TheatreSquared, 477 W. Spring St. in Fayetteville (Todd Gill/Fayetteville Flyer)A Fayetteville theatre and a Rogers choreographer have each received a $15,000 grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
The arts organization this week announced the recipients of its Artistic Innovations Grants program, which awarded a total of $255,418 to 19 artists and groups from Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Fayetteville’s TheatreSquared won its grant for the 2023 Arkansas New Play Festival, which will be presented over two weekends at the theatre in Fayetteville and at the Momentary in Bentonville.
Karen Castleman, a Rogers-based choreographer, won her grant for a year-long series of dance performances and outreach events scheduled next year at the Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and 21C in Bentonville.
The winners were selected from 110 applications, and were peer reviewed by panels organized by artistic discipline, according to a news release.
“The Artistic Innovations program encourages the spirit of experimentation and exploration, and the FY23 grantees exemplify this spirit,” said Todd Stein, president and CEO of the Mid-America Arts Alliance. “The artists and arts organizations in our region continue to inspire through the creativity of their projects.”
The Artistic Innovations program began in 2012 and has since given more than $2.1 million in grants to 170 projects across the region.
The full list of 2023 Artistic Innovations grant recipients is included below:
Dance projects
Karen Castleman – Rogers, Arkansas, $15,000
Regina Klenjoski Dance Company – Wichita, KS, $15,000
Perpetual Motion Modern Dance – Oklahoma City, OK, $15,000
Allison Orr Dance/Forklift Danceworks – Austin, TX, $15,000
Film and Media Arts projects
M.J. Alexander – Oklahoma City, OK, $15,000
Naima Lowe – Tulsa, OK, $15,000
Steven Snell – Kansas City, MO, $15,000
Literature projects
Public Poetry – Houston, TX, $7,600
Music projects
Kinetic Ensemble – Houston, TX, $8,600
Sonny Mehta/Riyaaz Qawwali – Houston, TX, $15,000
Theater projects
Glass Half Full Theatre – Austin, TX, $15,000
National Blues Museum – St. Louis, MO, $15,000
TheatreSquared – Fayetteville, AR, $15,000
Visual Art projects
Art League Houston – Houston, TX, $15,000
Contemporary Art Museum – St. Louis, MO, $15,000
LUX Center for the Arts – Lincoln, NE, $6,000
Robert M. Merryman Performing Arts Center – Kearney, NE, $11,218
Erika Nelson – Lucas, KS, $12,000
The Union for Contemporary Art – Omaha, NE, $15,000
