National Endowment for the Arts Awards CSO $15,000

[Chattanooga, TN ]-National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016. Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $15,000 to the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera's education programs. The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.

"The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected," said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. "Supporting projects like the one from the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day."

CSO Executive Director Samantha Teter said "We are thrilled to be recipients of an NEA grant, the CSO's first in over ten years. Our education program is one of the largest arts education programs in the region and reaches more than 25,000 students each year. We're proud that the NEA considers our education programs as 'a highly innovative and laudable initiative'. This funding will allow us to continue to inspire, engage, and enrich the lives of students in Hamilton County and eleven surrounding counties through music."

Funds from the NEA will be used to support Sound Beginnings, a comprehensive educational program for elementary students, both typically developing and atypically developing children. This program includes an instrument check-out program allowing music teachers the opportunity to borrow orchestral instruments to use in their classroom teaching and a four concert and activity series of Sensory Friendly concerts, appropriate for families and children with Autism, Down Syndrome, brain injuries, and those typically developing. Also included in this program is the CSO's Ensembles in the Schools and Young People's Concert programs. More information about these programs is available at www.chattanoogasymphony.org/education/ or www.chattanoogasymphony.org/community/.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring16. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov

About Us

The mission of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera is to inspire, engage, and enrich the greater Chattanooga community through music and music education.

The 2015/16 season marks 83 seasons for the CSO, which played its first concert on November 5, 1933. The CSO, conducted by Music Director Kayoko Dan, consists of top players from the Chattanooga area as well as from across the southern region. The CSO performs a full season of Masterworks, Pops, Chamber, and Volkswagen Series concerts from September through May, as well as a variety of community, education and engagement events throughout the year.

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