The Neighbors Awarded $5k Local Arts Support Grant From Brooklyn Arts Council

James Clements (he/him) and Sam Hood Adrain (he/him), the Co-Artistic Directors of What Will the Neighbors Say?, are thrilled to announce they have been awarded $5k from Brooklyn Arts Council for the development of a new project in their upcoming eighth season. The company has been awarded a Local Arts Support grant, which represents the largest award the company has received from the Council out of their four grants in the last four years. For more information on the Neighbors, please visit www.wwtns.org.

This year, Brooklyn Arts Council distributed over $1.2 million to help fund hundreds of projects by Brooklyn artists and organizations through their Community Arts Grants, Creative Equations Fund and the new Brooklyn Empower Fund regrant programs. To view the full list of 2023 BAC grantees, visit www.brooklynartscouncil.org.

Local Arts Support (LAS) is sponsored, in part, by the Statewide Community Regrants (SCR) Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.

The Neighbors were previously awarded Brooklyn Arts Council funding for their 2019 production, "Agua, Vida y Tierra," and for the 2022 development of "The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost." For the former, a bilingual documentary theatre piece about the colonial condition in Puerto Rico, they received support from Brooklyn Arts Fund in addition to Destination>Brooklyn funding. For the latter, a drama told through poetry and puppetry which explores the meaning of consent, they received a second Brooklyn Arts Fund award. "We are so thrilled to have been recognised once again by the Brooklyn Arts Council, at the most significant level yet," said Clements. "It is an honor to create work that serves the diverse citizens of our borough, and we can't wait to introduce this new project to the Neighborhood," added Hood Adrain.

Brooklyn Arts Council centers and empowers artists through programs that build and invest in a self-sustaining Brooklyn artist community; strives for racial, gender, and ethnic justice; commits to equity and accessibility in the distribution of grants and services; advocates for and advances an inclusive and participatory culture where all voices are heard; partners with the arts community to drive equity in philanthropy and programming; and connects with artists to build relationships and supportive networks.