In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the National Endowment for the Arts will make two grant awards, totaling $65,000, to the MSU Museum.
One award supports the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeships and Heritage Awards Program and the second supports fieldwork on the state’s traditional culture and the development of social media that presents the results of contemporary and historical fieldwork.
The NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round. Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the NEA promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.
“The first grant is a testament to these year-in, year-out exemplary educational programs that tie our museum to so many individuals and community-based groups throughout the state,” said Marsha MacDowell, MSU Museum curator of folk arts and director of the MSU Museum’s Michigan Traditional Arts Program. “The second grant underwrites research activities critical to documenting Michigan’s traditional cultural heritage and to engaging artists in statewide preservation and education programs.”
The MSU Museum received NEA funding in the Folk and Traditional Arts category. Other grants were awarded in the areas of arts education, dance, design, literature, theater and visual arts.
In addition to year-round research, exhibitions, collections and programs, the MSU Museum will share a sampling of traditional arts apprenticeships and the Michigan Heritage Awards, honoring the state’s top tradition-bearers, at its Great Lakes Folk Festival, Aug. 7-9, in downtown East Lansing.
The MSU Museum is committed to education, exhibitions, research and the building and stewardship of collections that focus on Michigan and its relationship to the Great Lakes and the world beyond.