Saint Augustine’s University (SAU)’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts is pleased to announce they have been approved to receive an American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. The SAU Department of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended to receive $50,000 and may use this funding to save jobs and to fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies, and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation. In total, the NEA will award grants totaling $57,750,000 to 567 arts organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, DC.

“Our nation’s arts sector has been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Rescue Plan funding will help arts organizations, such as the SAU Department of Visual and Performing Arts, rebuild and reopen,” said Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the NEA. “The arts are crucial in helping America’s communities heal, unite, and inspire, as well as essential to our nation’s economic recovery.”

“We are excited and extremely grateful to have received this NEA grant,” said Dr. Kaye C. Evans, Dean of the School of Arts and Communications and chair of SAU’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts. “We want to thank everyone in the SAU Office of Sponsored Programs for getting this grant through the NEA process.”

The SAU Department of Visual and Performing Arts will use the funds to hire a part-time Performing Arts Center Manager to supervise exhibit and performance spaces within the Seby B. Jones Fine Arts Center. The grant money will also enhance the department’s curriculum and formalize an artist series with master classes conducted by professional visual and performing arts practitioners.

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law in March 2021 when the NEA was provided $135 million for the arts sector. The funding for organizations is the third installment providing more than $57.7 million for arts organizations. In April 2021, the NEA announced $52 million (40 percent) in ARP funding would be allocated to 62 state, jurisdictional, and regional arts organizations for regranting through their respective programs. The second installment in November 2021 allocated $20.2 million to 66 local arts agencies for subgranting to local artists and art organizations.

For more information on the NEA’s American Rescue Plan grants, including the full list of arts organizations funded in this announcement, visit www.arts.gov/COVID-19/the-american-rescue-plan.