FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Savannah Whiting, Communications Associate
Email Address: press@wordswithoutborders.org
Words Without Borders Receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant
New York City, New York, December 8, 2015—The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award to Words Without Borders to support its flagship online magazine of international literature.
In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every U.S. State and jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so. The Art Works category supports the creation and presentation of new and existing art, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines.
NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The arts are part of our everyday lives—no matter who you are or where you live—they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like the one from Words Without Borders offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”
“We are thrilled to be among the recipients of an NEA grant,” said WWB executive director Karen Phillips. “Support from the NEA allows us to introduce U.S. readers to diverse and vital literary voices from around the world, building new cultural awareness in the process.”
With the support of the NEA, Words without Borders will publish new issues of its free online magazine dedicated to writing from Morocco, Cuba, Singapore, and Thailand, among other countries. Upgrades to its Web site and an expansion of its online education initiative, Words without Borders Campus, are also planned for the grant period.
To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEAFall15. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov.
WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of cultural understanding through the translation, publication, and promotion of international literature. To date WWB has translated over 2,000 pieces of literature and poetry representing 108 languages by writers from 129 countries. In 2014, WWB launched WWB Campus, an online education initiative designed to bring contemporary international literature into the high school and college classroom.
For additional information, please contact:
Contact: Savannah Whiting, Communications Associate
Email Address: press@wordswithoutborders.org
Web site Address: www.wordswithoutborders.org
Twitter: @wwborders