Delaware Shakespeare receives $100K NEA grant

WILMINGTON – Delaware Shakespeare announced that they have been approved to receive an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. Del Shakes is recommended to receive $100,000 and may use this funding to save jobs and to fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies, and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation.  

In total, the NEA will award grants totaling $57.75 million to 567 arts organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, DC.

“Our nation’s arts sector has been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Rescue Plan funding will help arts organizations, such as Delaware Shakespeare, rebuild and reopen,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the NEA. “The arts are crucial in helping America’s communities heal, unite, and inspire, as well as essential to our nation’s economic recovery.”

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The funds will help support salaries for Delaware Shakespeare’s administrative teams as well as its new collaborative leadership team, the Artistic Squad.

“We are humbled to receive this vital support from the National Endowment for the Arts,” said David Stradley, producing artistic director of Delaware Shakespeare. “In a time of continued uncertainty for arts organization, this funding gives Delaware Shakespeare the freedom to focus on how to return to programming in the most exciting way possible for our community.”

Celebrating its 20th year, Delaware Shakespeare creates year-round professional theater and educational programs for residents and patrons in Delaware. At Del Shakes, people from all walks of life celebrate and explore their shared humanity through the lens of Shakespearean work.

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law in March 2021 when the NEA was provided $135 million for the arts sector. The funding for organizations is the third installment providing more than $57.7 million for arts organizations. In April 2021, the NEA announced $52 million (40%) in ARPA funding would be allocated to 62 state, jurisdictional, and regional arts organizations for regranting through their respective programs. The second installment in November 2021 allocated $20.2 million to 66 local arts agencies for sub granting to local artists and arts organizations.

For more information on the NEA’s American Rescue Plan grants, including the full list of arts organizations funded in this announcement, visit www.arts.gov/COVID-19/the-american-rescue-plan.

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