Office of Cultural Affairs Receives $50,000 Grant from National Endowment for the Arts

December 8,2015

he Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) announced today that it has been awarded a $50,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The grant will be used to develop and place large-scale public artworks in the new park planned for the site of the former Martin Luther King, Jr. Natatorium, adjacent to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National historic site. This is the first round of awards from the NEA for the 2016 fiscal year, and a total of $27.6 million will be distributed to recipients across the U.S.

“The Office of Cultural Affairs is honored to receive this grant, and we look forward to installing meaningful artwork that will honor and celebrate the contributions of our city’s civil rights icons,” said Camille Russell Love, Executive Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs.

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 the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”

The NEA Art Works grant category supports the creation and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields. In commemoration of the National Park Service’s Centennial in August 2016, this particular round of Art Works grants supported projects connected to National Park Service Sites. The OCA project, Freedom Garden, will focus on honoring the legacy of Mrs. Coretta Scott King and other prominent female contributors to the Civil Rights Movement.