Boca Raton Museum of Art to Receive Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Mary Anne Carter has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the Arts Endowment's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2019. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $35,000 to the Boca Raton Museum of Art for the upcoming exhibition Maren Hassinger: Tree of Knowledge.

Her large-scale installation Tree of Knowledge will be based on the historic Banyan tree located in the African-American neighborhood of Pearl City, located nearby.

The exhibition was chosen by the NEA to receive a $35,000 grant.

During the month of July, the Museum will offer free admission and will invite the community to create thousands of 20-foot long, Banyan-style branches using rolled-up newspapers, to mimic the aerial roots of the Banyan tree.

These community creations will hang from the ceiling and will be part of the new art exhibition.

Art Works is the Arts Endowment's principal grantmaking program. The agency received 1,592 Art Works applications for this round of grantmaking, and will award 977 grants in this category.

"These awards, reaching every corner of the United States, are a testament to the artistic richness and diversity in our country," said Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. "Organizations such as the Boca Raton Museum of Art are giving people in their community the opportunity to learn, create, and be inspired."

"The Boca Raton Museum of Art is honored to be receiving support from the NEA," says Executive Director Irvin Lippman, "and so pleased that this funding will support a project that takes the concept of 'art in public places' to a new level of engagement."

Tree of Knowledge features a residency with sculptor and performance artist Maren Hassinger, who will create an installation inspired by Boca Raton's Pearl City neighborhood and the Banyan tree that has become a historical marker in this community settled by African-Americans. The artist will work with the public in rolling newspapers in community-based story-telling sessions to form the aerial roots of a vast "Tree of Knowledge" to be installed from the ceiling in the Museum's main gallery. For more information on this National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.