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Dec 6, 2024

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$20,000 Awarded To
Passaic County Community College

[Paterson, New Jersey]— The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Park Service (NPS) announced $1,067,500 in support of 50 grants in 27 states, including an award of $20,000 to Passaic County Community College (PCCC) for a Centennial Art in the Park Showcase to be held at the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park on August 26, 2016, from 5 – 8 p.m. to coincide with the Park’s Centennial Celebration.

This initiative is a partnership with the Poetry Center and Passaic County Cultural & Heritage Council at PCCC, as well as the Paterson Public Schools. The arts programming will include a variety of disciplines—visual art, poetry, music and dance—and will have an educational component, in which an inner city, underserved youth population will learn skills and perform under the mentorship of local artists. The audience served will be adults and children primarily from ethnically and culturally diverse communities, such as Paterson, Passaic, and Clifton, as well as other surrounding cities and towns in Passaic, Bergen and Essex Counties.

“This NEA grant gives our City’s young people in opportunity to take part in summer arts workshops that will culminate in performances by the students and professional artists at the Paterson Great Falls NHP,” says Susan Balik, PCCC’s Manager of Cultural Affairs. “Through the arts, we hope to engage and inspire a new generation to discover this special place and experience Paterson’s great heritage.”

This NEA “Imagine Your Parks” grant initiative was created in partnership with the NPS to support projects that use the arts to engage people with memorable places and landscapes of the National Park System.

“The arts and the falls have always been inextricably linked, and this project that coincides with the NPS Centennial will inspire more people to connect to the national park in Paterson,” says Darren Boch, superintendent of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.  Boch is among the more than 20,000 National Park Service employees, who care for America’s 411 national parks and work with communities to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. To learn more about the National Park Service, visit www.nps.gov.

About the NEA:  These awards are part of a larger NEA announcement, in which the agency will make 1,142 awards totaling $80.9 million to organizations in all 50 states and five jurisdictions. Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. As part of the agency 50th anniversary celebration, they are planning events through September 2016. Go to arts.gov/50th to enjoy art stories from around the nation, peruse Facts & Figures, and check out the anniversary calendar. Follow “Imagine Your Parks” on Twitter @NEAarts and @NatlParkService, #ImagineYourParks #NEASpring16