Minnesota art groups awarded $718,000

By MARY ABBE, Star Tribune

Last update: December 4, 2008 - 8:10 PM

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The Arts Feed Hungry Mouths and a Hungry Economy

Yes, the arts will feed you, and not just metaphorically. To the tune of a BILLION dollars, in Minnesota alone. One billion dollars for a … read more $718,000 government investment. That's a heck of a return! (The government spent one hundred times that amount in soybean subsidies for Minnesota in 2006, and the financial gains were sadly not nearly as good...) Here's why: as the Minnesota State Arts Board website says, "the arts attract businesses, visitors and new residents, and encourage consumer spending." Studies show that arts businesses (and the economic stimulus they provide) generate new jobs, increase Minnesota tourism, and encourage large corporations to locate and remain in Minnesota. Plus, research repeatedly demonstrates that children with an arts education perform better in school (in all subjects), achieving higher grades and scoring better on standardized tests. These kids will go on to hold elected office, design exciting new software, head businesses, found organizations, and most likely, reinvest in the state that gave them their start. That's just the financial piece of it. The arts raise the quality of life for people from all walks. The arts teach critical thinking and public participation which in turn promotes a better democracy. The arts will take you farther than you've ever been, both out in the world, and inside yourself. You may not read poetry, buy books from local presses, go to plays, take your child to the Children's Theater or Heart of the Beast puppet shows. You might not draw or paint or sing or dance. But if you live in Minnesota, you benefit from the arts. And, yup, your belly is more full. Here's the MN Sate Arts Board website (and no, I don't work for the Arts Board!), which can give you more specific information about how the arts benefit you as a resident of Minnesota: http://www.arts.state.mn.us/about/facts.htm

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The National Endowment for the Arts has given $23,215,000 to American arts organizations for 1,951 cultural projects. The awards include 42 fellowships to poets, including Anna George Meek and Bryan Thao Worra of Minneapolis, who received $25,000 each.

LARGEST GRANTS:

Awards to Minnesota organizations and individuals totaled $718,000. The largest grants went to the Guthrie Theater, which got $50,000 to help produce and stage the musical "Caroline, or Change" by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and Jeannine Tesori, and Walker Art Center, which also received $50,000 to commission new performances in a program called "Fertile Ground."

Twin Cities publishers fared well, with Graywolf Press of St. Paul getting $45,000 and Milkweed Editions of Minneapolis receiving $40,000 for publications of poetry and creative nonfiction. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Society received $40,000 to support the 50th Anniversary American Composers Project.

Children's Theater Company and School got $35,000 to produce new work, including "Fatebook: A Cyberspace Ghost Story," by Whit MacLaughlin, and a Hmong version of "Cinderella" by Naomi Iizuka. The Minnesota Orchestral Association received $35,000 to support its Composer Institute.

ADDITIONAL AWARDS: IN MINNEAPOLIS:

Ananya Dance Theatre, $10,000; Coffee House Press, $25,000; Contemporary Dance Arts, $10,000; Flying Foot Forum, $10,000; Heart of the Beast Theatre, $20,000; Illusion Theater and School, $20,000; Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, $30,000; Minnesota Opera Company, $22,500; Mixed Blood Theatre, $25,000; Off-Leash Area: Contemporary Performance Works, $10,000; Playwrights' Center, $25,000; Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, $10,000; Rain Taxi, $7,500; Theater Mu, $10,000; VocalEssence, $30,000.

St. Paul:

Forecast Public Artworks, $15,000; Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, $20,000; Penumbra Theatre, $30,000; Zeitgeist, $8,000.

Elsewhere in Minnesota:

Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Red Wing, $10,000; College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, $15,000; Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, $10,000.

Mary Abbe • 612-673-4431

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