Arizona Theatre Matters Receives Grants From Arizona Commission On The Arts And Arizona Humanities

​Arizona Theatre Matters has received grants from both the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Arizona Humanities, supporting the company's work with Deaf and Blind artists and artists with disabilities and its commitment to making theatre accessible without charging audiences for admission.

For Founding Artistic Director Jeanmarie Simpson, the awards carry significance beyond their dollar value. Sandra Cisneros once wrote about receiving a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship at a moment when she was close to giving up: “Once I had the grant, my self-esteem blossomed.”

“I know something about that feeling,” Simpson said. “A grant provides resources, but it also provides something harder to quantify: validation. Someone has examined the work, considered what it might become, and decided that the possibility is worth supporting.”

At Arizona Theatre Matters, public investment helps pay artists. Deaf and Blind artists and artists with disabilities make theatre together, and Artistic Sign Language is part of the company's theatrical language. Arizona Theatre Matters does not charge audiences for its work, which reaches people in 194 countries and in more than 300 languages. At live events, the company asks at most for a nonperishable food item for neighbors in need.

“There is no way to know, when public money is committed to an artist or an arts organization, what will come of it,” Simpson said. “That is part of the bargain. Public investment gives artists the opportunity to find out.”

Cisneros received National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in both poetry and fiction. She has written that the first came at a time when she was considering giving up and that the fellowship gave her time to write. Years later, she credited the timely assistance of the NEA as instrumental to her life as a writer.

The Arizona Theatre Matters awards come amid continuing debate over public support for arts and culture in Arizona. Simpson expressed gratitude to Governor Katie Hobbs, Senator Analise Ortiz, Representative Lydia Hernandez, and Representative Mariana Sandoval Abeytia, the four women who represent Arizona Theatre Matters in state government, for their actions supporting continued public investment in arts and culture.

“Those awards did not simply happen,” Simpson said. “They exist because people in public service decided that Arizona should invest public money in art, history, ideas, and the people who make and preserve them.”