National Endowment for the Arts 2007 Annual Report GRANT HIGHLIGHTS The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. II National Endowment for the Arts Dear Mr. President: It is my pleasure to submit the Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts for Fiscal Year 2007. Since its establishment in 1965, the Arts Endowment has awarded more than $4 billion in grants to organizations and artists residing in communities large and small in all 50 states and the six U.S. jurisdictions. Throughout its history, the NEA has played a transformative and sustaining role in the development of regional theater, opera, dance, orchestras, museums, and other arts—both contemporary and traditional—that Americans now enjoy. The activities highlighted in this report illustrate the Arts Endowment’s continuing commitment to a nation in which artistic excellence is celebrated, supported, and available to all Americans. Sincerely, Dana Gioia Chairman 2007 Annual Report i Sir Edward Burne-Jones’s The Council Chamber, 1872-92, part of the Delaware Art Museum’s pre-Raphaelite collection that was displayed in 2007 with assistance from an NEA grant. Photo courtesy of Delaware Art Museum contents to come Contents Chairman’s Statement ............................................................1 National Initiatives .................................................................7 State and Regional Partnerships ............................................ 15 Lifetime Honors ...................................................................19 National Medal of Arts, 19 NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, 20 NEA National Heritage Fellowship, 21 Grant Highlights (state-by-state listing) ................................23 Literature Fellowships ........................................................ 127 National Council on the Arts ............................................... 135 Financial Summary ............................................................ 137 Appropriations History ......................................................139 Credits ...............................................................................140 GRANT HIGHLIGHTS Video art by Bill Viola floats above the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, during the orchestra’s 2007 revival of The Tristan Project, a concert staging of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Photo courtesy of Matthew Imaging iv National Endowment for the Arts CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT Chairman’s Statement n 2007, the National 6.5 million children and youth, Endowment for the Arts (NEA) benefited from NEA programs, Imade historic progress in its exclusive of television and radio efforts to bring the best of arts and broadcasts. Those 70 million arts education to all Americans. Our citizens enjoyed 34,000 concerts, national initiatives continued to readings, and performances; 4,000 expand across all 50 states, reaching exhibitions; and 10,000 artist more individuals, schools, and residencies in schools and other communities than ever before. locations. Some of these exceptional Our grant programs again funded programs are featured in the strong projects in every state and following pages. Congressional district. Our widely In 2007, for the third consecutive 2006 Poetry Out Loud Massachusetts read research reports shaped public year, we achieved our goal of State Champion Vinh Hua recites a discussion in significant ways on the reaching every community in the poem during the U.S. Postal Service arts, literacy, and education. United States––with many grants first-day-of-issuance ceremony for the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once again going to organizations commemorative stamp to celebrate that had never before received NEA Longfellow’s 200th birthday. Artistic excellence and support. The continued success of Photo courtesy of U.S. Postal Service broad democratic reach this ambitious program guarantees the democratization of arts funding, In fiscal year (FY) 2007 the NEA especially in underserved areas. expertise to advance the arts and awarded $100.3 million in grants. arts education. Due to the catalytic nature of these grants, each dollar awarded Partnerships Poetry Out Loud generated, on average, six dollars One program in particular from other sources, triggering an Everything the NEA does, we do demonstrates how the NEA investment of approximately $600 in partnership. From our grant brings together partners to million for the arts from private awards and national initiatives to make extraordinary experiences donors and public, nonfederal research and events, the NEA possible for young people. Poetry sources. works with hundreds of Out Loud: National Recitation Seventy million people, including organizations to pool funds and Contest encourages high school 2007 Annual Report 1 CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT students to learn about great 2006, were filled with stunning inspiration for artists. In 2007, the poetry through memorization, performances. exhibition visited 14 venues such performance, and competition. The as the Chugach National Forest in program is a partnership with the Federal Partnerships Cordova, Alaska, and the Gladie Poetry Foundation, the state and On the federal level, the Cultural-Environmental Learning jurisdictional arts agencies, and Mid NEA includes 24 agencies or Center of the Daniel Boone National Atlantic Arts Foundation, one of six departments among its project Forest in Winchester, Kentucky. regional arts organizations. partners. Here are just two examples Since 2004, the NEA has In this, its second year, Poetry Out of featured activities in 2007. partnered with the Department of Loud expanded its activities beyond Inspirations from the Forest Defense and The Boeing Company each state’s capital city to include brings together the Department of on Operation Homecoming: more communities. An estimated Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service, Writing the Wartime Experience, a 1,000 schools and 100,000 students the Smithsonian Institution, and project which preserves the stories participated in contests across several of the NEA’s National and reflections of U.S. military the country. The national finals Heritage Fellows. This traveling personnel and their families. On were held in Washington, DC on exhibition explored the ways March 14, 2007, the NEA presented, April 30 and May 1, 2007, and, like our national forests serve as together with the National Archives, the world premiere of Muse of Fire, a documentary film about wartime Nathan Jackson, a totem pole carver from Ketchikan, Alaska, and 1995 NEA National Heritage Fellow, demonstrated his carving at the Salmon River Festival in Wenatchee, writing and the creative process Washington, as part of the Inspirations from the Forest project. that was inspired by Operation Photo by Dorey Butter, Smithsonian Institution Homecoming. Leadership The National Endowment for the Arts is an institution of leadership at home and abroad. The agency has rebuilt a national consensus for the importance of the arts and arts education in the U.S. Congress, the arts community, and the media. Key among the NEA’s leadership activities in 2007 were projects in research, arts education, and international exchange. Timely Research To Read or Not To Read, a comprehensive analysis of reading patterns of children, teenagers, and adults in the United States, was published in November 2007 and 2 National Endowment for the Arts cHAiRMAN’S StATEMENT book. The Big Read reached a signifi cant milestone in June 2007 with 117 communities joining The Big Read family, making it the largest federal literature program since the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s and ‘40s (with the exception of the Armed Services Editions initiative during World War II). In addition to reaching 117 communities, the program boasted at that time a reading list of 12 classic novels and had distributed 189 grants totaling more than $2.7 million in 42 states Galina Alekseeva, Chairman Gioia, and Vladimir Tolstoy at a special presentation of and territories. Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich at the NEA in Washington, DC. In partnership with SIRIUS NEA File Photo XM Radio, the NEA is producing a steady stream of The Big Read immediately garnered national The three key fi ndings of the “moments” (as well as radio shorts attention. The report relies on the report are: on the NEA Jazz Masters) that are most accurate data available, which • Americans are spending less being aired by SIRIUS XM on 12 of consists of large, national studies time reading. its channels including CNN, Take conducted on a regular basis by U.S. • Reading comprehension skills 5, Oprah and Friends, and Fox federal agencies, supplemented by are eroding. News. These 60-second, mini- academic, foundation, and business • These declines have serious features highlight an author, book, surveys. civic, social, cultural, and or musician through interviews, economic implications. musical excerpts, and readings. It is vital that the national Entertaining and informative, these conversation about this issue moves segments put the arts back into the forward. The NEA cannot solve the public conversation. problem on its own.