Girl Be Heard Receives NEA Grant

The internationally renowned and award-winning ensemble GIRL BE HEARD (girlbeheard.org) - a nonprofit theatre company, which empowers young women to tell their stories - has been awarded $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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 to Girl Be Heard to develop and tour their 2017 Mainstage show.

"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 Girl Be Heard offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day."

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.

"Girl Be Heard has been wanting to produce a Mainstage show about consent and campus sexual assault for two years," said Girl Be Heard Executive Director Jessica Greer Morris. "We are indebted to NEA Chair Jane Chu for making this possible, and helping our young women to raise awareness about a critical issue, impacting every college and university in our country."

"Great thanks to the NEA for believing in the power of young women as artists and change-makers in their community and the world," said Girl Be Heard Artistic Director Ashley Marinaccio. "We are excited about this new partnership and look forward to debuting our newest ensemble devised theatre piece in February of 2017."

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