ACAC to Receive $150,000 Grant

Alabama Contemporary to Receive $150,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the American Rescue Plan

Mobile, AL—Alabama Contemporary Art Center (ACAC) is pleased to announce they have been approved to receive an American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. ACAC is recommended to receive $150,000.00 over the next 2 years, 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 $57,750,000 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 Alabama Contemporary, rebuild and reopen,” said Dr. 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.”

“Art organizations, in particular, have suffered during the pandemic. Congress and the NEA have responded by providing Rescue Plan Grants intended to aid in their recovery and stabilization. Thank you to the NEA for awarding the Alabama Contemporary Art Center a Rescue Grant, ensuring that our organization will continue to enrich the cultural fabric of the gulf coast.”

– Julie Friedman, Chair, Board of Directors ACAC

“Throughout the pandemic ACAC has kept up with an ambitious slate of programming, primarily to keep the critical opportunities and support we provide to artists intact. We’ve witnessed countless opportunities disappear across the field. Worse yet, its the underrepresented, and under-resourced that are hit hardest. It’s crucial that we imagine the world as we can build it, rather than sit on our hands yearning for an easier time. This funding will bolster the current slate of programming, allow us to hire critical staff and support positions with confidence and security, and better serve this community and the South at large.”

– elizabet elliott, Executive Director/Curator

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 percent) in ARP 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 subgranting to local artists and art organizations.

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

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