In its first round of 2022 grants, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded $1,746,000 in 77 grants to the Texas arts community.
Nationwide the NEA disbursed 1,498 awards totaling nearly $33.2 million in this round of grants. Included in this round were NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects, Literature Fellowships in creative writing and translation, and support for arts research projects.
Two Texas based writers are among the awardees and the only individuals to receive grants. Poet Tomás Q. Morín received a $25,000 Literature Fellowship. And poet Layla Benitez-James, who will translate “Daughter of the Road” by Spanish author and film director Lucía Asué Mbomío Rubio. It will be the first novel by a Black woman writer from Spain to be translated into English.
Said Morín in a statement: “The judges awarding me this Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts have made me feel welcomed as a peer, as someone who has something to say about racism, fatherhood, education, and the daily debacle and glory of living in a country that can’t seem to make up its mind about whether it wants us or not.”
“These National Endowment for the Arts grants underscore the resilience of our nation’s artists and arts organizations, will support efforts to provide access to the arts, and rebuild the creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers in a press release. “The supported projects demonstrate how the arts are a source of strength and well-being for communities and individuals, and can open doors to conversations that address complex issues of our time.”
The Austin area grants are:
- American Short Fiction — $10,000
- Austin Film Festival — $20,000
- Austin Film Society — $20,000
- Austin Independent School District— $100,000, for arts education
- Women & Their Work — $25,000
- The Contemporary Austin — $30,000
- Creative Action — $44,000
- Georgetown Arts Works — $10,000
- Ground Floor Theatre — $10,000
- Hispanic Alliance for the Performing Arts — $10,000
- Landmarks public art program, University of Texas — $45,000
- Mexic-Arte Museum — $30,000
- Mindpop — $30,000, research grants in the arts
- Museum of Human Achievement — $30,000
- OUTsider Film & Arts Festival —$15,000
- Puerto Rican Cultural Center— $15,000
- Texas Comedies — $10,000
- Tapestry Dance Company — $10,000
- Zach Scott Theatre — $15,000
