TheatreSquared receives $50,000 NEA grant
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS—January 26, 2024— TheatreSquared is thrilled to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $50,000 to support the 2024 Arkansas New Play Festival.
In total, the NEA will award 958 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $27.1 million that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.
“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to TheatreSquared, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”
“TheatreSquared is honored to receive this recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts,” said T2 Executive Director Shannon A. Jones. “Highlighting and uplifting new works has been vital to TheatreSquared’s mission, and our ability to produce new works through the Arkansas New Play Festival has been deeply enriching. We are thrilled to be able to continue the work of giving space for artists to create, collaborate, and hone their craft while connecting with audiences in Arkansas and beyond.”
The Arkansas New Play Festival (ANPF) is the state’s only dedicated professional laboratory for the development of new plays, produced with sustaining support from the NEA for over a decade. Led by director of new play development Dexter J. Singleton, T2 seeks to champion new works by both emerging and established playwrights and counter systemic racism and bias by uplifting BIPOC playwrights and traditionally underrepresented stories, while providing a meaningful outlet for mid-American artists who might otherwise be marginalized in the field.
About TheatreSquared
TheatreSquared’s signature offering of bold new plays has driven its growth to become the state’s largest theater, offering more than 350 performances annually in an intimate setting. Its pioneering work has been recognized with the 2022 Obie Award as well as critical acclaim from The New York Times (“Best Theater of 2020” list), The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal. The playwright-led company is one of mid-America’s leading laboratories for new work, having launched more than 70 new plays. Notable collaborators have included Candrice Jones, Bryna Turner, The Kilbanes, Sarah Gancher, José Cruz Gonzalez, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Qui Nguyen, Mona Mansour, Amy Evans, and many others. TheatreSquared’s home—winner of the 2021 International Architecture Award—is a cultural landmark. Offering far-reaching access and education programs and an open-all-day gathering space, the Commons Bar/Café, TheatreSquared remains rooted in its founding vision, that “theatre—done well and with passion—can transform lives and communities.”
Major funding for the TheatreSquared Season 18 is provided by the Walton Family Foundation, the Walmart Foundation, the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, the Windgate Foundation, the Shubert Foundation, the Tyson Family Foundation, the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the National Endowment for the Arts, Bob and Becky Alexander, Jane Hunt, Barbara Shadden, Todd Simmons and Melissa Hall Simmons, and Simmons Foods.
Marketing support for TheatreSquared Season 18 is provided by Experience Fayetteville, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Fayetteville Flyer, 3W Magazine, CitiScapes, KUAF, 5NEWS, MailCo USA, iHeart Radio, and NWA Daily.
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