Monday, June 29, 2015

Atlanta Shakespeare Company awarded National Endowment for the Arts/ Arts Midwest Grant!



Atlanta Shakespeare company awarded National Endowment for the Arts/Arts Midwest
Grant will bring professional performances to schools and students across the state!

The National Endowment of the Arts and ArtsShakespeare in American Communities.  This will mark the thirteenth year that Shakespeare in American Communities and The National Endowment for the Arts have provided this grant.
Midwest will disperse $1 million in grants to 40 nonprofit professional companies across the nation, including The Atlanta Shakespeare Company (ASC) this coming year. This grant will allow companies to perform William Shakespeare’s work for students this coming year through

 In a press release from Arts Midwest, Susan Chandler, Vice President of Arts Midwest, states “Shakespeare in American Communities’ goals of introducing students to the art form of theatre and to Shakespeare’s timeless themes of love, ambition, jealousy, courage and betrayal will be brilliantly executed by these theaters.”

Through this grant, the Atlanta Shakespeare Company will present productions of Shakespeare’s work to at least 10 schools /2500 students along with workshops before and question and answer sessions after the performances.  Shakespeare in American Communities provides an introduction to William Shakespeare’s work to middle and high school students in a way that was simply not possible before.  With this grant, ASC will be touring their production of Romeo and Juliet Abridged to schools across the state of Georgia with special outreach to rural counties with little or no access to professional theatre performances. This past year, the production reached over 1100 students in metro Atlanta and NE Georgia and neighboring states.

Arts Midwest and the National Endowment for the Arts have created a website to provide more information for Shakespeare in American Communities. 

About Arts Midwest Arts Midwest promotes creativity, nurtures cultural leadership, and engages people in meaningful arts experiences, bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people’s lives. Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six nonprofit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years. For more information, visit www.artsmidwest.org.

About the National Endowment for the Arts Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. For more information, visit www.arts.gov

About the Atlanta Shakespeare Company at the Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse The Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s Education programs provide opportunities for students, educators and parents throughout Georgia and the Southeast to experience the power of Shakespeare’s language and dramatic vision through the play, passion, poetry, active participation and performance using dynamic, language based methods.  ASC Education serves students from K-12 grades in 54 Georgia counties and six southern states with matinees in Atlanta, touring productions, workshops, residencies and other classroom programs as well as offering professional training to emerging artists at The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse. The Tavern is Atlanta’s only professional Equity theatre company producing the works of William Shakespeare and select classic modern plays throughout the year, in an Elizabethan Globe-inspired playhouse on Peachtree St. in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.  This past year ASC/The Tavern reached a total of over 20,000 students and 30,000 adults.
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If you would like more information please contact Laura Cole by email at laura@shakespearetavern.com and visit www.shakespearetavern.com

Submitted by Amanda Lindsey McDonald in Education