Cherry Lane Theatre Awarded $20,000 NEA Grant

In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every state and U.S. jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so. Today, the NEA announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $20,000 to Cherry Lane Theatre to Mentor Project.

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.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, "The arts are part of our everyday lives - no matter who you are or where you live - they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like the one from [Name of Organization] offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day."

"The work the NEA does in support of American arts is truly indispensable. Cherry Lane's Mentor Project is honored and thrilled to be among the recipients of a 2015 Art Works grant," said Seri Lawrence, Co-Producing Artistic Director of Mentor Project 2016

Cherry Lane's Obie Award-winning Mentor Project is the cornerstone of Cherry Lane's development programs. Mentor Project engages leading dramatists in one-on-one mentoring relationships with emerging playwrights for a theater season, the result of which is a showcase production in our Studio theater. The 2016 Mentors are Rajiv Joseph mentoring Christopher Gabriel Nunez, Sheila Callaghan mentoring Sarah Einspanier, and Katori Hall mentoring Antoinette Nwandu