Baltimore Center Stage Announces 2020 NEA Grant

Baltimore Center Stage has been awarded a 2020 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the agency announced last week. For the second year in a row, the arts organization will provide funding to Center Stage in support of its Mobile Unit.

With one of the largest grants awarded to Maryland recipients, Baltimore Center Stage has received $40,000 in support of the theater's Mobile Unit production of the world-premiere play Where We Stand by Donnetta Lavinia Grays

A brand-new fable of penance filled with humor, heart and music, Where We Stand is a play that tackles a community's transformations, its struggles, and its relationship to one individual among them. The production will tour throughout Maryland in March, and then open on the Mainstage at Baltimore Center Stage on April 2. Directed by Tamilla Woodard, Where We Stand is a co-production with New York's WP Theater.

"It's hard to overstate the importance of Donnetta Lavinia Grays' voice within the American Theater. In Where We Stand, she weaves together deeply resonant themes in a format specifically designed for a community tour," said Baltimore Center Stage Artistic Director, Stephanie Ybarra. "Where We Stand furthers our commitment to meet audiences where they are, and we extend sincere gratitude to the National Endowment for the Arts for their support of this vision."

Overall, the National Endowment for the Arts has approved 1,187 grants totaling $27.3 million in the first round of fiscal year 2020 funding to support arts projects in every state in the nation, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The Art Works funding category supports projects that focus on public engagement with, and access to, various forms of excellent art across the nation; the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence; learning in the arts at all stages of life; and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life.

"The arts are at the heart of our communities, connecting people through shared experiences and artistic expression," said Arts Endowment chairman Mary Anne Carter. "The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support projects like Where We Stand and the Mobile Unit at Baltimore Center Stage."

Baltimore Center Stage's Mobile Unit serves as an important cog in the theater's programming endeavors and brings theater vitality and engaging, thoughtful scopes of works directly to a vast array of patrons across the state of Maryland. Beginning in March, Baltimore Center Stage will present Where We Stand at venues including senior centers, libraries, prisons and homeless shelters intentionally serving communities where economic, financial, or cultural barriers may prohibit people from attending theater.

For more information on Where We Stand, please contact the Baltimore Center Stage communications office or visit our website at www.centerstage.org. For more information on the National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

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