Smarts Receives $50K from National Endowment for the Arts

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The National Endowment for the Arts selected Students Motivated by the Arts (SMARTS) to receive $50,000 in federal relief funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

SMARTS, a nonprofit art school downtown, is one of 855 organizations to receive the funding, including organizations in every state, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The nonmatching funds can be used to support staff salaries, fees for artists or contractual personnel and facilities costs.

“We are grateful for this support and will work hard to continue to provide free classes in visual art, music, dance, theater and creative writing to those PK-12 students who need it the most in our region,” stated SMARTS in a release. “Thank you for the hard work done by NEA staff and for those advocates who helped to make this funding possible.”

The National Endowment for the Arts received more than 3,100 eligible applications requesting $157 million for the $45 million in direct assistance that was available, according to the organization. Applications were reviewed by more than 200 application readers and panelists to score each application.

“All of us at the National Endowment for the Arts are keenly aware that arts organizations across the country are hurting, struggling, and trying to survive and that our supply of funding does not come close to meeting the demand for assistance,” said Arts Endowment Chairman Mary Anne Carter. “That said, I am enormously proud of the over-and-above efforts of the Arts Endowment staff to swiftly and professionally manage such a large amount of additional work in a relatively short period of time on behalf of the American public.”

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.