NEA awards Minnesota arts organizations $877,500 in grants

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced its grants for 2013, and out of 832 awards totaling $23.3 million, Minnesota arts organizations claimed 28 grants for a total of $877,500.

NEA grants are not spread equally across the country; New York received a total of 236 grants amounting to more than $7 million, while neither North Dakota nor South Dakota received any grants at all.

Minnesota ranked 8th in the amount of money it received from the NEA; here's who placed ahead of it:

1. New York 236 grants $7,036,000

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2. California 136 grants $3,730,500

3. Illinois 38 grants $1,106,000

4. Massachusetts 33 grants $1,050,000

5. Texas 37 grants $1,045,000

6. Pennsylvania 39 grants $973,000

7. Dis. of Colombia 23 grants $900,000

Here are a few of the more interesting grants to make the list:

College of Saint Benedict

St. Joseph, MN

$25,000

To support the presentation of multidisciplinary artists throughout Minnesota for underserved audiences. Writer Diane Ackerman, poet and hip-hop artist Dessa, and musician Simon Shaheen will participate in performances and workshops for audiences including at-risk youth, residents of a domestic abuse shelter, the elderly and their caregivers, and immigrant communities.

Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts (aka Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

Minneapolis, MN

$40,000

To support the research phase for the exhibition Eugene Delacroix and Modernity. Co-organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the National Gallery, London, the exhibition will comprise approximately 70 oil paintings. In addition to Delacroix (1798- 1863), the exhibition will include works by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Courbet, Degas, and others.

Minnesota Museum of American Art

St. Paul, MN

$60,000

To support a retrospective exhibition and catalogue of the Native American modernist George Morrison (1919-2000). The exhibition will include more than 80 artworks spanning the breadth of Morrison's career, from his early figurative drawings and regionalist paintings of the 1940s to the monumental abstract landscapes and wood sculptures of the 1970s, and his late 20th-century drawings and paintings.

Northern Lights.mn

Minneapolis, MN

$15,000

To support the re-creation of Marcel Breuer's St. Paul house (1962) that will be floated down the Mississippi River as part of the Northern Spark nuit blanche festival. Minnesota artist Chris Larson will work with Professor of Architecture Charlie Lazor, a group of graduate architecture and BFA students from the University of Minnesota, and the current owner of Marcel Breuer's Frank Kacmarcik home to recreate it to scale following the original architectural plans, using wood frame, cardboard, and paint. Set on a solid floating platform, the house will float on the river and then be set on fire as a symbolic act of celebration and destruction.

St. Catherine University (on behalf of The O'Shaughnessy Auditorium)

St. Paul, MN

$10,000

To support the presentation of artists in the Women of Substance program at The O'Shaughnessy Auditorium, as well as a residency program for middle school girls in Saint Paul public schools. Artists to be presented include Bebe Miller Company; Emily Johnson/Catalyst; FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance (Germaine Acogny, Carmen de Lavallade, Dianne McIntyre, Bebe Miller and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar); and Gallim Dance/Andrea Miller.

You can find a complete list of Minnesota grantees here.