The Evanston Arts Council announced $75,000 in awards Thursday, for 32 nonprofit arts organizations that applied for the group’s cultural fund grants.
The group received 40 applications for the program, but couldn’t expand funding offerings due to a loss of direct National Arts Endowment (NEA) funding. The $75,000 comes from existing support by the city’s general fund and the Illinois Arts Council.
According to group member Krista Fabian DeCastro at the Arts Council February meeting, “more than 50% of the funding comes for the [cultural funds grants] from the NEA.”
With the awards they were able to offer this year, though, the Arts Council expects their 32 participating organizations to work with roughly 3,500 artists. They also expect this work to be viewed by or interacted with 60,000 individuals.
Awarded organizations
“This year’s awardees represent a wide range of the vibrant cultural activities available to Evanston residents in literary arts, music, dance, theater, visual arts, and arts education,” a city press release states.
Award recipients include Evanston Grows, the Evanston Arts Center, the Hive Center for the Book Arts, the Open Studio Project, the Piven Theatre Workshop, the Ridgeville Foundation and the Shorefront Legacy Center.
A panel of six jurors with backgrounds in visual arts, music, film, video, arts education, art therapy and community-based art review these applications.
They evaluate each based on excellence and merit, community impact, organizational capacity and intended use of funds.
NEA funding freeze
The Trump administration began freezing funds for the NEA earlier this month. Hundreds of other organizations, like the Arts Council, received notice that grants had been terminated.
President Trump has also proposed getting rid of the NEA altogether.
Some Republicans have shown support for dismantling the endowment in the past, but NPR reported that it historically received support across the political spectrum due to its support in every congressional district in the country.
The endowment gave $31,349,976 to Illinois in the last five years to support the arts, according to the website.