The Goodman Theatre topped the list of 13 Illinois arts organizations receiving money from the National Endowment for the Arts during the current cycle, the first of fiscal 1998.
But the Goodman’s $60,000 grant, slated for an arts education and outreach initiative, was less than half of the $125,000 it received for the same program last year.
The funds awarded last week, all for literature, education and access, and heritage and preservation make up 33 percent of the NEA funds to be distributed in fiscal 1998. Fiscal 1998’s total of $81 million in grantmaking monies is down $1.5 million from fiscal 1997, and is $72 million less than 1992’s figure, when the federal agency’s budget was at its peak.
In fact, Illinois grants for education and access and heritage and preservation fell from $613,000 at this time last year to a mere $206,000 in the comparable period. (An additional grant of $58,000 in literature funds was awarded this year to Review of Contemporary Fiction, a literary magazine in Normal, Ill.; no individual fellowships were given to Illinois writers this year.)
The Goodman program, which is in its 13th year, distributes complimentary tickets to 1,400 Chicago Public Schools students, provides teacher guides and student study kits and videos. It also provides assistance for a partnership between the Goodman and the Chicago Housing Authority that helps students living in public housing create and perform their own play each summer.
“It’s important to note that the grant doesn’t fund the art itself,” said Cindy Bandle, the Goodman’s communications director. “It funds everything else –administration and materials mostly.”
Other significant Illinois grants awarded this cycle include the $58,000 to the Review of Contemporary Fiction to publish 11 major works that have become financially impossible for commercial presses; $32,000 to the MERIT music program to support faculty for its inner city neighborhoods project; $25,000 to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for scholarships; and $22,500 to Kohl Children’s Museum in Wilmette to support the design and production of a music exhibit.
