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OperaDelaware & Wilmington Renaissance Corporation receive NEA grants

The National Endowment for the Arts is awarding grants to a pair of Delaware arts organizations.

Opera Delaware and The Wilmington Renaissance Corporation are the two NEA grant recipients in the First State.

Delaware Division of the the Arts Director Paul Weagraff says their projects survived a highly competitive nationwide grant application process.

“OperaDelaware is receiving a $10,000 grant in the NEA’s Art Works category, to support a couple of new productions of Opera’s - Puccini’s II Trittico - and Composer Michael Ching’s - Buoso’s Ghost. The Wilmington Renaissance Corporation has received a $10,000 grant in the Challenge America category,” Weagraff said.

 

Brendan Cooke is OperaDelaware's general director.

 

“We’re very delighted. This is actually the third year in a row that we’ve secured one of these competitive grants from the NEA. And really above anything else,  certainly we’re grateful for the financial bump that we get from a grant such as this. But it really serve as kind of a good housekeeping seal of approval,” Cooke said.

 

Cook says it will use the money to handle on-stage costs, such as costuming, as well as the casts and orchestra for two of its productions this year.

 
Weagraff says Wilmington Renaissance will use its funding to continue its development of public artwork projects in the city’s Creative District.

These two First State grants are among $25 million dollars the NEA is handing out nationwide and in Puerto Rico during the first of its two major grant announcements this year.

 

Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from theDelaware 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.

 

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.