Industry & Advocacy News
May 11, 2018
NEW YORK, NY, May 11, 2018—National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant to the Authors Guild Foundation. Art Works is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts. This is the first time that the Authors Guild Foundation has received a grant from the NEA.
“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Through the work of organizations such as the Authors Guild Foundation in New York, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”
The Authors Guild Foundation will use the grant to help launch new travelling bootcamps for early-career authors from diverse, underserved communities around the country. Through a series of intensive workshops, the participants will acquire the tools they need to kickstart their careers. The workshops are designed to educate writers about legal and business aspects of authorship, to encourage them to share information and resources, and to discuss contemporary issues and challenges they face.
“The Authors Guild Foundation is honored to receive the NEA’s Art Works grant. This opportunity will allow us to support marginalized authors and to cultivate a more inclusive publishing community,” said Mary Rasenberger, Executive Director of the Authors Guild Foundation.
The Authors Guild Foundation protects and supports writing as a profession, fostering a rich, diverse literary community across the United States. It does this by promoting an understanding of the value of writers, advocating for authors’ rights, litigating to protect authors’ interests, and educating authors in the business of writing.
For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
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About the Authors Guild Foundation
The Authors Guild Foundation is the charitable and educational arm of the Authors Guild. It educates, supports, and protects American writers to ensure that a rich, diverse body of literature can flourish. It does this by advocating for authors’ rights; educating authors across the country in the business of writing; and promoting an understanding of the value of writers. The Foundation believes that an abundance of free literary expression is essential to our democracy, and that can only be achieved by protecting authors’ constitutional and moral rights to benefit from their work. It is the sole group of its kind dedicated to empowering all U.S. authors. Its founding members included Saul Bellow, John Hersey, Madeleine L’Engle, Sidney Offit, James A. Michener, Toni Morrison, Elizabeth Janeway, and Barbara Tuchman.
MEDIA CONTACT
Sandy Long
Chief Operating Officer
The Authors Guild
