ENRICHMENT WORKS TO RECEIVE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS GRANT

Voyage of Odysseus

For Immediate Release

DATE: May 6, 2015
CONTACT: Donna Wood-Babcock
818-780-1400
[email protected]

Enrichment Works to Receive NEA Grant
L.A. Nonprofit is Among 1,023 Recipients Nationwide

Valley Glen— The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will make a $10,000 award to the Valley-based nonprofit Enrichment Works to provide performances of its original plays and musicals to the Youth Development Program (YDP), an after-school initiative of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Nationwide, the NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million in its second funding round of 2015.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from Enrichment Works represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”

“We’re delighted that our work in Los Angeles schools has been recognized by the NEA,” said Enrichment Works founder and Board President Abraham Tetenbaum. “These funds will bring arts programming back to underserved communities that have only just begun to recover from recession.”

The project will provide 35 performances of selected Enrichment Works productions. This is the second NEA grant received by the Valley-based nonprofit, which was founded in 1999 with a mission of providing area schools, libraries, museums and hospitals with “theater to inspire learning.” Funds will also support the production of “First Kids,” an original musical about the lives of presidential offspring with music by Norman L. Berman and book and lyrics by Tetenbaum. This two-person version of a full-length worked being readied for the Broadway stage contains eight songs and features the lives of Tad Lincoln, Alice Roosevelt, Amy Carter and others.

This NEA grant requires Enrichment Work to match the award dollar for dollar. If you would like to support this project,please visit http://www.enrichmentworks.org/donate.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring2015. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov