The Delaware Division of Arts recently handed out over $5 million dollars in grants to 125 arts organizations in the First State.
The grants were issued to help arts organizations address an array of needs, from operating and project costs to education and startup expenses. Jessica Ball, Director of the Division of the Arts, says the purpose of the grants is to make the arts available to all.
“Everyone deserves to have a creative life and to be able to explore the arts no matter where you live, no matter where you're from, and Delaware is doing a great job of using public funding to lower barriers to entry and access," she says.
And, Ball says, many of the arts organizations are not just for onlookers.
“It's about people participating and engaging in the art forms themselves," she says. "Whether you want to be a spectator or a participant, there's something for you in the art scene here in Delaware.”
Ball says the grants help build up the state’s already-flourishing arts infrastructure.
“We have an incredible arts infrastructure here in Delaware for a small state," she says. "I think we're very fortunate in that way, and the residents definitely feel it.”
The bulk of the grants - 67 awards totalling almost $4.4 million - were earmarked for operating support. Three new organizations - Four Youth, Central Delaware Blues Society, and the Delaware Ballet - received a total of $7,500 in startup assistance.
The grants were provided through a combination of state funding and money from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
