WASHINGTON, D.C.: The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has announced $82.3 million in grants to support 1,148 projects nationwide at arts organizations and programs. The grants will be distributed among the NEA’s funding categories of Art Works, State and Regional Partnership Agreements, Research: Art Works, and Our Town, a program for creative projects designed to help transform communities.
![Jane Chu.](https://www.americantheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/jane-chu-225x300.jpg)
“Approximately 85 percent of NEA grantees are small to medium-sized organizations serving millions of people each year,” said NEA chairman Jane Chu in a statement. “The arts are all around us, and the NEA helps them thrive.”
Of the total money granted, $2,735,000, or roughly 3 percent, went to theatre and musical theatre projects. Partly in recognition of its funding over the years of many nonprofit producers of Tony-winning plays and musicals, the NEA will receive a special Tony Award in June for its ongoing financial support of the arts and education.
This year’s theatre project selections from the Research: Art Works grants include a $25,000 grant awarded to New York University to support a trial examining the effects of DE-CRUIT, a community-based Shakespeare theatre program serving military veterans and designed to address post-traumatic stress.
The University of Wisconsin at Madison has received $18,000 to support a study examining whether healthcare trainees who learn improvisational theatre techniques show greater empathy toward team members and others in a healthcare setting.
A complete list of the recipients in all categories can be found here.