its Traditional

Arts Apprenticeship program. Since

its inception, more than 100

apprentices have participated in

this traditional training in which

masters and apprentices meet once

weekly for an entire year. In

addition to working on craft skills,

teachers and students are

encouraged to use tribal languages

during sessions in order to help

preserve native oral traditions.

Among the winning titles in 

the 2004 competitions were

manuscripts by National Book

Award finalist Cole Swensen,

Whiting Writings’ Award winner

Catherine Barnett, and NEA

Literature Fellow Frank X. Gaspar.

Winning titles were reviewed by

many prominent publications,

including Publishers Weekly, The

Washington Post, The Christian

Science Monitor, and the Los

Angeles Times Review of Books. 

More than 7,000 copies of the

winning titles were sold, and, as

part of its outreach program, the

Cooperative distributed free copies

of the award titles to artists’

colonies and prison libraries. 

Maine Indian

Basketmaker’s

Alliance 

Old Town

F

ounded in 1992, the Maine

Indian Basketmaker’s

Alliance of Old Town serves

the more than 7,000 members of

Maine’s four federally recognized

Native American tribes, which are

collectively called the Wabanaki.

The alliance’s mission is to ensure

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

In 2004, 19 masters from three

tribes and 21 apprentices took 

part in the program, practicing 

a range of skills including log

pounding, ash preparation,

sweetgrass gathering, weaving, 

and braiding. Apprentices, who

ranged in age from 9 to 60,

learned both traditional tribal 

and familial basket styles.

Participating master basketmakers

included NEA National Heritage

Fellow Clara Neptune Keezer.

Apprentices were given the

opportunity to display and sell

their baskets at the Wabanaki Arts

Center Gallery, Bangor’s National

Folk Festival, and the Maine Indian

Basketmakers annual festival.

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 6 5

Baskets made by NEA National Heritage

Fellow Clara Neptune Keezer, a master artist 

in the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program

of the Maine Indian Basketmaker’s Alliance. 

Photo by Peggy McKenna
Children’s Chorus of

Maryland 

Towson

T

he Children’s Chorus of

Maryland (CCM) in Towson

is dedicated to excellence

in choral music performance and

education. The CCM Conservatory

Program is open to all children ages

5-16 who qualify by passing an

audition. Each level of training is

associated with a performing

ensemble. In addition to the

Conservatory Program, CCM provides

an early childhood music program,

Crickets, for children ages four to

six. In 2000, CCM also founded a

training program for music 

educators, the American Kodály

Institute. Music teachers from all

over the country participate in this

three-year certificate program.

Through its concerts, outreach

programs, guest appearances, and

broadcasts, CCM reaches a wide

cross-section of audiences.

In FY 2004, CCM received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $7,500

to support its Community Outreach

Concerts for rural populations in

Maryland. Two concerts were

presented in Somerset and

Washington Counties for audiences

of 400-500 for each performance. In

addition, CCM provided pre-concert

workshops for students attending

the concerts in the counties. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

Members of the 

Children’s Chorus 

of Maryland. 

Photo by Amy Jones

Background: A member 

of Children’s Chorus of 

Maryland Young Singers.

Photo by Ramona Galey
Washington County

Museum of Fine Arts

Hagerstown

T

he Washington County

Museum of Fine Arts in

Hagerstown, Maryland was

founded by Mr. and Mrs. William

Henry Singer, Jr. and incorporated

in 1929. The museum has a long

tradition of exercising cultural

leadership in the Cumberland Valley

region, providing residents and

visitors with access to an

outstanding permanent collection

of more than 6,000 art works. It

maintains an active schedule of

exhibitions, musical concerts,

lectures, films, art classes, and

special events for children and

adults throughout the year. 

In FY 2004, the museum received

an NEA Challenge America grant 

of $10,000 to support the

development and implementation 

of a visual arts education program,

Exploring the Significance of African

Art. Due to the distance 

of Washington County from most

major multicultural institutions,

there is little opportunity to

introduce local students to the arts

and culture of different ethnic 

and racial groups. Non-European

cultures have had a great impact 

on European and American artists;

when African art was first seen

widely in the Western World in

1900, it was viewed as strange 

and exotic, but greatly influenced

the work of Picasso and Matisse,

among others. 

The program was designed for

eighth-graders in eight Washington

County middle schools. The students

were introduced to African art

through the 50-minute film, African

Art & Culture, followed by hands-on

examination of Ashanti, Bambara,

Luba, and Yoruba ritualistic artifacts

and a general discussion with the

curator about each item and its

cultural context. 

The concerts and workshops took

place in Princess Anne (Somerset

County) in March 2005 and

Hagerstown (Washington County) 

in April. The concerts received 

an enthusiastic reception from

audiences, which came from 

three counties. 

CCM also provided educational

opportunities for local children

attending the concerts through preconcert “Side-by-Side Sings”

workshops, which allowed children

from the audience to sit with a

child in the choir during a preconcert rehearsal. Artistic director

Betty Bertaux introduced important

musical principles as well as

important concepts such as

discipline, teamwork, and focus

required for performance. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 6 7

Maryland
Worcester Art Museum 

Worcester

F

ounded in 1896, the

Worcester Art Museum

(WAM) in Massachusetts is

one of the largest art museums in

New England, housing nearly 35,000

objects spanning 50 centuries. WAM

also acts as a center of art

education, providing classes and

public programs for a variety of

audiences. In the past decade, WAM

has been successful in diversifying

its collection, adding significant

pieces of African American and

Southeast Asian art.

In FY 2004, WAM received an 

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support the exhibition

Japanese Masters of Mezzotint: Yozo

Hamaguchi and Katsunori Hamanishi

from September 6 through

November 28, 2004. These two

20th-century artists elevated 

the difficult art of mezzotint, a 

300-year-old European form of

printmaking in which images 

are produced through subtle

gradations of dark and light rather

than line. The exhibition provided

the opportunity to present an

uncommon art form to the public,

and also to explore contemporary

Asian culture and art. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

6 8 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Massachusetts

Silence No.1 (2002) by Katsunori Hamanishi, one of the works on display 

during the Worcester Art Museum’s exhibition, Japanese Masters of Mezzotint. 

Image courtesy of Worcester Art Museum
The artists’ mezzotints display tones

ranging from deepest black to white

and the selective use of rich colors.

Hamaguchi celebrated the delicate

beauty of the vessels, fruits,

vegetables, and insects that he

appreciated while living in France.

In Hamanishi’s prints, constructed

objects and natural forms of

elemental shapes are juxtaposed 

as they emerge out of darkness,

suggesting cryptic riddles. 

Hamanishi flew from Japan to

Worcester for the opening of 

the exhibition, and conducted 

a public demonstration workshop 

of his technique. 

National Center 

for Jewish Film 

Waltham

T

he National Center for

Jewish Film (NCJF) in

Waltham, Massachusetts

houses the largest, most

comprehensive collection of 

Jewish-themed film and video in

the world. NCJF exclusively owns 

an estimated 12,000 reels of

independently made films,

documentaries, shorts, newsreels,

home movies, and institutional

films dating from 1903 to the

present. The topics of the films

range from the Jewish immigrant

experience in America and

Hollywood’s portrayal of Jewish life

to Israeli history and the Holocaust. 

NCJF’s first priority is the

preservation of rare and endangered

nitrate and acetate films. The

Center began in 1976 with the

rescue of a languishing Yiddishlanguage film collection and has

since preserved and restored 33

Yiddish feature films. In FY 2004,

NCJF received an NEA Heritage &

Preservation grant of $20,000 to

support the preservation of The

Cantor’s Son, one of the most

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 6 9

successful American-made Yiddish

feature films. 

The 1937 film, directed by Ilya

Motyleff (and an uncredited Sidney

Goldin, who began the film but died

early in production), was the screen

debut of Moishe Oysher, the cantor

and matinee idol who later starred

in other Yiddish classics. 

NCJF owns the only known 35-

millimeter nitrate print of the film,

which has broken splices, torn

perforations, and some shrinkage,

but can be restored. The reels will

be preserved and new 35-millimeter

prints will be made, as well as a DVD

master. In addition, a new, separate

subtitle track will be created, as the

original subtitles were inadequate.

The project is expected to be

completed in 18 months. 

A still from the film, The

Cantor’s Son, being restored

by the National Center for

Jewish Film in Waltham,

Massachusetts.

Image courtesy of National Center for

Jewish Film
PIX Arts Council for

Greater Lapeer

Lapeer

T

he PIX Arts Council for

Greater Lapeer (PAC)

programs and operates 

the PIX Theatre, a historic theater

created in the 1940s. The theater

was restored in 1997 and now

showcases musical and theatrical

performances and second-run film

showings, becoming a focal point

for local arts and community

activities in the town of 9,000

residents. Over the three years of 

its existence, PAC has offered a

Premiere Series of performances by

nationally known artists; a Local

Artist Series; KIDS CLUB: Live at 

the PIX, an introduction to the

performing arts for families with

elementary school children; and

theater workshops for children. 

In FY 2004, PAC received an 

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support its 2004-2005

Premiere Series program. PAC added

“talk-back” sessions to two

scheduled performances: Marcus

Belgrave Octet’s show “The Louis

Armstrong Tradition,” and the NeoFuturists’ experimental play, Too

Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.

Marcus Belgrave, formerly a

trumpeter with the Lincoln Center

Jazz Orchestra, led his band through

a repertoire of Armstrong’s work

from the 1930s through the 1960s.

In Too Much Light, the theater

troupe attempts to perform 30 plays

in 60 minutes. Each play is written

by one of the performers, honed 

by the ensemble, and randomly

performed with the other 29 pieces

through audience participation. 

PAC is booking two other prominent

artists who have not appeared

previously in Lapeer for

performances during summer 

2005. PAC’s Premiere Series has

brought in acts not customarily

seen live and is helping to expand

the PIX’s audience.

7 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Michigan

Kaila Potts wins First Place

in the Senior Division

Laureate of the 2004 Sphinx

Competition for her viola

performance.

Photo by Glenn Triest
Sphinx Organization

Detroit

T

he Sphinx Organization 

of Detroit, Michigan is

dedicated to building

diversity in classical music by

developing the classical music talent

in African American and Latino

youth. Sphinx also holds the annual

Sphinx Competition, in which young

African American and Latino string

players compete, mentored by

members of the Sphinx Symphony

Orchestra, a unique all African

American and Latino orchestra

comprised of top professionals 

from around the country. 

In FY 2004, the Sphinx Organization

received an NEA Creativity grant of

$60,000 to support the artistic

development of the Sphinx

Symphony and the 2004 Sphinx

Competition. The symphony includes

past and current members from

major U.S. symphonies, as well as

faculty members of leading music

institutions, including Peabody and

New England Conservatories, Harlem

School of the Arts, Rutgers

University, and the University of

Michigan. During performances, the

symphony promotes works by African

American and Latino composers.

Members of the orchestra devoted

themselves to the mentoring and

education of minority youth string

players through providing master

classes and lectures. In 2004, 18

participants were selected to

participate in the competition 

held from February 18-22, 2004. 

The Honors Concert featured the

three Junior Laureate winners

accompanied by the Sphinx

Symphony, and the Finals Concert

featured the three Senior Laureates

and the Junior Division winner

Trevor Ochieng along with the

symphony and guest artist violinist

Sanford Allen. Sphinx is facilitating

performances of the Laureates with

more than 20 orchestras nationwide,

including Boston, Atlanta, Chicago,

Detroit, St. Louis, and Seattle. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 7 1

Trevor Ochieng, First Place Junior

Division Laureate of the 2004

Sphinx Competition, plays violin

with the Sphinx Symphony

Orchestra, with guest conductor

Guillermo Figueroa. 

Photo by Glenn Triest
College of Saint

Benedict 

St. Joseph

T

he College of Saint Benedict

(CSB) in St. Joseph,

Minnesota, founded in

1913, has been presenting visual

and performing arts events for 28

years through its Fine Arts Series.

In FY 2004, CSB received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $20,000

for the Minnesota premiere of Merce

Cunningham’s dance piece, Split

Sides. In addition, members of the

dance company were artists-inresidence at the college for a week,

conducting panel discussions and

master classes both at CSB and 

the Hennepin Center for the Arts 

in Minneapolis.

Merce Cunningham is one of the

most important and progressive

dance artists of our day, creating

new perspectives on dance’s

relationship with music and the

visual arts. He has received

numerous awards for his work,

including a National Medal of Arts

in 1990.

Split Sides involves Cunningham’s

interest in “chance operations” in

creating art: for each performance,

the order of the two sets of 20-

minute music compositions, the 

two decors, two sets of costumes,

and two lighting plots were

determined by a public preperformance roll of dice, allowing

for, mathematically, 32 different

possible versions of the piece.

Music by Radiohead, stars on the

British alternative rock scene since

the early 1990s, and Sigur Ros, an

Icelandic experimental rock group

recently breaking through on the

international music scene,

accompanied the piece. 

Cunningham’s residency provided

innovative live dance performance

to new audiences who may have 

not experienced live dance before.

The performance drew more than

2,000 adults and children from the

surrounding rural community. 

Walker Art Center

Minneapolis

E

stablished in 1927 and

focusing on contemporary

art beginning in the 1940s,

Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center 

has established an international

reputation as a leader in

contemporary arts. One of the 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

7 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Background: Jean Freebury (far right) leads a dance master class on

the Merce Cunningham technique at the College of Saint Benedict as

part of the dance company’s week-long residency. 

Photo by Kristin Darnall
few art institutions of its kind 

in the country, the Walker is equally

dedicated to visual, performing, 

and film/video arts. Nearly 1,500

artists and scholars participate in

Walker activities each year, bringing

in more than one million annual

visitors.

In FY 2004, the Walker received 

an NEA Creativity grant of $75,000

for its extensive program,

Connective Creation: Developing

New Work in Community, which 

consists of seven large-scaled

commissioned residency projects

over two years. In March 2005, 

the Walker nearly doubled the 

size of the center to provide more

possibilities for performances. 

Among the artists featured in

Connective Creation were the

Ragamala Music and Dance Theater,

I Dewa Putu Berata, and the

Schubert Club Gamelan, some of 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

Minnesota

the most renowned Asian artists,

performing a retelling of the Hindu

epic Ramayana in a piece entitled

Sethu in September 2004. In 2005,

music features include a three-night

festival celebrating the music and

75th birthday of NEA Jazz Master

Ornette Coleman in April and the

world premiere of up-and-coming

jazz pianist Jason Moran’s new jazz

suite inspired by the art works of

the Walker’s collection in May.

Dance features include the Bill T.

Jones’s world premiere of his new

solo program As I Was Saying... in

June 2005. During the two years of

Connective Creation, 14 weeks of

developmental residencies are

designed to build bonds between

the artists and the community. 

1984 NEA Jazz Master Ornette Coleman performs as part of the Walker

Art Center’s three-day festival centered on the jazz legend’s music. 

Photo courtesy of Walker Art Center
Meridian Symphony

Association 

Meridian

T

he Meridian Symphony

Association has enhanced

the cultural environment

of east Mississippi and west central

Alabama by providing an annual

series of public concerts by the

Meridian Symphony Orchestra

(MSO), promoting arts education,

and developing local musical

talent. The orchestra performs 

four to five concerts each year in

addition to a children’s concert 

and a Pops Concert.

In FY 2004, the Meridian Symphony

Association received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $10,000

to support the MSO’s opening

concert of the 2004-2005 season.

The concert, entitled “America the

Beautiful,” was held September 11,

2004 to commemorate the tragedy

of September 11, 2001. 

The program of all American

composers began with the National

Anthem and included African

American composer Ulysses Simpson

Kay’s Presidential Suite, George

Gershwin’s Concerto in F for Piano

and Orchestra, excerpts from Aaron

Copland’s ballet Rodeo, and Samuel

Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

Pianist/composer Logan Skelton, a

Mississippi native who is Associate

Professor of Piano at the University

of Michigan School of Music, was

the guest artist. 

Before the program, Skelton and

conductor Claire Fox Hillard held 

a pre-concert lecture. A student

workshop with Skelton was held 

at the Meridian Community College

for area piano students. Both the

workshop and concert were

standing room only, attracting 

more than 500 people. 

The symphony has sought to bring

more members of the large local

African American community into

its audiences through performing

music by African American artists,

such as “The Roots and Influences

of Jazz: America’s Music” and

“America the Beautiful.” 

University of

Mississippi 

University

T

he Center for the Study 

of Southern Culture was

established at the

University of Mississippi in 1977.

Since then, the Center has gained

an international reputation for

education and scholarship on the

history, literature, music, art, and

food of the American South. The

Center sponsors several programs

aimed at the general public as well,

such as the Faulkner and

Yoknapatawpha Conference, the

Chancellor’s History Symposium, and

the Oxford Conference for the Book. 

In FY 2004, the University of

Mississippi received an NEA

Creativity grant of $10,000 to

support the 2004 Oxford Conference

for the Book, April 1-4, 2004. The

free conference, inaugurated by the

Center in 1993, is a three-day

gathering celebrating the literary

arts. Since 1999, the conference has

been broadcast on cable television

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

7 4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 
as well, reaching an estimated

50,000 people. 

The 2004 conference included a

tribute to renowned writer Walker

Percy, to whom the conference was

dedicated, and an annual session

celebrating National Poetry Month.

A special program honoring awardwinning children’s book author

Mildred D. Taylor, including a

governor’s proclamation of April 

2 as Mildred D. Taylor Day in

Mississippi, drew approximately

1,100 people. In addition, there

were numerous workshops and

panels on the process of writing,

getting published, and reaching 

an audience. 

Writers participating in the

conference included Roy Blount, Jr.,

Barry Hannah, and NEA Literature

Fellows Kaye Gibbons, Beth Ann

Fennelly, and William Jay Smith. 

The 2004 conference attendance

was 300 to 500 people at almost all

of the 17 sessions. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 7 5

Mississippi

The Oxford Conference for the Book is an annual three-day gathering celebrating 

the literary arts in Oxford, Mississippi. 
West Plains Council 

on the Arts 

West Plains

L

ocated in the heart of the

Missouri Ozarks, for more

than 25 years the West

Plains Council on the Arts (WCPA)

has supported the region’s

traditional arts through

documentation, conservation, and

presentation. Working with partners

such as Southwest Missouri State

University, the Missouri Arts

Council, and the Missouri Folk Arts

Program, WCPA has fostered the

development of local artists,

presented artists and art forms 

not traditionally accessible to the

area, preserved regional cultural

traditions, and advocated for 

the arts as a partner in 

community development. 

In FY 2004, WCPA received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $30,000

to support a one-year folklorist

position. Rachel Reynolds, the

folklorist chosen for the position,

was charged with expanding

accessibility to audiences for the

region’s traditional artists, art

forms, and folklife. She also

coordinated a strategic planning

process for cultural tourism to

diversify audiences and benefit 

local economies. 

Major activities for 2004 ranged

from creating a regional folk arts

and cultural tourism Web site to

conducting fieldwork documenting

regional folklife, traditional artists,

and art forms to working with local

schools and organization to develop

education resources around the

area’s traditional cultural resources.

Reynolds also assisted in the

planning, programming, and

promotion of the West Plains Old

Time Music/Ozark Heritage Festival,

which features traditional crafts,

cultural activities, and musical

entertainment, including

performances by NEA National

Heritage Fellows Kenny Baker 

and Will Keys. Additional projects

included creating the Pickin’

Session series to promote the

traditional music and dances of 

the region and expanding the

WCPA’s database of cultural

resources of the Missouri Ozarks.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

7 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Missouri
Cinema St. Louis 

St. Louis

F

ounded in 1991, the

mission of Cinema St. Louis

is to present cinema that

offers glimpses of human experience

from around the world in order to

foster learning about myriad

expressions, cultures, and opinions.

Cinema St. Louis has produced the

St. Louis International Film Festival

since 1992 when the festival

featured only 25 films. The festival

provides the only exposure to some

of the world’s best films for more

than 16,000 viewers. 

In FY 2004, Cinema St. Louis

received an NEA Creativity grant 

of $10,000 to support the 13th St.

Louis International Film Festival.

The 11-day event featured more

than 180 films, including short 

and feature-length international

documentaries, American

independent works, and locally

produced films. More than 50 

guest filmmakers and 18,000

audience members participated 

in the 2004 event. 

Outside of screening some Oscarnominated films such as Finding

Neverland, the festival’s schedule

included feature documentaries—

such as Cambodia: Living with

Landmines and Bluegrass Journey—

and first-time directors, including

Ferenc Toth’s Unknown Soldier about

surviving on the streets of Harlem

and St. Louis native Ryan Eslinger’s

Madness and Genius, which explores

the world of academic physics

through a discovery by a professor

and student. 

Algeria, Bhutan, Scotland, and 

New Zealand were among the 29

countries presenting international

films at the festival. Special events

at the festival included a live

discussion with Oscar-winning

director Bill Condon, a tribute to

pioneer woman director Alice Guy

Blache, and a free seminar for

filmmakers on privacy and 

publicity rights. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

At the 13th St. Louis International Film Festival, the audience 

lines up before a sold-out screening at the Hi-Pointe Theater. 

Photo courtesy of Cinema St. Louis
but also quality art lessons and

teacher workshops in art education.

In 2003-2004, Art Mobile traveled

to 70 sites in 27 counties, reaching

7,256 individuals, mostly students.

In FY 2004, Art Mobile received an

NEA Challenge America grant of

$12,000 for its 2004-2005

activities. During the year, Art

Mobile visited 55 sites in Montana

(including the state’s seven Indian

reservations), reaching just about

every area of the state, and served

nearly 7,000 individuals. Each visit

is a minimum of two hours, and

some sites schedule more than one

visit in a year. Art Mobile provides

visits for all ages, but tries to target

more intergenerational groups, such

as in Judith Gap, Montana, where a

local seniors group participated in a

site visit with high school students.

The program also provides

accommodations for the hearing and

visually challenged.

Art-making activities are part of 

the site visits, offered in a range 

of media from printmaking to

watercolor to pastels, and are 

Art Mobile of Montana 

Dillon

Art Mobile of Montana,

based in rural Dillon,

provides a traveling art

outreach program for those with

less access to the visual arts.

Targeting students and underserved

areas such as Indian reservations,

Art Mobile provides not only

collections of original works of art

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

Montana

Students from the Hutterite Colonies

near Lewistown, Montana working on

art projects after the presentation of the

Art Mobile of Montana exhibit. 

Photo by Sara Colburn
GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 7 9

often related to art works in the

exhibits. All Art Mobile art lessons

adhere to the Montana Performance

Standards for the Arts.

The artists featured in Art Mobile

are primarily Montanan artists.

These artists, whose works speak to

the rich, visual legacy of the West,

are well received by the mostly rural

audiences that Art Mobile visits. 

Whitefish Theatre

Whitefish

T

he Whitefish Theatre

Company (WTC) is a 

cultural arts center in 

rural northwestern Montana,

attracting audiences from 

hundreds of miles away for 

their theatrical productions. In

addition to performances, WTC 

has a children’s education program 

that includes after-school

workshops, a summer camp, and

school performances/discussions.

In FY 2004, WTC received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $10,000

for two Summer Series productions

in July and August 2004: Songs for

a New World and Art. The plays were

performed five days a week, Songs

playing July 22 through August 8

and Art playing August 11-22.

Through a partnership with Flathead

Valley Community College, four

interns assisted WTC in the

production of the two plays. The

Whitefish Chamber of Commerce 

and Glacier County assisted in

developing marketing plans and

promotional materials for the Web,

radio, and television, as well as

distribution in print.

The Whitefish Summer Series

coincides with increased tourist

activity to Glacier Park, Flathead

Lake, and Whitefish Lake located

nearby. Songs for a New World is a

musical by Tony Award-winning

songwriter Jason Robert Brown. The

libretto addresses the ways in

which we can deal with the stress,

terror, and anxiety of modern life.

Art, by noted French playwright

Yasmina Reza, uses the eternal

question, What is art?, as basis for

an examination of the friendship

among three men. 

Whitefish Theatre presented Jason Robert Brown’s Songs 

for a New World as part of their Summer Series in 2004. 

Photo by Stillwater Photography
Museum of 

Nebraska Art

Kearney

F

ounded in 1976, the

Museum of Nebraska Art

(MONA) in Kearney became

the state’s official visual arts

collection by legislative act in

1979. The collection of more than

5,000 artworks contains work by

Nebraskan artists and works

reflective of Nebraska’s culture and

environment. Artists represented in

the collection include Regionalist

painter Thomas Hart Benton,

wildlife illustrator John James

Audubon, and contemporary fiber

artist Sheila Hicks. MONA’s

community programs, in support of

its mission to enhance the quality

of life for all Nebraskans through

expanded arts education, include

artist and scholar lectures, musical

and theatrical performances, and

hands-on arts workshops for youth

and adult students.

In FY 2004, MONA received an 

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support its ARTreach

program in which works from the

museum’s collection are toured and

exhibited statewide. The program

brings quality original art to citizens

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

8 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

who do not have regular access 

to it, particularly those living in

rural areas.

Grant funds were used to print

interpretive and promotional

materials as well as for the

transportation and installation of

the touring artworks. Beginning in

October 2004, 22 sites were offered

a chance to participate in the

project, which is scheduled to run

through September 2006.

Presenters may request one of six

thematic exhibitions, such as Afro

Psalms, an exploration of African

American life through the

juxtaposition of works by illustrator

Grant Reynard and poet Charles

Fort. MONA expects up to 2,500

individuals will benefit from each

site’s four-week exhibition.

Negro Singer by Grant Reynard, part of the Museum of Nebraska Art’s exhibition Afro

Psalms, which is available for touring through the museum’s ARTreach program. 

Image courtesy of Museum of Nebraska Art
Nebraska Humanities

Council

Lincoln

T

he Nebraska Humanities

Council (NHC), the

Nebraska Arts Council

(NAC), and the University of

Nebraska-Lincoln Plains Humanities

Alliance partnered in 2003 to

create the Nebraska Folklife

Network (NFN) in response to the

lack of wide-ranging folklore

programs in the state. The mission

of the NFN is to research,

document, support, and publicly

present Nebraska folklife and

traditional arts. 

In FY 2004, the NHC received 

an NEA Folk & Traditional Arts

Infrastructure Initiative grant of

$25,000 to support the second 

year of a statewide folklife and

traditional arts program

administered by the Nebraska

Folklife Network.

The NFN provides technical

assistance to traditional artists 

and cultural and community

organizations who wish to apply for

NHC or NAC grants. NFN has also

worked with traditional artists,

cultural communities, and the

Nebraska Arts Council to develop an

online middle school curriculum on

the state’s folk and traditional arts.

To further foster cultural learning,

NFN distributes encounter “trunks,”

including a teacher’s manual, books,

compact discs, traditional clothing,

games, and other cultural items.

The first two trunks were “From the

Steppes to the Plains: Nebraska’s

Germans from Russia” and “A

Treasured Heritage: Mexican

Americans in Nebraska.”

In 2004, NFN started production 

on two new kits by documenting

various cultural festivals hosted 

by the state’s Vietnamese and

Swedish communities. NFN is also

conducting fieldwork to identify and

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 8 1

Nebraska

interview tradition bearers from

each group. The resulting trunks

will be available for use in 2006 by

schools, libraries, museums, and

community organizations. The

program reaches nearly 4,000

students, primarily in fourth

through sixth grades.

The Nebraska Humanities Council is

working on a special kit on Vietnamese

festivals, which provides information on 

topics such as traditional decorations, 

here shown for Tet, the Vietnamese lunar

new year, which include a table with

candles, incense, and blossoms. 

Photo by Gwen Meister
Las Vegas-Clark

County Library

District

Las Vegas

T

he Las Vegas-Clark County

Library District serves 1.5

million residents in a

7,000-square-mile area in Clark

County, Nevada, with 12 urban

branches and 12 rural branches. 

In addition, the library district

produces artistic and cultural

programming in 13 art galleries 

and six performing arts centers

featuring national, regional, and

local authors, musicians, dancers,

and visual artists. 

In FY 2004, the Las Vegas-Clark

County Library District received an

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support a residency with

the Ailey II Company of the Alvin

Ailey American Dance Theater at the

West Las Vegas Library and Theatre.

The residency included a

lecture/demonstration for

elementary and middle school

students, a master dance class for

youth, and a free evening concert.

West Las Vegas is historically an

African American community

located near downtown Las Vegas. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

8 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Nevada

Ailey II dancers Courtney Brené Corbin and Yusha-Marie Sorzano lead a master 

class at the West Las Vegas Art Center as part of the dance company’s residency. 

Photo by Isaac Sawyer, Las Vegas Sentinel Voice
Book Festival. Originally planned 

as a three-day festival from October

21-23, 2004, it was expanded by

five days due to an enthusiastic

response by new community

partners: the City of Las Vegas, 

the Art Institute of Las Vegas, 

the University of Nevada at Las

Vegas, and Clark County. The 

festival featured more than 50

nationally known and locally

established writers in readings,

panel discussions, and writing

workshops. The event raised public

awareness of literary programs

offered at Henderson-area libraries

and other local cultural venues.

The 2004 festival featured three

keynote speakers: acclaimed crime

novelist Walter Mosley, National

Book Award-winning novelist

Charles Johnson, and author and

screenwriter Michael Blake. Festival

activities also included a children’s

theater production in the city’s

outdoor amphitheater, two

evenings of poetry readings and a

poetry workshop, and presentations

by graphic artists/cartoonists 

Chip Kidd and Keith Knight. An

estimated 5,000 people attended

festival activities in Henderson 

and Las Vegas. 

The residency was a featured part 

of the library’s African American

Heritage Month celebration in

February 2005. Many of the

activities related to the celebration

revolved around the subject of

dance, focusing on its broad role

within African and African American

cultures. The residency fit well with

the theme, as Ailey II showcased

jazz and modern dance with a

decidedly African American focus,

often using jazz and blues as

musical accompaniment.

The master dance class for young

dancers ages 10 to 17 included 68

participants and was led by Ailey II

dancers Courtney Brené Corbin,

Yusha-Marie Sorzano, and Ricardo

Zayas. More than 150 students

attended the lecture/demonstration.

The evening performance drew more

than 350 people. 

Henderson District

Public Libraries

Henderson

I

n addition to library services,

the Henderson District Public

Libraries (HDPL) present

artistic and cultural activities in

the community, such as the Vegas

Valley Book Festival. This festival 

is sponsored by HDPL in

partnership with the Nevada

Humanities Committee and the 

City of Henderson, and is free 

to the community. 

In FY 2004, HDPL received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $10,000

to support the 2004 Vegas Valley

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 8 3
Dream. Nationally known artists,

such as Eric Fennell and Leah

Partridge, performed the major roles

with Opera North’s Young Artists 

in supporting roles. During the

matinee performances, Young Artists

were given the opportunity to

perform in the principal roles. Opera

North won seven OperaOnline

awards for performances during the

2004 season, including one for a

Young Artist.

In addition to the performances,

Opera North toured scenes from 

the two operas as well as other

Shakespeare works in music at a

variety of venues throughout

Vermont and New Hampshire.

Preview “scenes” programs were

presented in rural communities 

and underserved school districts in

June 2004, and a symposium on

Shakespeare’s comedy and drama 

in song was held during the

performance season.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

8 4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

New Hampshire

Opera North 

Lebanon

O

pera North of Lebanon,

New Hampshire is northern

New England’s premier

professional opera company, playing

to more than 12,000 people

annually at the historic Lebanon

Opera House. In addition to its

season performances, Opera North

also provides the Young Artist

Program, a training program for

expert young singers and technical

personnel; a school and community

outreach program; master classes;

and pre-performance lectures.

In FY 2004, Opera North received 

an NEA Challenge America grant 

of $10,000 to support its 2004

summer program, A Festival of

Shakespeare in Song. The festival

featured five performances of

Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet

and four performances of Benjamin

Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s

Background: Randall Scotting and

Susannah Biller, members of the

Youth Artist program, play Oberon

and Titania, king and queen of the

fairies, in Opera North’s matinee

performance of Benjamin Britten’s A

Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of

A Festival of Shakespeare in Song. 

Photo by Carl S. Brandon
Concord Community

Music School 

Concord

T

he Concord Community

Music School (CCMS) in 

New Hampshire serves

nearly 1,500 students of all ages,

income levels, and musical abilities

every week, providing more than

80,000 musical services to 33,000

individuals during 2003. In 2002,

CCMS participated in the NEA

initiative Creative Communities,

partnering with the Manchester

Housing Authority to offer dance,

singing, improvisation, and

percussion classes to children 

ages 4-12.

In FY 2004, CCMS received an NEA

Learning in the Arts grant of

$45,000 to support its Music in the

Community Initiative. This initiative

provides programming to those who

could not otherwise participate

because of income, disability, or

distance, serving children ages 

6 months to 18 years. 

CCMS partnered with public 

schools, pre-schools, retirement

communities, public housing, and

human service agencies throughout

New Hampshire on this initiative.

Through its partnership with 11

organizations, CCMS provided music

and movement classes for at-risk

mothers and their children and 

low-income pre-schoolers; chorus,

creative dance, and musical theater

for children in public housing;

percussion sessions for at-risk

students; master classes and

sectionals for school music

programs; and improvisational 

and composition residencies by

CCMS faculty.

During the 2003-2004 school year,

the Music In The Community

Initiative took CCMS faculty

members to partner sites more 

than 700 times. From Concord to

Manchester, from the Lakes Region

to Northern New Hampshire, more

than 2,700 individuals were served

through this program during the

year. These individuals were

involved in 529 sessions, which 

is expected to increase to more 

than 700 in 2005.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 8 5

Students in the after-school partnership between the Concord

Community Music School and the Manchester Housing and

Redevelopment Authority who began with creative movement

classes in 2001 are now studying ballet as part of the Music in

the Community Initiative. 

Photo by Dan Gawlowski
Montclair Art Museum 

Montclair

T

he Montclair Art Museum 

in New Jersey is

internationally known 

for its American and Native

American art collections, providing

exhibitions and educational

programs that explore the two

evolving artistic traditions. The

museum serves more than 60,000

visitors annually, and has various

educational programs to reach the

public and special needs audiences,

including lectures, studio art

classes, guided gallery tours, 

and family days.

In FY 2004, the Montclair Art

Museum received an NEA Challenge

America grant of $15,000 to support

Project Reach Out, an off-site

educational program designed to

reach more than 5,000 disabled

adults with sustained visual arts

lessons and hands-on art activities.

The project, celebrating its 10th

anniversary, provides these services

free of charge to local organizations

that do not have the expertise or

financial resources to develop visual

arts programming of their own. The

participants of the program are

developmentally and neurologically

impaired adults that live with

severe physical limitations.

Project Reach Out is offered at the

North West Essex Community

Healthcare Network in Montclair 

and the First Cerebral Palsy Center

of Essex in Bellville to participants

who would find it difficult to visit

the museum. Art projects are

designed by an experienced artist

and art educator to accommodate 

a wide range of physical disabilities.

Participants learn to express

themselves in a variety of two- and

three-dimensional artistic modes

from drawing with pencil and

charcoal to painting with acrylic 

on canvas to woodwork and crafts. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

8 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

New Jersey

Students participating in the Montclair Art

Museum’s Project ReachOut, a visual arts outreach

program for adults with special needs. 

Photos by Eleanor M. Schlosser
Thomas A. Edison

Media Arts

Consortium 

Jersey City

Named after Thomas

Edison’s Black Maria film

studio in West Orange,

New Jersey, erected in 1893 to

facilitate the production of the

earliest moving images known to

the public, the Black Maria Film 

and Video Festival presents a

highly varied and provocative

collection of new film works

offered for exhibition through 

its traveling showcase tour. The

festival includes an international

juried award competition and 

post-film discussions. 

In FY 2004, the Thomas A. Edison

Media Arts Consortium of Jersey 

City received an NEA Creativity

grant of $20,000 to support the

24th Annual Black Maria Film and

Video Festival. 

Since 1981, the annual Black 

Maria Film and Video Festival 

has been fulfilling its mission to 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

exhibit cutting edge works from

independent film and videomakers.

Following a rigorous jurying process

that whittles down 700 entries to

50 selected works, the festival

launches its national tour each

January. The festival is recognized

by The Academy of Motion Picture

Arts and Sciences as an Academy

Award–qualifying festival for short

films (documentary, animation, 

and live action).

The winners of the 24th festival,

ranging from experimental works to

documentaries to animation, came

from 14 states and five foreign

countries. From January to June

2005, the festival traveled to 75

sites in 18 states throughout the

country and in Italy. A festival

curator travels to each venue 

to introduce and oversee the

exhibition of the work and to

facilitate audience discussion. 

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 8 7
Museum of New

Mexico Foundation

Santa Fe

T

he Museum of New Mexico

Foundation is a nonprofit

organization, governed by

a board of trustees, that provides

essential philanthropic and

financial support for the Museum 

of New Mexico system and the

museum’s Traveling Exhibitions

Program (TREX). TREX exhibitions

feature the unique arts and cultures

of the Southwest, serving museums

nationally and internationally. 

In FY 2004, the Museum of New

Mexico Foundation received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $20,000

to support TREX in the development

of new exhibitions and new ways to

make them more accessible using

the Internet. TREX circulates

exhibitions from the museum

collections and on loan to the

museum and develops new traveling

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

8 8 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

New Mexico

The Museum of New Mexico’s TREX program offers high quality exhibitions for 

touring throughout the United States, such as Cerámica y Cultura: The Story of 

Spanish and Mexican Mayólica, exhibited here at the University of Arizona Museum 

of Art in September 2004. 

Photo courtesy of University of Arizona and Museum of New Mexico
programs a year, releasing one each

week during the school year. Each

season includes episodes on the

building blocks of music: melody,

harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

World-class musicians and

composers such as Yo-Yo Ma, 

Bright Sheng, Zakir Hussain, 

and Tan Dun, as well as major

orchestras and local musicians,

have participated in the episodes.

Boombox Classroom makes it

possible for elementary and 

middle-school students to have a

professionally taught music lesson

every week, even if there is no

music teacher in the classroom.

Participating teachers download 

the age-appropriate curriculum work

materials from Sweet Bird Classics’

Web site along with answer sheets,

play lists, and supporting material.

All the materials follow the National

Standards for Music Education. 

exhibitions in conjunction with

other branches of the museum

system. The traveling exhibition

program is the oldest such program

in the United States, having been

founded in 1909. 

In 2004, TREX offered 12

exhibitions for booking, including

Cerámica y Cultura: The Story of

Spanish and Mexican Mayólica,

which explores the rich history and

culture of the Iberian Peninsula

and the Americas through the art

form of mayólica, tin-enameled

earthenware; Stories Untold: Jewish

Pioneer Women, 1850-1910, the Art

of Andrea Kalinowski, in which the

contemporary artist uses a mixedmedia approach to tell stories of

Jewish women’s lives on the

Western frontier; and Gone:

Photographs of Abandonment on

the High Plains, which shows 

noted photographer Steve Fitch’s

images of abandoned buildings

along the Great Plains. All TREX

exhibitions include resource guides,

interpretive components, and

publications that enhance

educational impact and 

community outreach efforts.

Sweet Bird Classics

Albuquerque

T

he mission of Sweet Bird

Classics of Albuquerque,

New Mexico is to produce

high-quality educational radio

programs and associated print

materials about classical and world

music. The programs are available

for free to radio stations and

school districts in the United

States and Canada.

In FY 2004, Sweet Bird Classics

received an NEA Learning in the

Arts grant of $30,000 to support

Boombox Classroom, a nationally

syndicated, award-winning series of

radio programs about world and

classical music designed for school

districts that have little general

music instruction in grades

kindergarten through eighth. 

Boombox Classroom runs on 20

stations in 14 states. Some stations

air the programs on weekends;

others use them as curriculum if

their communities have too little

music in the schools. Sweet Bird

Classics produces approximately 36

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 8 9
Arts for Art 

New York

Arts for Art is an artist-run

nonprofit in New York

City that builds

awareness and understanding 

of avant-garde jazz and other

expressive art movements that

share an aesthetic based on a

disciplined disregard for traditional

boundaries. The organization’s

principal activities include

exhibitions of visual arts,

community-based art education

programs, and the presentation of

cutting-edge music, highlighted by

the annual Vision Festival.

In FY 2004, Arts for Art received an

NEA Creativity grant of $10,000 to

support the ninth annual Vision

Festival from May 25 through May

31, 2004. The festival was held at

the Center at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

and drew more than 3,500 people

over seven days. 

The Vision Festival revolves around

self-produced performances of a

cooperative group of musicians

working in avant-garde jazz. There

were a total of 150 artists who

performed in 31 performing groups

during the festival, with some of

the brightest stars in contemporary

avant-garde jazz—William Parker

(one of the founding members of

Arts for Art), Matthew Shipp, and

David S. Ware—performing with

legendary musicians such as Reggie

Workman, Leroy Jenkins, Butch

Morris, and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

The festival offers benefits to 

both the artists and the public: 

the artists gain essential exposure

to larger audiences, leading to 

more performing and recording

opportunities, and the public 

gets to experience some of the

finest experimental improvised

music available. The casual

atmosphere of the performances

allows the audiences and artists 

to mingle and interact. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

9 0 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

The Revolutionary

Ensemble, with

avant-garde legend

Leroy Jenkins on

violin, Sirone on

bass, and Jerome

Cooper on drums, at

the 2004 Vision

Festival in New York

City, sponsored by

Arts for Art. Artwork

behind musicians is

by Yuko Otomo. 

Photo by Michael Wilderman
Iroquois Indian

Museum 

Howes Cave

T

he Iroquois Indian Museum

(IIM) in central New York

State is an educational

institution dedicated to fostering

understanding of Iroquois culture

through their arts, both visual and

performing. As an anthropology

museum, IIM identifies and presents

artists celebrating the unity of

traditions of the 17 Iroquois

Confederacy communities scattered

across the United States and

Canada, including the Cayuga,

Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, 

Seneca, and Tuscarora Nations.

In FY 2004, IIM received an NEA

Heritage & Preservation grant of

$20,000 to support At the Edge of

the Clearing, a series of festivals to

present traditional and

contemporary Iroquois art and

culture. The two festivals held in

2004 were the Strawberry Moon

Festival of Iroquois Arts, May 29-30,

and the 23rd Annual Iroquois

Festival, September 4-6. 

Both festivals included Iroquois

social dancing, storytelling, and

foods; children’s activities; nature

park walks; and an all-Iroquois art

market featuring some of the

premier Iroquois artists and

craftspeople working today. 

At the Strawberry Moon Festival, 

an Onondaga woodworking

demonstration was held by Al

Jacques, an Oneida cornhusk

demonstration by Rita Chrisjohn

Benson, and a Mohawk drum making

demonstration by Alan 

Brant in addition to other activities. 

At the 23rd Annual Iroquois

Festival, the Jim Sky Dancers 

and Onondaga Dancers performed

traditional Onondaga dances 

while Santee Smith and Company

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 9 1

New York

performed contemporary Iroquois

dances. The festival also included

storyteller Perry Ground, the

Howard Lyons Band, and the Old

Mush Singers, all with roots in one

of the 17 Iroquois communities.

Tuscarora pottery, Cayuga wampum,

and Mohawk stonecarving

demonstrations were also part 

of the activities. 

Iroquois art and crafts, such as this

Oneida drum and drumstick by

craftsman Richard Chrisjohn, Sr., are

on display at the Iroquois Indian

Museum and during their series of

festivals presented each year. 

Photo courtesy of Iroquois Indian Museum
American Dance

Festival

Durham

T

he New York Times has called

American Dance Festival

(ADF) in Durham, North

Carolina “the country’s foremost 

and enduring organization devoted

to creativity in American modern

dance.” Founded in 1934, ADF’s

mission is to support the creation

and presentation of new dance

works, preserve the modern dance

heritage of the United States, and

build wider audiences for dance. 

The organization also provides

professional education and training

for dancers, including youth

programs for young dancers. ADF 

is committed to enhancing public

understanding of the art form

through outreach programs such as

Community Crossover classes, special

children’s performances, access to its

video collection, and tours. 

In FY 2004, American Dance Festival

received an NEA Creativity grant of

$60,000 to support Mapping Modern

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

9 2 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

North 

The Argentinean dance

company Grupo Krapp

presents the U.S. premiere of

Mendiolaza at the 2004

American Dance Festival in

Durham, North Carolina. 

Photo by Bruce R. Feeley
Dance, a program of major works by

renowned choreographers from the

U.S. and abroad including Ronald K.

Brown (U.S.), Alexandre Pepelyaev

(Russia), Nacho Duato (Spain), and

Ohad Naharin (Israel). Three

international choreographers from

Russia, Argentina, and Japan were

also commissioned to create new

works for ADF dancers during a 

six-week residency. 

In addition to public performances,

Mapping Modern Dance included a

program of related educational

activities. These efforts included a

series of panel discussions exploring

the influences and roots of modern

dance in the United States; postperformance talks for audiences

with choreographers, dancers,

critics, and scholars; an archival

photo exhibit; docent tours of ADF

classes and workshops; dance

demonstrations; and master classes.

More than 30,000 people attended

performances during the Mapping

Modern Dance series and more 

than 3,000 people participated 

in outreach activities.

Charlotte Symphony

Orchestra

Charlotte

Founded in 1932, the Charlotte

Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is the

largest performing arts organization

in the Carolina Piedmont region,

which encompasses North Carolina’s

Gaston and Mecklenburg Counties as

well as York County, South Carolina.

The CSO employs 62 full-time

musicians for a 40-week season 

that includes a classics series, a

Pops series, Mostly Mozart and

Neighborhood concerts, and four

Lollipops concerts for children. 

The CSO’s mission is to promote

orchestral and choral music as

integral components of the

preservation and development 

of American culture.

In FY 2004, the CSO received an

NEA Challenge America grant of

$20,000 to support the second 

year of its Mill Community project.

In the first part of this initiative,

the CSO collected stories from

community residents on the

Piedmont’s historical role in the

cotton and textile industries and

the subsequent decline of the

region’s mills. In the program’s

second year, the orchestra

commissioned local composer 

David Crowe to write a piece for

chamber orchestra based on these

oral histories. The project aimed to

raise awareness of the mill

communities’ history as well as to

demonstrate how orchestral music

can illuminate and transform the

understanding of a community’s

experience. 

The resulting composition, Mill

Village: A Piedmont Rhapsody, was

performed in a 12-concert series to

audiences numbering nearly 4,000

people. To strengthen the

connection between the CSO and

the socio-economically diverse local

community, the concerts and an

accompanying lecturedemonstration took place 

in venues such as churches,

community centers, recital halls,

and schools throughout Gaston,

Mecklenburg, and York Counties.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 9 3

 Carolina

A dancer from Hubbard Street Dance

Chicago performs at the 2004 American

Dance Festival.

Photo by Bruce R. Feeley
Northern Prairie

Performing Arts

Fargo

E

stablished in 1946, 

Fargo-Moorhead Community

Theatre (the operating name

of Northern Prairie Performing Arts)

is the largest theater arts

organization in the Red River 

Valley region of North Dakota and

Minnesota. It is the region’s only

non-academic, year-round arts

presenter and the only noncollegiate theater organization 

with its own performance space.

Additional programs at the theater

include the Prairie Theatre Academy,

an afterschool drama program for

children and youth, and the Guest

Artist/Guest Director program in

which avocational members of the

theater company work and perform

with professionals from

organizations such as the FargoMoorhead Civic Opera.

In FY 2004, Northern Prairie

Performing Arts received an NEA

Creativity grant of $10,000 to

support the development of 

the Prairie Theatre Players, a

professionally trained touring

repertory company that fulfills the

organization’s outreach mission to

bring quality theater productions to

schools and rural communities that

would not otherwise have access to

the arts. The troupe will tour two

plays during its first season. The

musical I Believe in Make Believe is

designed to stimulate the creative

imagination of early elementary

school children. Goodbye Marianne,

the story of a Jewish girl growing

up in 1930s Berlin, fosters dialogue

about acceptance, tolerance, and

inclusion. 

Prairie Theatre Players is scheduled

to tour in 2006 and expects to

produce 30 performances reaching

more than 7,500 students and 400

teachers. The traveling company will

perform at schools, civic

auditoriums, and community centers

throughout North Dakota,

Minnesota, and South Dakota. 

North Dakota Council

on the Arts

Bismarck

T

he North Dakota Council 

on the Arts (NDCA) was

established in 1967 by the

state legislature to support and

develop the arts and artists

throughout North Dakota. One of

their programs is the Traditional

Arts Apprenticeship Program, which

preserves North Dakota’s diverse

living traditions, particularly those

folk traditions that are rare or

endangered. Former apprentices

have gone on to participate in 

the Artist-in-Residence program,

which places artists in K-12

classrooms for 10-week sessions 

to incorporate folk arts learning

into classroom curriculum. 

In FY 2004, NDCA received an NEA

Folk & Traditional Arts Infrastructure

Initiative grant of $30,000 to

support its statewide Traditional

Arts Apprenticeship Program. In

2004, 17 master-apprentice teams

participated in the ten-month

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

9 4 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 
program. Teams came from a diverse

array of North Dakota communities

including Butte (population: 92)

and Fargo (population: 90,000), 

and apprentices ranged in age from

14-85. Some of the traditional arts

supported by the program included

Norwegian hardanger fiddle

construction, saddle making,

Chippewa beadwork, and 

traditional button accordion music.

Although all apprenticeships 

took place during the ten-month

period, the amount of time each

team spent working together varied

depending on the difficulty of the

tradition, the apprentice’s

experience level, and the team’s

ambitiousness. At the completion 

of the apprenticeship, each

apprentice participated in a public

demonstration or presentation of 

his or her folk tradition, such as 

a classroom visit or festival

performance. Apprentices also

submitted written reports about

their experience and plans to

continue working in the 

folk tradition.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 9 5

North Dakota

Top: Master traditional artist Marvin Bald Eagle Youngman, wearing hat, instructs 

his apprentice Vernon Langan in traditional Chippewa hide tanning as part of 

North Dakota Council on the Arts’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. 

Bottom: Apprentice in Ukrainian Easter Egg-making (pysanky) Christina Rodakowski 

gives a presentation to the 6th grade class at Trinity Elementary School East as part of

North Dakota Council on the Arts’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. 

Photos courtesy of North Dakota Council on the Arts
Ballet Metropolitan

Columbus

T

he Ballet Metropolitan in

Columbus, Ohio has achieved

wide recognition for its

commitment to the creation and

performance of new work, blending

classical and modern technique.

Ballet Met’s long history of new work

includes 42 world premieres and 70

company premieres. 

In FY 2004, Ballet Met received an

NEA Creativity grant of $10,000 for

the commission of a full-length

ballet by Ballet Met’s artistic

associate Stanton Welch, Evolution:

Mozart to Moby. The world premiere

of the work took place from April 29

through May 9, 2004, with a total

of eight performances, four pre- or

post-performance conversations,

two Family Culture Corps programs,

and one Morning at the Ballet

performance for school children.

The performances drew more 

than 4,600 people, and the 

school performance drew an

additional 1,300. 

The dance piece was presented in

three movements: the first

movement, “Play,” was performed

to the music of contemporary

musician Moby from his 1999 album

Play; the second, “Mostly Mozart,”

was performed to Mozart’s Eine

Kleine Nachtmusik; and the third,

“Wildfire,” used music from

Australian composer John Antill’s

Carroboree. All three movements

used radically different dance

styles, illustrating different

evolutions of movement: the

contemporary, the classical, and 

the primal. 

“Play” depicts the busy street 

of a city while “Mostly Mozart” 

has more classical ballet dancing,

with the dancers dressed in 18th

century garb. “Wildfire” shows

primitive man as he makes his

evolution from primate to human.

The ballet company took the first

movement, “Play,” to New York City

in May 2004 for its debut at the

Joyce Theater.

Sorg Opera Company

Middletown

L

ocated between Cincinnati

and Dayton in Middletown,

Ohio, the Sorg Opera

Company enriches the quality of life

in the largely rural Miami Valley area

through presenting opera

productions. The opera company

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

Ohio

9 6 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 
members visited music classes 

at the local high school before 

the evening performance. 

The Mikado, which remains one 

of the most popular Gilbert and

Sullivan works, is set in Japan as 

it was opening to the West in the

19th century. The production was

such a success for Sorg Opera that

the company is considering whether

to change its focus from grand,

comic, and light opera to staging

primarily light opera. 

performs at Sorg’s Opera House, an

historic theater built in 1891 by

prominent Middletown citizen,

industrialist Paul J. Sorg. In

addition to performances, Sorg

Opera has maintained several

education and outreach programs,

both in and out of schools.

In FY 2004, Sorg Opera received an

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support the performance

of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta,

The Mikado. Members of the Gilbert

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 9 7

and Sullivan Players from New York

joined the local cast and orchestra.

The work was performed October 15

and 16, 2004 as the opening of the

company’s 15th season, drawing the

largest crowd in seven years. The

company performed the operetta

again on October 18 in Loveland,

Ohio, attracting 400 audience

members to the Monday evening

performance. The Middletown

performances were preceded by free

preview lectures. In Loveland, cast

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

Sorg Opera of Middletown, Ohio performs Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Mikado, 

with members of New York’s Gilbert and Sullivan Players, directed by Nelson Sheeley 

and orchestra conducted by Curtis Tucker. 

Photo by Tim Guth
Jazz in June 

Norman

J

azz in June began in 1984

as a single performance

event and has grown into a

three-day festival at two Norman,

Oklahoma venues. The festival’s

mission is to educate the public

about jazz as a unique art form by

showcasing the diversity of the

genre. Past festival performers

include the Ellis Marsalis Quartet,

Tony Guerrero, and Airmen of Note,

the United States Air Force jazz

ensemble.

In FY 2004, Jazz in June, Inc.

received an NEA Creativity grant of

$10,000 to support the 2004 Jazz

in June Festival. Held June 24-26,

the 20th anniversary festival

attracted nearly 40,000 visitors.

Three evenings of free concerts,

featuring nine blues and jazz

musical groups, took place at

outdoor venues including a city 

park and a shopping area. 

Headliners for 2004 included 

the Sweet Baby Blues Band, 

The Swingtips, and NEA Jazz 

Master Paquito D’Rivera with the

United Nations Orchestra. After the

festival, local public radio station

KGOU broadcasted several hours of

the festival to four of the region’s 

major listening areas.

As part of the festival, Kregg

Barrentine (saxophone) of the

Swingtips, Max Gise (guitar) of 

the Max Gise Band and Jae Sinnett

(drummer) of the Jae Sinnett Trio

participated in a series of jazz

clinics and a jam session. Also, local

musician Maurice Johnson spoke on

managing a music career. Each 50-

minute session featured discussion,

demonstrations, and a questionand-answer period. More than 150

festivalgoers participated in one or

more of the free clinics.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

9 8 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Oklahoma
Oklahoma State

University

Stillwater

T

he mission of Oklahoma

State University (OSU) is

teaching, research, and

extension. One of the programs 

that uphold that mission is the

university’s School of Architecture

program, Architecture Students

Teaching Elementary Kids (ASTEK).

ASTEK provides OSU architecture

students to introduce art and design

concepts to elementary students.

Since its establishment in 1999, the

ASTEK program has benefited more

than 1,500 fifth-grade students. For

many participants, ASTEK provides

the only access to art and design

learning. In 2000, the American

Institute of Architecture Students

recognized ASTEK with a Special

Accomplishment Honor Award.

In FY 2004, Oklahoma State

University received an NEA Learning

in the Arts grant of $5,000 to fund

ASTEK. In the 2003-2004 academic

year, nearly 400 fifth-graders from

all six elementary schools in the

Stillwater Public School system

participated in the program. Fortyfive OSU architecture students

volunteered to organize and teach

weekly hour-long sessions. Subjects

included scale and sketching,

geometry in architecture, textures

and materials, and urban and

community planning. The Stillwater

students also benefited from

classroom visits by seven local

practicing architects. At the end 

of the program, each group of

participating fifth-graders 

created a master plan for a city,

with each student being

responsible for an individual

building. These final projects were

exhibited in the School of

Architecture’s gallery.

In addition to providing

information for each weekly

session, the 60-page workbook

written and published by the

architecture students also prepares

the fifth-graders for statewide arts

curriculum testing. The

participating architecture students

also benefit through the

development of leadership skills. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 9 9

Left: A fifth-grader works

on an ASTEK design

project at Highland Park

Elementary School in

Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Photo by Neal Evers

Right: At the end of each

ASTEK program cycle,

each classroom displays

the city built during the

program at the Oklahoma

State University School

of Architecture gallery.

Photo by Andrew Brister
Imago, The Theatre

Mask Ensemble

Portland

I

mago, The Theatre Mask

Ensemble of Portland, Oregon

was established in 1979 by

co-directors Jerry Mouawad and

Carol Triffle. The company presents

highly stylized performances, which

incorporate elements of musical

theater, physical comedy, visual

illusion, and other distinct art

forms. Previous productions 

include Jean-Paul Sartre’s No 

Exit and the original works FROGZ

and biglittlethings. In addition 

to producing a five-play season 

in Portland, Imago also tours

nationally and internationally,

reaching an audience of 60,000

people annually. The troupe

previously has received commissions

to create choreography and imagery

for theater, opera, dance, and

symphony performances. As part of

its outreach mission, Imago provides

workshops and residencies to schools

as well as agencies serving young

people with emotional and

behavioral difficulties. 

In FY 2004, Imago received an NEA

Creativity grant of $13,000 to

support the development and

production of a new multimedia

theater piece based on Luigi

Pirandello’s Each in His Own Way.

Written by Carol Triffle, Missing

Mona, aka Leo’s Lost Notebook

explores the elusive nature of reality

and illusion and the diversified

nature of perspective. Imago’s

development process for the play

included writing the text, kinetic

and cognitive exploration of the

text, movement analysis,

exploration of design elements, and

the development of the production’s

physical comedy elements. 

In April 2004, Imago performed the

new play 12 times to more than

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

100 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Oregon
1,000 Portland-area patrons. This

debut production of Missing Mona,

which included slide projection,

16mm film, and live video, received

a Projection Design award from 

the Portland Theatre Arts Critics.

Estacada Together

Estacada

I

n partnership with the

Estacada Arts Commission,

Estacada Together regularly

provides arts and culture

experiences for the Estacada,

Oregon community’s children and

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 101

families. One of their projects,

Estacada Summer Celebration, 

has helped to energize Estacada’s

dormant downtown, inspire a 

sense of community pride and

beautification, promote cultural

tourism, and expose the community

to diverse cultures and art forms. 

In FY 2004, Estacada Together

received an NEA Challenge America

grant of $10,000 to support the

promotion and presentation of

Estacada Summer Celebration, an

outdoor arts festival. Held annually

since 1999, the festival brings arts

and cultural events to the remote,

economically challenged town of

Estacada, located 30 miles

southeast of Portland at the edge 

of Mt. Hood National Forest. The

three-day festival includes music

and dance performances, an art

exhibit by local artists, a silent

auction, and a gospel sing-along. 

In 2004 the Estacada Summer

Celebration attracted more than

2,500 local and regional visitors.

The roster of performers included

jazz, blues, Latin salsa, opera,

Christian rock, mariachi, gospel, and

bluegrass groups. Storytellers and

puppeteers were also on hand to

entertain audiences. Family arts

activities included wood boat

building, hat and soap making, and

paper fish kites. Estacada Public

Library, a festival partner, provided

staff time for community outreach.

Special events at the 2004 festival

included the debut of Fishing the

Clackamas, the town’s 11th public

mural by celebration partner Artback

Artists Cooperative. 

Background: The Quilt Story, a mural by

Artback Artists Cooperative’s mural-in-aweekend, part of the Estacada Summer

Celebration.

Photo by Clinton Vining, Estacada News

Duet from Imago Theatre’s Missing Mona, aka Leo’s Lost Notebook. 

Photo courtesy of Imago
Williamsport

Symphony Orchestra

Williamsport

T

he Williamsport Symphony

Orchestra (WSO) brings live

classical music to the rural

area of central Pennsylvania,

performing five subscription

concerts, one free family concert,

and one free community concert

each year. The WSO also sustains a

Youth Orchestra of approximately 90

members, which performs two free

concerts annually. 

In FY 2004, the WSO received an

NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support the two opening

concerts of the 2004-2005 season

and accompanying educational

activities. The first concert

occurred in Williamsport on October

12, 2004; 500 free tickets were

distributed to people of different

age groups. The second free

community concert was in

Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

102 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Pennsylvania

Guest artist Jeff Thayer plays Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Williamsport 

Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robin Fountain, for its opening concert in 2004. 

Photo by Ralph Wilson/Street Light Photography
Along with one of the world's great

collections of modern European

paintings, the Barnes Foundation

houses a sizable assemblage of early

20th-century American paintings

that are little known even among

specialists and connoisseurs. The

collection includes important

paintings by William J. Glackens,

Maurice and Charles Prendergast,

Charles Demuth, Alfred H. Maurer,

Horace Pippin, Marsden Hartley, 

and Jules Pascin, providing a visual

testament to Albert Barnes's

influential role as a champion 

of American art. 

As with much of the Foundation's

collection, few of these American

artworks have been studied or

published. The catalogue of the

collection will include extensive

documentation as to Barnes's

acquisition of these works and to

his personal relationships with the

artists. The catalogue is expected 

to be published by May 2006. 

introducing the orchestra to a new

audience. Nearly 2,000 people

attended the two concerts. 

The orchestra performed Antonin

Dvorák’s Slavonic Dance #1, Ludwig

van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony,

and Johannes Brahms’s Violin

Concerto featuring guest artist Jeff

Thayer. A former resident of

Williamsport and member of the

WSO, Thayer’s performance received

two standing ovations. Robin

Fountain, WSO music director since

1992, conducted the orchestra.

Audience members had the

opportunity to mingle with the

conductor and members of the

orchestra after the concert. 

The educational activities involved

students from two middle schools

who attended the Williamsport

concert, and included a presentation

by WSO percussionist Don Fisher.

Jeff Thayer joined 50 current and

former Suzuki violin students to

perform in a Suzuki Celebration on

October 16, 2004. 

Barnes Foundation

Merion Station

T

he Barnes Foundation was

established in 1922 by

scientist, art collector, and

educator Albert C. Barnes as an

institution dedicated to the

advancement of education and the

appreciation of the fine arts. Its

galleries house more than 9,000

fine and decorative arts objects,

including the largest collections 

of Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse 

in the world. 

In FY 2004, the Barnes Collection

received an NEA Heritage &

Preservation grant of $70,000 to

support the research, writing, and

publication of a catalogue of the

museum's collection of American

paintings and works on paper. 

This will be the first publication

documenting a unique collection 

of more than 300 American works 

of art. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 103
Perishable Theatre

Providence

F

ounded in 1983, Perishable

Theatre in Providence,

Rhode Island has been at

the forefront of introducing new

voices to American theater for more

than 20 years. The theater now

offers four programs: the Mainstage

Season, where new theatrical works

are performed; Shows for Young

Audiences, a touring company

presenting original musicals to

regional youth; the Annual

International Women’s Playwriting

Festival, which develops and stages

new one-act plays by women

playwrights; and the Theatre Arts

School that offers theatrical training

to approximately 400 community

members per year. 

In FY 2004, Perishable Theatre

received an NEA Creativity grant of

$15,000 to support the 12th Annual

International Women’s Playwriting

Festival. The playwriting festival

began in 1992 to give women a

greater voice in American theater. 

For the 2004 festival, 270 women

playwrights from seven countries on

four continents submitted plays for

consideration. From these, three

were selected to present their

previously unproduced one-act plays

in world premiere productions: Holly

Hildebrand’s The Dog, Jennifer

Haley’s Gone With the Window, and

JC Samuels’s How High the Moon? 

The three finalists each received a

$500 cash prize and a fully staged

production for a month-long run as

the showpiece of the festival, which

ran weekends from September 24

through October 30, 2004. The

playwrights also received 50 copies

of a printed anthology that

combined the scripts with critical

commentary provided by area

scholars. The performances were

presented to near-capacity

audiences during the festival. 

Everett Dance Theatre

Providence

F

ounded in 1986, Rhode

Island’s Everett Dance

Theatre is a multicultural,

intergenerational professional

company. The troupe’s mission is to

create, perform, and teach art under

the direction of NEA Choreography

Fellow Dorothy Jungels. Mentorship

programs include the Carriage House

School, which provides long-term,

professional training to inner-city

youth and young adults, and the

Re-Verse performance series, which

offers emerging artists the

opportunity to work with

established professionals. The

company has given educational

performances at venues such as New

York’s American Museum of Natural

History on topics ranging from

physics to emotional intelligence.

In FY 2004, Everett Dance Theatre

received an NEA Creativity grant of

$10,000 to support the creation and

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

104 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Rhode Island
presentation of Home Movies, an

original theme-based, eveninglength concert work. Using elements

of dance, theater, and video, Home

Movies explored the ways in which

families provide a sense of

belonging and safety, how family

units are identified, and the nature

of home. 

Everett Dance Theatre premiered

Home Movies at Trinity Repertory

Company. Nearly 2,000 audience

members saw performances of the

production during the four-week

Providence run, including nearly 

400 middle and high school

students. Everett Dance Theatre 

has also toured Home Movies to

several out-of-state venues,

including Contemporary Dance

Theatre (Cincinnati, Ohio), Bates

Dance Festival (Lewiston, Maine),

and Painted Bride Arts Center

(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

During a New York residency, the

troupe created a “home movie” with

members of the Bronx’s Hunts Point

community as well as performing at

a school for juvenile offenders.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 105

Top: Sokeo Ros, Rachael

Jungels, and Aaron

Jungels of the Everett

Dance Theatre perform

the evening-length work

Home Movies, using dance,

theater, and video. 

Bottom: The Everett

Dance Theatre Company

interacts with a videoed

dancer as part of Home

Movies.

Photos by Katja Kulenkampff
Spoleto Festival USA

Charleston

S

poleto Festival USA was

founded in 1977, with NEA

support, by Gian Carlo

Menotti, Christopher Keene, and

others involved in the Festival of

Two Worlds as the American

counterpart to that festival held

annually in Spoleto, Italy. Finding

an American city that offered the

charm of Spoleto, Spoleto Festival

USA took up residence in

Charleston, South Carolina, offering

programs of dance, theater, opera,

music, and the visual arts. 

In FY 2004, Spoleto Festival USA

received an NEA Creativity grant 

of $60,000 to support the 17-day

festival from May 28 through June

13, 2004. The 2004 Spoleto Festival

USA featured more than 130

performances of opera, theater,

music, and dance from an

international array of artists 

and companies, drawing recordbreaking crowds of approximately

45,000 people. 

A highlight of the festival was Chen

Shi-Zheng’s complete 18-hour

production of The Peony Pavilion, a

55-scene Kunju opera, played in six

sections with 22 actors taking

multiple roles. The opera turned the

Memminger Auditorium into a 16thcentury Chinese pavilion, complete

with a 1,800-gallon pond stocked

with fish and waterfowl. 

Other musical highlights of the

festival included a new production

of Richard Strauss’s opera Ariadne

auf Naxos, a jazz concert by Dee

Dee Bridgewater, and the Spoleto

Festival Orchestra’s performance of

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9.

Dance highlights included legendary

ballerina Nina Ananiashvili and the

Moscow Ballet Theatre, the Alvin

Ailey American Dance Theatre, 

and David Gordon and his Pick Up

Performance Company. The festival

also included a theatrical production

of Rezo Gabriadze’s play Forbidden

Christmas, or The Doctor and 

the Patient, featuring 

Mikhail Baryshnikov.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

A highlight of the 2004 Spoleto Festival USA is Chen Shi-Zheng’s complete 

18-hour production of The Peony Pavilion, a 55-scene Kunju opera, played in 

six sections with 22 actors taking multiple roles.

Photo by William Struhs

106 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Legendary ballerina Nina Ananiashvili leads the Moscow Ballet

Theatre in a special performance at the Spoleto Festival USA. 

Photo by Hidemi Sato
Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio on the

Old Testament prophet, Elijah; and

Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No.

1, Jeremiah, which incorporates

traditional Jewish liturgical motifs.

The second half of the concert

included Igor Stravinsky’s ballet

score Pulcinella and Antonin

Dvorák’s Scherzo Capriccioso, Op. 66.

More than 800 people attended the

concert, and nearly 100 attended

the free afternoon lecture with the

guest artist and conductor followed

by the final orchestral rehearsal.

Hilton Head Orchestra

Hilton Head

T

he Hilton Head Orchestra 

is dedicated to providing

classical music and

supporting the musical arts on its

namesake South Carolina island 

and in all the schools in Beaufort

County. In addition, the orchestra

sponsors the Hilton Head Youth

Orchestra and the Hilton Head

International Piano Competition 

for young pianists. The orchestra’s

extensive outreach to the schools,

unusual for an orchestra of this 

size, includes opening all final

rehearsals free to students. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 107

South Carolina

In FY 2004, the Hilton Head

Orchestra received an NEA 

Challenge America grant of $10,000

to support the opening concert of 

the 2004-2005 season. The Gala

Opening Concert was held on

October 4, 2004 at the First

Presbyterian Church, a fit setting for

the musical program.

Guest artist Jennifer Luiken, mezzo

soprano, joined the 65-musician

orchestra for the first half of the

program that touched on religious

themes. Performed were “Et

Exultavit” from J.S. Bach’s oratorio

based on the Magnificat of Luke’s

gospel; “O Rest in the Lord” from
South Dakotans for

the Arts 

Lead

T

he primary goal of South

Dakotans for the Arts is 

to advance the arts in 

the state by providing technical

assistance to arts organizations,

strengthening their administrative

skills and their ability to serve 

as effective partners in their

communities, and by supporting

arts educators and students. One

initiative, the Prairie Arts

Management Institute (PAMI),

addresses the lack of substantial

career development opportunities

for arts managers in the prairie

states, many of whom have no

formal arts administration training. 

In FY 2004, South Dakotans for 

the Arts received an NEA Services

to the Field grant of $18,000 to

support the third year of PAMI. In

2004, 39 arts administrators from

11 states and Saskatchewan,

Canada attended the four-day

residential arts management

training program for staff of small

and mid-sized arts organizations.

Participants included staff from 

the Spearfish Center for Arts and

Humanities (South Dakota),

Hastings Symphony Orchestra

(Nebraska), Bridger Mountain

Theatre Festival (Montana), 

and Cowley College (Kansas). 

Each PAMI residency includes three

six-hour sessions in management

and leadership areas taught by a

staff of master arts management

practitioners. In 2004, seminars

focused on leadership values,

written communications skills, 

and maximizing the value of an

organization’s board of directors.

Participants were also given

opportunities to interact with

professional artists such as

children’s performer Phil Baker,

classical guitarist and humorist

Gordy Pratt, and South Dakota

sculptor Dale Lamphere during

demonstrations and performances. 

South Dakota Arts

Council 

Pierre

T

he South Dakota Arts

Council (SDAC) has a strong

commitment to supporting

and preserving local folk arts in the

community. As part of its mission,

SDAC also works to make quality 

art accessible statewide.

In FY 2004, SDAC received an 

NEA Folk & Traditional Arts

Infrastructure Initiative grant 

of $20,000 to support the

administration of its folklife

programs. For one such program, 

in 2004 folklorist Andrea Graham

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

108 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

South Dakota
conducted fieldwork in ethnic 

and tribal communities as well as

occupational communities, such 

as ranchers and cowboys, to locate

and document artists working in

traditional textile arts. Based on

her findings, SDAC and the South

Dakota Art Museum collaborated to

curate The Fabric of Community:

Traditional Textiles of South Dakota,

a group exhibit featuring ten artists

selected from South Dakota’s

diverse cultural groups. Featured

textiles include Lakota star quilts

and jingle dresses, Norwegian

hardanger embroidery and

costumes, Mennonite quilts, and

Finnish rag rugs. The exhibit opens

at the South Dakota Art Museum

(Brookings) in fall 2005 and travels

to the Dahl Arts Center (Rapid City)

and the Dacotah Prairie Museum

(Aberdeen) in 2006. Each location

will host public receptions with

craft demonstrations by the

featured artists. 

In 2004, SDAC continued its

Traditional Arts Apprenticeship

program and facilitated a Web site

developed collaboratively by the

seven Missouri River states in

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 109

conjunction with the Lewis and

Clark anniversary celebration.

Activities related to these projects

included fieldwork to search out

new traditional artists, photo and

audio documentation of the

apprenticeship program, and the

development of strategies for

increasing the participation of

traditionbearers in a wider range of

SDAC programs.

Annikki Marttila of Frederick, South

Dakota knits traditional Finnish patterns.

Photo by Andrea Graham

Rugmaker Diane Fields of Aberdeen, South

Dakota, talks with school children at the Dacotah

Prairie Museum about the Scandinavian technique

of making rag rugs called nalbinding. 

Photo by Andrea Graham
Country Music

Foundation 

Nashville

T

o collect, preserve, and

interpret the history 

of country music, the

Country Music Foundation (CMF)

has assembled one of the world’s

largest and finest bodies of

materials related to this important

form of popular culture. CMF

operates the Country Music Hall of

Fame and Museum, which presents

the story of country music over 

the last two centuries. 

Among the museum’s holdings is

the Recorded Sound collection,

which holds approximately 200,000

sound recordings of country and folk

music, including 98 percent of all

pre-World War II country recordings

ever made. The collection includes

14,100 acetate or vinyl

transcriptions, created between 

the 1930s and 1960s as temporary

recordings intended to be played

only a few times. Much of the

collection is rare and often not

duplicated elsewhere. 

The federal Save America’s Treasures

(SAT) program, begun in 1999 as a

millennium initiative, addresses the

urgent preservation needs of the

nation’s most significant historic

sites and collections. The Country

Music Foundation was awarded an

FY 2004 SAT grant of $214,000

through the NEA to support 

the conservation and preservation

of the transcription collection. 

The transcription collection is

currently maintained in a stable

environment in the museum’s

archives, but many of the recordings

are deteriorating due to age and

improper storage and handling

before arriving at the museum.

Since these recordings were meant

to be temporary, even one playing

could permanently damage the

recording. The grant will allow CMF

to inspect, clean, and transfer to

digital media the most fragile and

at-risk recordings. The project is

expected to encompass 4,900

transcriptions and will take three

years to complete. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

110 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Background: The Chattanooga Symphony

and Opera perform Mussorgsky’s Pictures

at an Exhibition while displaying students’

art as part of its Sight and Sound project.

Photo by Louis Sohn

Tennessee
Chattanooga

Symphony and Opera

Association

Chattanooga

T

he Chattanooga Symphony

and Opera Association 

(CSO) is a unique

organization in the United States.

Merged in 1984 from separate

performing arts entities, the CSO 

is the oldest successfully combined

organization of its kind in the

country. It presents more than 25

performances of classical, operatic,

pops, and youth-oriented musical

programming annually. 

In FY 2004, CSO received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $10,000

to support a classical concert as

part of the Sight and Sound project.

CSO collaborated with nearby Hunter

Museum of American Art to

underscore the creative connection

between music and visual art,

especially for elementary through

secondary school students. The CSO

performed Modest Mussorgsky’s

Pictures at an Exhibition on October

28 and 29, 2004 as a starting point

in a discussion of one art form

influencing another.

The project included a series of

visual art workshops held at several

locations, including the University

of Tennessee at Chattanooga and

the Association of Visual Artists, 

for high school age students

participating in the juried art

competition. Members of the CSO

also visited area elementary and

middle schools participating in a

special program centered on 

Pictures at an Exhibition. 

The concert performances coincided

with a juried show of the students’

work. Student pieces were displayed

in the performance hall before 

the performances, and projected

above the stage during the concert.

Conductor Robert Bernhardt 

led a special post-concert

symposium after the October 29

performance for students and 

the general audience. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 111

Students’ art is displayed in the performance hall before the concert as part of the Chattanooga Symphony 

and Opera Association’s Sight and Sound project using visual art in connection with music. 

Photo by Louis Sohn
Center for the

Performing Arts 

at The Woodlands 

The Woodlands

T

he Cynthia Woods Mitchell

Pavilion, owned by the

Center for the Performing

Arts at The Woodlands, is an openair amphitheater founded in 1990.

The Pavilion provides a variety of

live performing arts as well as

educational and outreach programs

for children and families. The official

summer home of the Houston

Symphony and a presenting venue

for the Houston Grand Opera and

Houston Ballet, the Pavilion also

hosts special events such as the

annual Children’s Festival. Nearly

half a million people visit annually.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

112 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Texas Students enjoy a performance

during a school field trip to

the 2004 Children’s Festival

held at the Cynthia Woods

Mitchell Pavilion in The

Woodlands, Texas. 

Photo courtesy of Center for the

Performing Arts at The Woodlands

The Kazoo-dah Parade draws a crowd

during the 2004 Children’s Festival. 

Photo courtesy of Center for the 

Performing Arts at The Woodlands
University of 

Texas at Austin 

Center for Middle 

Eastern Studies

Austin

T

he Center for Middle 

Eastern Studies is a major

educational and cultural

unit within the University of Texas

at Austin. The Center provides

outreach to public schools; sponsors

public lectures, films, and concerts;

and publishes books through its

various programs, including a

monograph series, Modern Middle

East Series, and Modern Middle East

Literatures in Translation Series. 

In FY 2004, the University of Texas

at Austin received an NEA Creativity

grant of $20,000 to support the

publication of two works of Arabic

fiction in translation: Folk Tales 

from Syria, collected by Samir

Tahhan and translated and with an

introduction by Andrea Rugh, and

Whatever Happened to Antara? and

Other Stories by Walid Ikhlassi and

translated by Asmahan Sallah and

Chris Ellery, with an introduction 

by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. 

Syrian poet Samir Tahhan collected

folk tales from old men sitting

outside their houses in Aleppo,

drinking tea. He also recorded

professional storytellers at events,

afraid that these stories would

disappear with the passing of this

generation. Anthropologist Andrea

Rugh translated the original twovolume collection into one, adding

an informative introduction.

Professional illustrator Douglas 

Rugh provided black-and-white

prints based on the stories. 

Walid Ikhlassi evokes the

individual’s struggle for dignity 

and significance in Aleppo during

the French mandate of the 1940s

and 1950s. From the boy Antara

who personifies the Arab legend 

of a half-African slave warrior to

everyday middle-aged lovers,

Ikhlassi’s characters fight colonial

oppression and corruption from 

the newly formed government. An

avowed experimentalist, Ikhlassi

portrays the modern human

condition through widely 

divergent techniques.

In FY 2004, the Center for the

Performing Arts at The Woodlands

received an NEA Challenge America

grant of $10,000 to support the

2004 Children’s Festival. The

festival took place October 21-24,

2004, with weekend performances

open to the public and the weekday

schedule devoted to school field

trips. A total of 14,000 people

attended activities during the

festival, including students from 

38 public and private schools in 

14 school districts. 

The Children’s Festival was designed

to educate and entertain

elementary and intermediate school

children through storytelling,

music, and dance, with audience

participation. Both professional

artists and community groups were

showcased on Pavilion stages. Other

lively festival components included

Arts Alley under the direction of

the Art Teachers Network, a group

comprised of art teachers from

Houston-area school districts; wood

sculpting; an instrument “petting

zoo”; and booths of interactive

games. Showcasing arts and

education in a nontraditional

setting, the Children’s Festival

engages children in the

performing arts. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 113
West Valley City

West Valley City

West Valley City, Utah’s

second-largest city, is

nestled in the Salt 

Lake Valley between the Wasatch

and Oquirrh mountain ranges. In 

FY 2004, West Valley City received

an NEA Heritage & Preservation

grant of $10,000 to support the

Tradition Bearers Festival, a 

day-long folklife celebration. 

Held in August 2004, the free 

nine-hour festival directly supported

West Valley’s mission to identify,

document, and preserve the ethnic

arts and artists in the community

and to introduce these traditions 

to the larger public. In the year

leading up to the festival, West

Valley City conducted fieldwork to

Orchestra of 

Southern Utah

Cedar City

F

ounded in 1897, the

Orchestra of Southern Utah

in Cedar City is a volunteer

organization of professional and

avocational musicians. The

orchestra’s mission is to increase 

the appreciation for classical music

as well as to make classical music

more accessible to local populations. 

In FY 2004, the Orchestra of

Southern Utah received an NEA

Challenge America grant of 

$10,000 to support the Cedar City

Fall International Choral Festival.

The five-day festival featured

international performances by 

500 regional choral and orchestra

musicians. To foster multicultural

learning, each participating 

chorus performed at least one 

work from outside the western

traditional repertory. 

In preparation for the festival, from

September 2 to September 25,

2004, youth and adult choirs from

throughout the state participated in

critiques, workshops, and clinics

with renowned choral clinician Dr.

Paul A. Smith. These master classes

culminated with a final performance

on September 25 at the downtown

Heritage Center to an audience of

nearly 700. After the festival, Dr.

Smith was asked by the

participating choral directors to be

the All-State Choral Guest Conductor

in Salt Lake City in October 2006.

In partnership with the Cedar City

Corporation, the Cedar City Chamber

of Commerce, and the Cedar City

Arts Council, the Orchestra of

Southern Utah sponsored the 

choral festival in order to showcase

performing arts events within Cedar 

City’s downtown cultural 

district. The festival 

also increased the 

participation of 

underserved groups 

in local arts activities 

and exposed the local 

community to 

international music 

and culture.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

114 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Utah

Dennis McMasters of J.T.

Dunnie Pipe Band performs

at the 2004 Tradition Bearers

Festival in West Valley 

City, Utah.

Photo by Michael Christensen
identify the community’s cultural

groups in order to invite these

groups to take part in the festival. 

Festival programming included

musical and dance performances on

three stages, two folk art exhibition

and demonstration areas, classrooms

for informal crafts talks, a children’s

tent with hands-on arts activities

and storytelling, and an ethnic food 

market. Thirteen performance

groups took the stage at the festival

including Cambodian Preah Vihear, a

troupe of youth dancers performing

traditional Khmer dances; Ballet

Folklorico Citlali, known for

spectacular dance choreographies of

Mexico’s Native American heritage;

the Tongan Singers of Utah,

traditional Tongan chanters and 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 115

dancers; and the Utah Scottish

Association J.T. Dunnie Pipe Band. 

Participating artisans included

Elizabeth Peterson, a bobbin lace

specialist; Rocio Mejia, a piñata 

and paper flower maker; Earl Dent,

a Hopi kachina maker; and the

Southridge Quilters. More than 800

people visited the festival, which

West Valley City hopes to make an

annual event.

Ballet Folklorico Citlali performs at the Tradition Bearers Festival in West Valley City, Utah. 

Photo by Michael Christensen
Vermont Folklife

Center

Middlebury

T

he Vermont Folklife Center

in Middlebury documents,

preserves, and presents the

traditional culture of the state and

surrounding region. The Traditional

Arts Apprenticeship Program is a

key component of its outreach to

traditional artists. 

In FY 2004, the Vermont Folklife

Center received an NEA Folk &

Traditional Infrastructure Initiative

grant of $25,000 to support the

statewide Traditional Arts

Apprenticeship Program. The

apprenticeship program is a 

116 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Master blacksmither Lucian Avery (right) teaches apprentice Joe Mangan his craft as part of the Vermont

Folklife Center’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. 

Photo by Vanessa Fournier

vehicle for bringing particular art

forms, individual artists, and the

arts as emblems of cultural identity

to the attention of the general

public. The NEA grant will support

discovery research to identify and

document folk and traditional artists

and art forms. 

The discovery research was

completed during June to August

2004. In 2004, 14 apprenticeships

were possible through the NEA

funding. Apprenticeships usually

span from three to 12 months,

running from July 1 to June 30. 

The apprenticeships covered various

artistic disciplines, such as Native

American traditional beadwork,

ikebana (Japanese flower arranging),

old-time Yankee fiddling, New

England contra dance calling,

Tibetan traditional folk song and

dance, Cape Breton fiddling,

shoemaking, blacksmithing, Abenaki

Native American basket making, 

lam singing (a traditional Lao vocal

style), and making pha kouane

(complex ritual objects 

that play an essential role in

Laotian ceremonies). 

These apprenticeships touched on

the various cultures intermingling

in Vermont: the New England

culture, the Native American

culture, and the Asian immigrant

culture. By passing on these arts

from master to apprentice, the

program assures the survival of

these important parts of Vermont’s

emerging cultural identity. 
GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 117

Weston Playhouse

Theatre Company

Weston

T

he Weston Playhouse

Theatre Company (WPTC) 

is Vermont’s oldest

professional theater. Since 1988,

WPTC has operated on a regional

theater model, offering professional

theater and educational programs 

to an expanding rural base. 

In FY 2004, WPTC received an NEA

Challenge America grant of $25,000

to expand its education and

outreach programs. The expansion

will build on existing programs,

increasing support for the Other

Stages series, expanding the winter

reading program for adults, and

launching a new in-school program.

The new initiative, Page to Stage,

provided an in-depth, performancebased introduction to the play

offered in the annual school

matinees to high school students 

at two Vermont schools. In 2004,

the play was Tom Stoppard’s

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are

Dead. Windsor High School in

Windsor and Burr and Burton

Academy in Manchester were 

chosen from a pool of applicants 

to participate in Page to Stage. 

WPTC made two classroom visits to

each school in September, leading 

a background discussion and

offering feedback on the students’

performances of scenes from the

play. In October, they performed

their own interpretations of scenes

from the play on WPTC’s stage to 

an audience including parents,

teachers, school administrators, 

and WPTC cast members. Students

also attended WPTC’s school 

matinee performances of the 

play. WPTC artists then returned 

to the schools in November to

discuss and analyze the students

and teachers’ experiences.

Students from Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vermont perform a scene from

Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as part of the Weston Playhouse

Theatre’s Page to Stage initiative. 

Photo courtesy of Weston Playhouse Theatre Company 

Vermont
William King Regional

Arts Center 

Abingdon

T

he William King Regional

Arts Center in Abingdon,

Virginia opened its first

exhibition in 1992 and since has

displayed 10-12 rotating exhibits

annually. The Arts Center serves 

a primarily rural population in

southwest Virginia and northeast

Tennessee. Programming for school

audiences, such as Art Express for

third-graders and Van Gogh

Outreach for second-graders, 

serve approximately 8,000 

students annually. 

In FY 2004, the Arts Center received

an NEA Challenge America grant of

$10,000 to support two exhibitions

demonstrating the decorative uses

of tin in 19th-century folk art. 

In Intricate Detail: Pierced-Tin

Furniture of Southwest Virginia &

Northeast Tennessee, 1840-1860 was

organized by the Art Center using

furniture borrowed from private

individuals. It ran simultaneously

with Pinturas de Fe: The Retablo

Tradition in Mexico and New Mexico,

an exhibition of retablos and ex

votos, devotional pictures of saints,

obtained through the Museum of

New Mexico’s traveling exhibitions

program (TREX). 

Pierced-tin panels and retablos 

offer two interpretations of the

decorative use of tin. One is the

American tradition of employing tin

to enhance domestic spaces. The

other, representing a Mexican

perspective, treats tin as a canvas

for depicting images of personal

veneration. Both art forms reflect

the easy availability of tin in the

19th century to create pieces for

home use. In Intricate Detail

opened July 30, 2004 and Pinturas

de Fe opened August 27, both

closing January 2, 2005.

Approximately 8,000 people 

viewed the two exhibits.

Youth Orchestra 

of the Americas 

Arlington

T

he Youth Orchestra of the

Americas (YOA) in Arlington,

Virginia is a multicultural,

world-class symphony orchestra of

110 gifted young musicians from 

the countries of the Western

Hemisphere, led by artistic advisor

Plácido Domingo. The YOA provides 

a unique opportunity for young

musicians to rehearse and perform

under leading conductors and

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

118 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Virginia
distinguished musicians assembled

from throughout the Americas.

In FY 2004, the YOA received an

NEA Creativity grant of $27,000 

to perform as part of the opening

ceremony of the National Gallery of

Art’s exhibition The Courtly Art of

the Ancient Maya. The YOA provided

authentic musical examples

reflecting the history and culture of

the artworks presented. The concert

included two works by Carlos Chávez

that were re-imaginings of the

music of Mayan and Aztec cultures.

The audience for the National

Gallery of Art’s opening celebration

on March 30, 2004 numbered more

than 400, including Mrs. Laura

Bush, First Lady of Mexico Marta 

de Fox, and other dignitaries. 

In addition, the YOA led workshops

and demonstrations at two local

schools, Francis Scott Key

Elementary School/Escuela Key in

Arlington and the Oyster Bilingual

Elementary School in Washington,

DC. Because members of the YOA

are bilingual—including

representatives from Costa Rica,

Colombia, Mexico, Chile, and the

U.S.—their visits to bilingual

schools were even more effective.

YOA musicians offered two

performances and gave music

lessons and demonstrations,

speaking in both Spanish 

and English, to students in

kindergarten through fifth grade. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 119

Ten musicians in Youth Orchestra of the Americas from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,

Mexico, and the United States, who performed at the National Gallery of Art to honor

the exhibition The Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya on March 30, 2004. 

Photo by Ed Berger Photography, Inc
by Armstrong of Los Angeles; very

few of Armstrong’s curtains remain

in existence.

Once the renovation is complete,

the Spokane Symphony will become

the theater’s primary tenant and

would occupy the building’s

performing arts space about a 

third of the time. The remainder

would be used for events and

performances by other regional 

and national arts organizations.

Town of La Conner 

La Conner

T

he town of La Conner,

Washington, founded in the

1880s, is located near the

mouth of the Skagit River directly

across from the Swinomish Indian

Reservation, an hour north of

Fox Theater 

Spokane

S

pokane’s Fox Theater was

designed in 1931 by noted

Seattle architect Robert

Reamer with the interior design by

Anthony Heinsbergen. Heinsbergen,

a prominent designer who worked

on the interiors of 757 theaters 

in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico,

created a storybook fantasyland

in the theater. The auditorium,

lobby, and mezzanine murals

created the illusion of moving

through an undersea world into a

forest canopy of dense foliage, all

illuminated by the theater’s most

significant feature: a 350-light, 

60-foot-wide sunburst in the 

ceiling above the stage. 

In 2004, the Fox Theater received

an NEA Heritage & Preservation

grant of $39,000 to assist with the

theater’s renovation, specifically in

the conservation of the original fire

curtains that hang over the stage.

The total renovation is expected to

take 15 to 18 months. 

Experts in historic restoration called

the interior a one-of-a-kind historic

and decorative masterpiece. All the

murals have suffered from

environmental damage, temperature

and humidity extremes, and 

general lack of maintenance. The

fire curtains, however, are in better

condition but still require cleaning

to preserve their beauty. The

curtains are composed of a series 

of vertical banners—in greens,

blues, and golds—that frame a

central medallion. They were made

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

120 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Washington

Background: Detail of hand painted original

fire curtain made and designed by Armstrong

of Los Angeles for the Fox Theater.

Photo courtesy of Fox Theater
Seattle. For a town of less than

1,000 people, it attracts thousands

of visitors annually for its natural

beauty and artistic opportunities.

The La Conner community is diverse

for its small size, including Native

Americans, Latino migrant workers,

a significant retirement population,

and a school-aged population. Many

of those populations lack the

opportunity, both economically and

geographically, to experience

performing arts activities. 

In 2004, the Town of La Conner

received an NEA Challenge America

grant of $15,000 for two festivals

that would reach these populations.

The La Conner Institute of

Performing Arts produced the

festivals. The first festival, the

Summer Water Music Festival,

held July 15-18, 2004, brought a

combination of early and

contemporary musical performances

to La Conner, from medieval,

renaissance, and baroque to Native

American and blues. Eighteen

national and international artists

performed over the four days. In

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 121

addition to performances, there

were lectures and participatory

workshops for audience members,

as well as family educational

concerts, meet-the-artist

receptions, and free parades.

The other festival, the Winter Choral

Festival, was held January 14-15,

2005, featuring the choral group

Seattle Pro Musica performing

Nordic and Baltic choral music. In

addition to the performance, the

group conducted two educational

sessions. More than 800 people

attended both festivals.

Baroque Northwest demonstrate their instruments to audience 

members after performing a Family Education Concert as part of 

the 2004 Summer Water Music Festival in La Conner, Washington. 

Photo courtesy of the La Conner Institute of Performing Arts and Town of La Conner

Sharyn Peterson and the Starry 

Night Chamber Ensemble open 

the 2004 Summer Water Music 

Festival in La Conner, Washington. 

Photo courtesy of the La Conner Institute 

of Performing Arts and Town of La Conner
Allegheny Echoes

Marlinton

Allegheny Echoes in

Marlinton was created by 

a group of West Virginian

musicians and writers to promote,

support, preserve, and teach the

traditional Appalachian culture,

specifically music and literature, 

of the state. Allegheny Echoes’s

principal activity is the annual

week-long summer workshops in

Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

Students work with master artists 

in creative writing, fiddle, banjo,

guitar, lap dulcimer, hammered

dulcimer, mandolin, bass, and

vocals. 

In FY 2004, Allegheny Echoes

received an NEA Heritage &

Preservation grant of $8,000 to

support the workshops. In seven

years of holding the workshops,

participation has grown from 28

students the first year to more than

100. Although students have ranged

in age from 6 to 88 years old,

Allegheny Echoes focuses on

passing down the West Virginian

heritage to young people by

providing youth scholarships to

those without financial resources 

to attend the workshops. 

The 2004 workshops took 

place June 20-25, 2004. For the

musical instruction, mornings were

devoted to classroom instruction

and afternoons involved instructorled jam sessions. The creative

writing class took field trips for

inspiration, and had a Poetry

Walk—a performance piece

involving community members 

and instructors. Evening activities

included square dancing, poetry

readings, and student and 

staff concerts. 

The Master’s Program featured 

an hour-long presentation by a

different master artist each

afternoon. The master artists in

2004 were Franklin George: fiddle,

banjo, and Scottish pipes; Bob

Shank: hammer dulcimer and banjo;

Elaine Purkey: singing and guitar;

Charlie Loudermilk and Junior

Spencer: banjo and fiddle; Woody

Simmons: fiddle and banjo; and Kirk

Judd: creative writing. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

West Virginia

Afternoons involve instructor-led jam

sessions at Allegheny Echoes’s summer

workshops in Pocahontas County, 

West Virginia. 

Photo courtesy of Allegheny Echoes

122 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 
West Virginia Public

Broadcasting

Foundation 

Charleston

Mountain Stage is a 

weekly, two-hour, live

performance radio show

produced by the West Virginia Public

Broadcasting Foundation. Presently

heard on 106 radio stations

throughout the United States,

Mountain Stage features established

and emerging singers, songwriters,

and musicians in a mixture of

contemporary and traditional 

styles. The show, hosted by singersongwriter Larry Groce, is produced

before a live audience from the

State Cultural Center Theater in

Charleston, West Virginia. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

In FY 2004, the West Virginia Public

Broadcasting Foundation received

an NEA Arts on Radio and Television

grant of $30,000 to support

production of the 2004 season of

Mountain Stage. West Virginia Public

Broadcasting Foundation produces

26 new programs of the radio series

a year. In addition to reaching a

national audience of 206,000 

per week, an important mission 

of Mountain Stage is to reach

thousands of West Virginians and

citizens in surrounding states who

live in rural areas where access to

live performance is limited. 

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 123

Mountain Stage is the largest 

live performance presenter in West

Virginia, featuring more than 110

artists annually. The variety of

artists in 2004 have included avantgarde legend John Cale, alternativerock musician Robyn Hitchcock,

Cajun group BeauSoleil, gospel

group the Dixie Hummingbirds,

blues artist Charlie Musselwhite,

roots musician Greg Brown, and pop

artist k.d. lang. Mountain Stage

introduced listeners to more flavors

of music than they might normally

sample through the show’s intricate

mix of performers and musical

styles. 

Singer k.d. lang

performs at the State

Cultural Center Theater

in Charleston, West

Virginia as part of 

the Mountain Stage

radio series. 

Photo by Brian E. Blauser
VSA Arts of

Wisconsin, Inc.

Madison

F

ounded in 1985, VSA arts 

of Wisconsin is accredited

by VSA arts, which has 

been Congressionally designated 

as the national coordinating agency

of arts programming for people with

disabilities. VSA arts of Wisconsin

has arts centers in Madison 

and Milwaukee. 

In FY 2004, VSA arts of Wisconsin

received an NEA Learning in the

Arts grant of $16,000 to support its

Early Childhood program. Primarily

targeted to children with disabilities

or at risk to develop a disability,

the seven-year-old program uses the

creative arts to foster physical,

social, emotional, cognitive, and

creative development. The program

consists of a ten-week artist-inresidence program and an annual

statewide conference and training. 

In 2004, 30 artists led weekly, hourlong sessions in 22 classrooms at 12

centers serving 323 children. Music

residencies focused on enhancing

motor skills as well as fostering

language development and

communication skills. At the end 

of the residency, each classroom

hosted a final celebration, giving

students an informal opportunity 

to share work with their families.

Participants in VSA’s Early Childhood

program achieved new or improved

artistic abilities, improved ability to

interact with others, and progress

toward established educational or

social goals.

The daylong statewide conference

provides workshops in creative

drama, movement exploration,

music, visual art, and creative

writing to early childhood

educators. Participants learn how 

to use the arts as a tool to foster

inclusive environments and also

increase their understanding,

confidence, and ability to care 

for children with special needs.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

124 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Wisconsin

(top) VSA artist Dawn Olson assists a participant with

her art project as part of VSA arts of Wisconsin’s

Early Childhood program. (bottom) A VSA arts of

Wisconsin Early Childhood participant adds some

color to his project. 

Photos courtesy of VSA Arts of Wisconsin
Milwaukee Repertory

Theater, Inc. 

Milwaukee

Milwaukee Repertory

Theater was founded in

1954 and is home to a

13-actor theater company. In 2004,

Milwaukee Rep presented 14 plays

in the three theater spaces housed

in its Patty and Jay Baker Theater

Complex. As part of its community

outreach, the theater offers

numerous educational opportunities,

including student matinees, facility

tours, in-school workshops, adult

acting classes, and pre-performance

discussions. Programs for youth and

young adults include 15 acting,

directing, and literary internships

each season, workshops in which

Girl Scouts can earn a theater

badge, and the Summer Theater

Conservatory for Teens, an intensive

theater training program. 

In FY 2004, Milwaukee Repertory

Theater received an NEA Creativity

grant of $35,000 to support a

production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s

House as part of the theater’s 50th

anniversary season. The production

supports the theater’s mission to

play a vital role in the community’s

cultural life by presenting highquality theater that explores and

illuminates the human condition. 

Under the direction of guest artist

Laszlo Marton, Milwaukee Rep

presented 40 performances of A

Doll’s House to more than 21,000

individuals, including more than

1,500 students. A pre-performance

lecture series, Rep in Depth, was

attended by nearly 4,000 theater

patrons. The theater’s education

department also produced a study

guide for use by classroom teachers

in preparing their students to see

the play. The study guide for A Doll’s

House included biographical

information about Henrik Ibsen, 

a timeline of women’s history,

discussion questions, and activities

such as creating a set design

reflective of the play’s theme.

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 125

Jonathan Smoots and Deborah Staples star in Milwaukee Repertory 

Theater’s production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. 

Photo by Jay Westhauser
WYO Theater

Sheridan

F

ounded in 1989, WYO

Theater of Sheridan,

Wyoming provides the only

access to live theater for many

residents of the geographically

isolated region. The organization’s

commitment to community

education and outreach includes the

distribution of free tickets to groups

such as Easter Seals, Rehabilitation

Enterprises of Northeast Wyoming,

and the Salvation Army. WYO

Theater’s educational programs serve

students in public and private

schools as well as homeschoolers.

The theater also works with the

Wyoming Girls School, a courtordered facility in which students

must earn the right to participate in

outside activities. 

In FY 2004, WYO Theater received

an NEA Creativity grant of $10,000

to support residencies and free

performances by three dance groups

as part of the company’s Children’s

Educational and Families’ Series. In

partnership with the Sheridan Arts

Council and the YMCA Arts and

Humanities program, WYO Theater

presented programming by the Cleo

Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble,

the Don Cossack Dance Troupe of

Russia, and FLY Dance Company,

serving more than 1,300 children

and youth. 

The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance

Ensemble residency included dance

workshops with elementary physical

education students, master classes

with students in jazz and modern

dance, and dance activities with

adults in YMCA pilates and yoga

classes. The troupe also provided

residency activities in Casper, and

public performances were held in

both Sheridan and Casper. Students

from 13 schools were bussed to 

WYO Theater for cultural dance

performances by the Don Cossack

Dance Troupe of Russia. FLY Dance

Company participated in two

lecture-demonstrations as well as

presenting a public performance. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

126 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS 

Wyoming

Former NCA member Cleo Parker

Robinson brought her dance company to

WYO Theater in Sheridan, Wyoming and

served as artists-in-residence for

community students.

Photo by Christy Crytzer
Cheyenne Symphony 

Cheyenne

S

ince 1981, the Cheyenne

Symphony Society (CSS) has

worked to provide cultural

outreach to the city of Cheyenne,

Laramie County, and southeastern

Wyoming. The Cheyenne Symphony

Orchestra presents a five-concert

series each season as well as five

intimately scaled Hausmusick

concerts at the homes of select

season members and historic sites

throughout the area. The orchestra

also offers a four-pronged

educational program, Giving the Gift

of Music, which serves more than

7,000 youth and adults annually.

Specific activities include school

visits by visiting guest artists,

residency programs with orchestra

members, and an art contest in

which local art students are invited

to respond with visual art projects

to selected concerts from the

orchestra’s season. 

In FY 2004, CSS received an NEA

Creativity grant of $10,000 to

support a performance by the

Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra of

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D

minor as part of the orchestra’s 50th

Anniversary season. This symphony

was Beethoven’s last major work,

using Friedrich Schiller’s poem Ode

to Joy for an unusual, at the time,

choral final movement. 

Under the direction of conductor

Steven Alltop, more than 150

singers from four regional choruses

took part in the concert.

Participating choruses included the

Cheyenne Chamber Singers, the

University of Wyoming Collegiate

Chorale, the Casper College Chorale,

and the Laramie County Community

College Chorus. The orchestra and

choral musicians performed to a full

house of 1,496 at the Cheyenne

Civic Center on January 22, 2005. 

GRANT HIGHLIGHTS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 127

Conductor Stephen Alltop of the

Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra

takes his bows after the

orchestra’s performance of

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. 

Photos by Guido Pagnacco

Society 
LITERATURE FELLOWSHIPS

128 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

Most writers must earn their living from means other than creative writing. To find time to compose,

they grab a half an hour at lunch, wake up an hour before the rest of the family, take notes on the

subway ride home. If they are lucky, they find enough time to research, write, and complete a book. 

The National Endowment for the Arts offers Literature Fellowships to help alleviate the financial and time pressures

and to allow writers and translators valuable creative time away from their daily jobs. At the same time, the

Literature Fellowships provide national recognition—often for the first time—to writers. As poet and fiction writer

Sandra Cisneros stated, the Literature Fellowship “verified I was indeed valuable, what I did mattered, not just to

myself and to a few friends, but to strangers who had judged my work extraordinary....that validation meant more

to me than the money.”

Overall, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded $40 million through its Literature Fellowships to more

than 2,475 writers. The record of the Literature Fellowships program shows unparalleled support for writers at

critical, early stages of their careers. Since 1990, 42 of the 60 recipients of the National Book Award, Pulitzer

Prize, and National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and Fiction have received NEA Literature Fellowships, 

often 10 to 20 years earlier. 

Literature Fellowships
LITERATURE FELLOWSHIPS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 129

This year’s Literature Fellowships are for Prose (Prose and Poetry fellowships are given in alternate years). Of the

1,422 applications received, 42 writers from 22 states were awarded $20,000 grants, totaling $840,000. Literature

Fellowships are awarded through a process of anonymous manuscript review under the sole criterion of artistic

excellence and merit. Panelists do not know the identities of the writers, their publishing histories, academic

achievements, or previous awards.

In addition to the creative writing fellowships, each year Literature Fellowships are awarded for translation

projects to translate literary works written in foreign languages into English (alternating between prose and 

poetry to coincide with the creative writing fellowships). The art of literary translation facilitates the international

exchange of fiction, poetry, and drama between cultures; many books cherished by Americans are experienced

primarily in translation. Without translation, most Americans would not be able to enjoy Homer, Leo Tolstoy, Italo

Calvino, or Pablo Neruda. In 2004, 60 applications for Translation in Prose grants were received, of which 11

translators in nine states were awarded grants totaling $160,000. Grants to translators are awarded for specific

translation projects in grants of either $10,000 or $20,000. 

CREATIVE WRITING

FELLOWSHIPS—PROSE:

(all grants are $20,000)

Jennifer Ackerman’s most recent

book, published by Houghton

Mifflin, Chance in the House of Fate

was released in 2001. Her first

collection of essays, Notes from the

Shore, was published in 1995.

Julene Bair’s collection of essays,

One Degree West, details her

childhood. Her work has also been

anthologized by Milkweed Editions.

A recipient of a Guggenheim

Fellowship, Peter Balakian teaches

at Colgate University. His memoir,

Black Dog of Fate, was published in

1997.

Tom Barbash has written three

novels, with the most recent, The

Last Good Chance, having been

published by Picador. He is a

lecturer at Stanford University and 

a former recipient of a Wallace

Stegner Fellowship.

Judy Blunt is an assistant professor

at the University of Montana. Her

book, Breaking Clean, was published

by Alfred A. Knopf in 2002.

Carrie Brown has had four books

published by Algonquin Books. She

is a visiting assistant professor at

Sweet Briar College.

Bo Caldwell is a freelance writer

based in Cupertino, California. 

A recipient of a Wallace Stegner

Fellowship, her novel The Distant

Land of My Father was published 

in 2001.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’

Workshop, Alexander Chee lives 

in Brooklyn, New York, and is a

visiting writer at Wesleyan

University. His novel, Edinburgh,

was published in 2001.

Bernard Cooper is an art critic for

Los Angeles Magazine. A recipient 

of a Guggenheim Fellowship for

Creative Nonfiction, his book, Truth

Serum, was published in 1996.

Justin Cronin’s novel Mary and

O’Neil was published by the Dial

Press. He received a PEW Fellowship

and earned his MFA from the

University of Iowa. 

Ann Darby is the author of the

novel The Orphan Game, published

by William Morrow in 1999. Her

short fiction has appeared in The

Northwest Review, The Malahat

Review, and The Best of Story

Quarterly, among other journals.

James DeVita is an actor in

Wisconsin. His first novel, Blue, was

published in 2001 by HarperCollins.

Carolyn Ferrell teaches at Sarah

Lawrence College. Her first collection

of stories, Don’t Erase Me, was

published in 1997.

Cristina Garcia was a finalist for the

National Book Award in 1992. Her

novels include The Agüero Sisters,

published in 1997, and Dreaming in

Cuban, published in 1992.
LITERATURE FELLOWSHIPS

Julia Glass won the National Book

Award for Fiction in 2002 for her

first novel Three Junes, published by

Pantheon Books.

T. Greenwood is the author of three

novels, Undressing the Moon, Nearer

Than the Sky, and Breathing Water,

all published by St. Martin’s Press.

Michael Griffith is a teacher at the

University of Cincinnati. His novel,

Spikes, was published in 2001.

Joshua Harmon received his MFA

from Cornell University. His fiction

has appeared in such journals as

Witness, AGNI, Antioch Review, 

Iowa Review, and Bomb.

Noy Holland teaches at the

University of Massachusetts. Her

work has appeared in Conjunctions,

The American Voice, and Open City.

She was nominated for a National

Book Award for her book, The

Spectacle of the Body.

Karl Iagnemma is a research

scientist for the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology. His fiction

has appeared in The Paris Review,

Zoetrope: All Story, and in The Best

American Short Stories 2002.

Wayne Karlin has published several

novels with Curbstone Press,

including The Wished-For Country

and Prisoners. He has won one 

prior NEA Literature Fellowship 

and teaches at the College of

Southern Maryland.

Charles Kemnitz teaches at the

Penn College of Technology. His

writing has appeared in Cimarron

Review, New Millennium, Northwest

Review, and River Teeth.

F

ROM HIS POCKET, CHEN PAN PULLED

out what was left of the sky-blue dressing gown that

had belonged to his wife. The gown was in tatters, 

the neckline torn, but he wrapped the fragment around his 

wrist. For ten years the nightgown had held Lucrecia’s original

scent –a peppermint and sea-salt odor—before it had gotten 

musty with old tears. It was true that his love for Lucrecia 

had grown with each passing year. Chen Pan was astonished 

at its persistence. Who was it that said: If only one person 

in the world knows me, then I will have no regrets. So why 

was he so regretful?

Chen Pan imagined taking a small blue boat and sailing it

beyond the rim of the horizon, beyond the slowly rising 

sun to where he knew Lucrecia’s spirit rested. Last March, 

he’d bought a revolver and polished it every day. He couldn’t

decide whether to go on living or simply shoot himself.

Sometimes he spun the revolver on the nightstand or on 

the counter of his shop, waiting for it to stop and point 

at him directly. It never did.

What did it mean to die, anyway? What if there wasn’t a 

shred of truth to anything he’d learned? After all, who 

had ever returned from the beyond to inform the living?

Chen Pan marveled at the optimism of others in the face of

death. Their insistence on pasting paper money everywhere. 

Or burying their loved ones in three coffins, one inside the

other. Or inserting bits of mercury-dipped jade into the 

orifices of the deceased to delay their decay. What if death 

was no more or less than this: the kapling of a broken string?

Each time Chen Pan thought about this, he felt as if each 

hair on his head were on fire.

CRISTINA GARCIA

Excerpt from Monkey Hunting, Knopf, 2003

Used by permission of the author

130 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

“

”
LITERATURE FELLOWSHIPS

Ivonne Lamazares teaches Creative

Writing at the University of Central

Florida. Her first novel, The Sugar

Island, was published by Houghton

Mifflin in 2000.

Dorene O’Brien’s work has appeared

in The MacGuffin, Margin, and New

Millennium Writings. She teaches at

Wayne State University.

Julie Orringer’s fiction has appeared

in The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The

Yale Review, and Zoetrope: All Story.

Her stories are collected in How To

Breathe Underwater.

Michael Parker is a professor at

UNC-Greensboro. His most recent

novel is Towns Without Rivers,

published in 2001.

A teacher at William Paterson

University, John Parras’s fiction has

appeared in Gulf Stream Magazine,

Oasis, and Hanging Loose. He earned

his PhD from Columbia University.

Alexander Parsons is an assistant

professor at The University of New

Hampshire. His novel, Leaving

Disneyland, was published by 

St. Martin’s Press in 2001.

Roy Parvin lives and writes in

California. His most recent novel 

is In The Snow Forest.

J. Mark Powell’s first novel,

Prodigals, was published by the

University of Tennessee Press in

2002. He is a visiting professor at

the University of South Carolina.

John Price received his MFA in

Nonfiction Writing from the

University of Iowa. His work has

appeared in Creative Nonfiction,

Orion, and The Florida Review.

Lia Purpura is writer-in-residence at

Loyola College. Her first collection of

essays, Increase, was published by

the University of Georgia Press.

Jess Row is the author of the 

short story collection The Train 

to Lo Wu and has published 

fiction in Ploughshares, Ontario

Review, Harvard Review, and

Washington Square.

Jim Ruland lives and writes in

California. His fiction has appeared

in Exquisite Corpse, Sweet Fancy

Moses, and Pindeldyboz.

Scott Russell Sanders has won

fellowships from the Guggenheim

Foundation and the Lilly

Endowment, and received one 

prior NEA Literature Fellowship. His

books include The Force of Spirit,

Hunting for Hope, and Staying Put.

Dashka Slater’s first novel, The

Wishing Box, was published by

Chronicle Books in 2000. She lives

and writes in Oakland, California.

Lauren Slater has a master’s 

degree in psychology from Harvard

University and a doctorate from

Boston University. Her work was

chosen for The Best American Essays

of 1994 and 1997. Her most recent

book, published by Random House,

is Love Works Like This.

Dao Strom lives and writes in

Austin, Texas. She received her 

MFA from the University of Iowa.

Her first novel, Grass Roof, Tin 

Roof, was published in 2003.

Jonathan Waterman is the author

of two books, Arctic Crossing and 

A Most Hostile Mountain. He lives 

in Colorado.

Larry Watson has received one prior

NEA Literature Fellowship. His novels

include Laura, Montana 1948, and

White Crosses. He holds an honorary

Doctor of Letters from Ripon College.

Brad Watson was a finalist for the

National Book Award for his novel

The Heaven of Mercury. He also has

a collection of stories entitled Last

Days of the Dog-Men.

Andrew Winer is a lecturer at 

the University of California-Irvine,

where he also received his MFA 

in Fiction Writing. His novel, The

Color Midnight Made, was published

in 2002.

TRANSLATION

FELLOWSHIPS––PROSE:

Alison Anderson $10,000

To support the translation from

French of the work of Christian

Bobin. Anderson will translate

several works, including Une petite

robe de fête, a collection of short

pieces ranging in themes from

nostalgia for lost love to the

experience of readers and

unpublished writers. 

Alison Anderson’s translations

include Let Me Survive by Louise

Longo, Onitsha by JMG Le Clézio,

and History of the Surrealist

Movement by Gérard Durozoi. 

Danuta Borchardt $20,000

To support the retranslation from

Polish of the novel Cosmos by Witold

Gombrowicz. Born in Poland in

1904, Gombrowicz is the author 

of six books of fiction and three

plays, which use classical models of

farce and the grotesque to convey

larger ideas of the times. Previous

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 131
LITERATURE FELLOWSHIPS

132 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

translations of Cosmos were 

done from French and German

translations, and this will be the 

first taken directly into English 

from Polish. 

Danuta Borchardt was born in 

Poland and lived in England and

Ireland before she moved to Boston

in 1959 to work as a psychiatrist 

at Massachusetts General Hospital.

She won the 2001 National

Translation Award from the American

Literary Translators Association for

her translation of Gombrowicz’s 

novel Ferdydurke.

Peter Constantine $20,000

To support the translation from 

Greek of selected works by

Alexandros Papadiamantis, 

Greece’s foremost 19th-century 

prose writer. Papadiamantis 

(1851-1911) wrote more than 

200 novellas and short stories, 

and numerous novels including his

most famous work, The Murderess. 

Peter Constantine is the translator

of Six Early Stories by Thomas 

Mann, The Undiscovered Chekhov -

Thirty-Eight New Stories, and The

Complete Works of Isaac Babel. 

He currently is a senior editor 

for the journal Conjunctions. 

Erdag Göknar $20,000

To support the translation from

Turkish of the novel A Mind at 

Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar

(1901-1962). A noted novelist, 

poet, and essayist, Tanpinar is

considered the founder of 

modernist Turkish literature.

I

STANBUL, AUGUST 1939– MÜMTAZ HADN’T

been out on the streets of the city properly since his cousin

Ihsan, whom he called his “older brother,” had taken ill. Aside

from errands like calling for the doctor, having prescriptions filled at

the pharmacist’s, and making phone calls from the neighbor’s house,

he’d spent almost the entire week either at his sick cousin’s bedside,

in his own room reading and reflecting, or attempting to comfort 

his niece and nephew. For about two days, Ihsan had complained of

fever, back aches, and fatigue before pneumonia suddenly announced

itself in the house in all its eminence, establishing its sultanate, a

psychology of devastation through worry, anguish, sorrow, and the

good wishes that never left one’s lips or glances.

Everyone slept and woke with the angst that came with Ihsan’s illness.

In the morning Mümtaz again awoke to this dread from a sleep that

train whistles had bloodied with altogether different fears. It was

approaching nine. He sat at the edge of his bed and thought for a

while. He had a host of things to do today. The doctor had said he

would come at ten – but Mümtaz wasn’t obliged to wait for him. 

First of all, he needed to hire a nurse. Given that neither Ihsan’s 

wife, Majideh, nor his mother, Sabireh Hanım, ever stepped away 

from the sickbed, the two children were a shambles. 

The old servant Arifeh Hanım could more or less occupy Ahmet. But

someone had to fully engage his younger sister Sabiha. More than

anything else, she needed someone to talk to. As Mümtaz thought

about this, he smiled inside at the antics of his little niece. It dawned

on him that his affections for his young relative had taken on new

proportions since he’d returned home: “I wonder, is it always a matter

of habit? Do we always end up loving those closest to us?” he thought.

AHMET HAMDI TANPINAR

Excerpt from A Mind at Peace

Translated from Turkish by

ERD A G GÖKN A R

Used by permission of author

“

”
LITERATURE FELLOWSHIPS

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 133

Erdag Göknar currently is Visiting

Assistant Professor of Turkish

Language and Culture at Duke

University. His translations 

include Orhan Pamuk’s Earth 

and Ashes and My Name is Red. 

Howard C. Goldblatt $20,000

To support the translation from

Chinese of the novel My Life as

Emperor by Su Tong. Born in 1963,

Su Tong is the author of six novels,

short stories, and a novella, Raise

the Red Lantern. 

Howard Goldblatt currently is a

research professor at University 

of Notre Dame. He has translated

more than 25 books of Chinese

literature, including Liu Heng’s 

Black Snow and Chu Tien-wen’s

Notes of a Decadent Man. 

Prasenjit Gupta $10,000

To support the translation of a

selection of short stories of Bengali

writer Ashapurna Debi. Widely

regarded as one of India’s leading

literary figures, Ashapurna Debi

(1909-1995) explored the lives 

of Bengali society’s middle class. 

Prasenjit Gupta’s translations 

have appeared in Modern Poetry 

in Translation, Exchanges, and

Indian Literature. He won the 

Katha-British Council Contest 

in Translation in 1997. 

Clifford E. Landers $10,000

To support the translation from

Portuguese of a selection of short

stories by Brazilian writer Rubem

Fonseca. Often focusing on

alienation and victimization in

Brazilian society, Fonseca’s 

oeuvre includes more than 100 

short stories. 

Clifford E. Landers has translated 

14 novels, including two novels by

Fonseca, Bufo & Spallanzani and The

Lost Manuscript, as well as Marcos

Rey’s Memoirs of a Gigolo, Jorge

Amado’s The Golden Harvest, and

Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain. 

Tiina K. Nunnally $20,000

To support the translation 

from Norwegian of Sigrid 

Undset’s first novel, Mrs. Marta

Oulie, and a selection of short

stories written prior to 1918. 

Winner of the Nobel Prize for

Literature in 1928, Sigrid Undset 

is best known for her medieval

trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter. 

Tiina Nunnally is executive editor 

of Fjord Press. She has translated

such works as Undset’s novel Jenny

and the trilogy of novels comprising

Kristin Lavransdatter, and Peter

Høeg’s Smilla’s Sense of Snow. 

Robert Rudder $10,000

To support the translation from

Spanish of the novel Lo prohibido

by Benito Pérez Galdós. Robert

Rudder will collaborate with Gloria

Arjona. Born in 1843, Galdós wrote

77 novels, 21 works for the theater,

and several volumes of literary

criticism and personal essays,

placing him second only

to Cervantes among Spain’s 

greatest novelists. 

Robert Rudder’s translations 

include Galdós’s Nazarin, Rosario

Castellanos’s City of Kings, Francisco

Rojas Gonzalez’s Medicine Man, and

Cristina Peri Rossi’s Solitaire of Love. 

Laima Sruoginis $10,000

To support the translation from

Lithuanian of personal essays, 

a memoir, and fiction by Vanda

Juknaite. Born in 1949 in a remote

village along the Lithuanian/Latvian

border, Juknaite received the

Lithuanian National Prize for

Literature in 2002. 

Laima Sruoginis published the

anthology, The Earth Remains: 

An Anthology of Contemporary

Lithuanian Prose, in 2003. 

She currently teaches at the

University of Southern Maine. 

Alyson Waters $20,000

To support the translation from

French of Vassilis Alexakis’s most

recent novel, Foreign Words. Born

and raised in Greece, Alexakis writes

much of his work in French, having

moved to Paris in his twenties. 

His fiction employs elements of 

his life to explore the relationship

between identity and language,

memory and the self, and exile, 

loss, love, and death. 

Alyson Waters is currently the

managing editor of Yale French

Studies and a lecturer in the 

French Department at Yale

University. Her translations 

include Tzvetan Todorov’s The

Morals of History. 
134 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

Senator Bob Bennett (Utah) enjoys blues artists Phil Wiggins (shown) and 

NEA National Heritage Fellow John Cephas at a special Capitol Hill tour 

for the National Council on the Arts in September 2004. 

Photo by Christy Crytzer

NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THE ARTS
NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THE ARTS

T

he National Council on the Arts advises the Chairman of the

National Endowment for the Arts on agency policies and

programs. It reviews and makes recommendations on

applications for grants, funding guidelines, leadership initiatives, and

nominations for the National Medal of Arts. The Council meets three

times a year.

Fourteen voting members of the Council—all private citizens—are

appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for six-year

terms, and are selected for their distinguished service or achieved

eminence in the arts. In 1997, Congress enacted legislation that

required the appointment of six members of Congress, three from the

House of Representatives and three from the Senate, to serve in an ex

officio, non-voting capacity for two-year terms. Current Council

members can be found on the NEA Web site at www.arts.gov. 

National Council on the Arts

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 135

Senator Lamar Alexander (Tennessee) with

National Council on the Arts (NCA) member

Mary Costa during a special Capitol Hill tour

for the NCA in September 2004. 

Photo by Christy Crytzer
NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THE ARTS

136 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

Don V. Cogman

Patron/Trustee

Scottsdale, Arizona

Mary Costa

Opera Singer

Knoxville, Tennessee

Gordon Davidson*

Theater Center Director/Producer

Los Angeles, California

Katharine Cramer DeWitt

Patron/Trustee

Cincinnati, Ohio

Makoto Fujimura

Visual Artist

New York, New York

David Gelernter

Author/Critic/Educator

Woodbridge, Connecticut

Nathan Leventhal*

Patron/Trustee

New York, New York

Teresa Lozano Long

Patron/Trustee

Austin, Texas

James McBride

Author/Musician/Composer

Carversville, Pennsylvania

Maribeth Walton McGinley

Art Director/Designer

Glendale, California

Jerry Pinkney

Artist/Illustrator

Croton-on-Hudson, New York

Cleo Parker Robinson*

Dance Company

Director/Choreographer

Denver, Colorado

Deedie Potter Rose

Patron/Trustee

Dallas, Texas

Karen Lias Wolff

Music Educator

Ann Arbor, Michigan

The following Council members served in FY 2004: 

Cass Ballenger

U.S. House of Representatives

(R-North Carolina)

Robert Bennett

U.S. Senate

(R-Utah)

Mike DeWine 

U.S. Senate

(R-Ohio)

* End of term in FY 2004

Betty McCollum

U.S. House of Representatives

(D-Minnesota)

Howard “Buck” McKeon

U.S. House of Representatives

(R-California)

Harry Reid

U.S. Senate

(D-Nevada)

Ex officio members
FINANCIAL SUMMARY

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 137

SUMMARY OF PROGRAMMATIC FUNDS AVAILABLE1 FY 2004

Appropriated Program and State/Regional Grant Funds $99,296,219

Appropriated Balance, Prior Year2 1,907,550

Nonfederal Gifts2 1,473,928

Interagency Transfers2 2,865,000

TOTAL FUNDS AVAILABLE $105,542,697

1 Excludes salaries and expenses of $23,826,356, including nonfederal gifts and interagency transfers held on behalf of the President’s

Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and program support funds of $1,930,025. 

2 Includes FY 2003 unobligated funds brought forward into FY 2004 and prior year deobligations carried forward into FY 2004. 

SUMMARY OF FUNDS OBLIGATED 

Challenge America

Access to the Arts $7,815,574

Reaching Every Community Grants 1,280,000

State and Regional Partnership Agreements 8,721,000

Leadership Initiatives

Shakespeare in American Communities 2,953,975

Mayors’ Institute on City Design 400,000

AccessAbility Initiatives 420,800

Other Initiatives 1,234,000

Financial Summary
FINANCIAL SUMMARY

138 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

SUMMARY OF FUNDS OBLIGATED (cont.) FY 2004

Access to Artistic Excellence

Grants to Organizations

Creativity 19,960,000

Heritage/Preservation 4,231,000

Arts on Radio & Television 3,860,000

Services to Arts Organizations and Artists 2,525,000

Literature Fellowships 1,000,000

NEA Jazz Masters & NEA National Heritage Fellowships 325,000

Leadership Initiatives

Folk & Traditional Arts Infrastructure Initiative 380,000

Arts Journalism Institute 485,395

NEA Jazz Masters National Initiative 574,709

Public Partnerships (including international programs) 1,285,860

Other Initiatives 1,565,655

Learning in the Arts

Learning in the Arts Grants to Organizations3 39,672,680

Leadership Initiatives

Shakespeare in American Communities 210,000

Arts Education Partnership 638,500

NEA Summer Institutes 250,000

Other Initiatives 77,500

State & Regional Partnership Agreements 31,380,000

Save America’s Treasures 1,362,000

TOTAL FUNDS OBLIGATED $102,608,648

3

Includes $1,950,000 of NEA direct grantmaking funds obligated under 

State & Regional Partnership Agreements for arts learning activities. 
APPROPRIATIONS HISTORY

2004 ANNUAL REPORT 139

Fiscal Year Total Funds

1966 $ 2,898,308

1967 $ 8,475,692

1968 $ 7,774,291

1969 $ 8,456,875

1970 $ 9,055,000

1971 $ 16,420,000

1972 $ 31,480,000

1973 $ 40,857,000

1974 $ 64,025,000

1975 $ 80,142,000

1976 $ 87,455,000

1976T* $ 35,301,000

1977 $ 99,872,000

1978 $ 123,850,000

Fiscal Year Total Funds

1979 $ 149,585,000

1980 $ 154,610,000

1981 $ 158,795,000

1982 $ 143,456,000

1983 $ 143,875,000

1984 $ 162,223,000

1985 $ 163,660,000

1986 $ 158,822,240

1987 $ 165,281,000

1988 $ 167,731,000

1989 $ 169,090,000

1990 $ 171,255,000

1991 $ 174,080,737

1992 $ 175,954,680

Fiscal Year Total Funds

1993 $ 174,459,382

1994 $ 170,228,000

1995 $ 162,311,000

1996 $ 99,470,000

1997 $ 99,494,000

1998 $ 98,000,000

1999 $ 97,966,000

2000 $ 97,627,600

2001 $104,769,000

2002 $115,220,000

2003 $115,731,000

2004 $120,970,815

* In 1976, the Federal government changed the

beginning of the fiscal year from July 1 to

October 1, hence the 1976 Transition (T)

Quarter.

Appropriations History

Fiscal Years 1966 – 2004
140 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

2004 Annual Report published by:

National Endowment for the Arts

Office of Communications

Felicia K. Knight, Director

Don Ball, Publications Manager

September 2005

Researched and written by 

Don Ball and Paulette Beete. 

With thanks to NEA staff for their assistance, 

and to grantees for their photographs and information. 

This annual report, as well as all grant and panel 

information for FY 2004, can be ordered and accessed 

electronically at the NEA Web site: www.arts.gov.

National Endowment for the Arts

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20506-0001

(202) 682-5400

2004 Annual Report designed by:

Fletcher Design, Inc. 

Washington, DC

Cover Photo: Guest artist Jeff Thayer plays Brahms’s Violin 

Concerto with Pennsylvania’s Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, 

conducted by Robin Fountain, for its opening concert in 2004, 

supported by an NEA Challenge America grant. 

Photo by Ralph Wilson/Street Light Photography 

Voice/TTY: (202) 682-5496

For individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Individuals who do not use conventional print may contact the Arts Endowment’s 

Office for AccessAbility to obtain this publication in an alternate format.

Telephone: (202) 682-5532

This publication was printed on recycled paper.

CREDITS
A Great Nation Deserves Great Art.

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20506-0001

(202) 682-5400

www.arts.gov
The National Endowment for the Arts is the largest 

annual funder of the arts in the United States. An independent 

federal agency, the NEA is the official arts organization of the 

United States government, dedicated to supporting excellence 

in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all 

Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.