Stella Adler Studio of Acting Receives NEA Grant

As part of the National Endowment for the Arts funding for local arts projects and partnerships, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting has been awarded an Art Works award of $18,000 to support their work with inmates at Rikers Island Correctional Facility. 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 Stella Adler Studio of Acting offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day."

"We are grateful and thrilled to be awarded an NEA grant for our work with inmates at Rikers Island," said Tom Oppenheim, Artistic Director, Stella Adler Studio of Acting. "We believe that growth as an actor is synonymous with growth as a human being, and the work we're doing at Rikers is at the core of the Studio's mission to bring the arts and social activism together."

The generous NEA grant supports the Studio's program of acting and theater classes with inmates at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility, which gives adult inmates the opportunity to train as a working ensemble of actors and writers, learning and practicing voice and speech, movement, and acting techniques. Each training session concludes with a showing of created work for an invited audience. Inmates are also introduced to dramatic literature and poetry to encourage them to explore characters and make clear choices in their own writing and acting.