Washington,
DC—The National Endowment for the Arts
(NEA) today announced that 72 organizations will receive
grants to support Big Read programs between January and
June 2007. The Big Read is a new national program by the
NEA, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS) and Arts Midwest, that encourages literary
reading by asking communities to come together to read
and discuss one book. The organizations selected to participate
in the Big Read will receive grants ranging from $5,000
to $40,000 to promote and carry out month-long, community-based
programs.
After executing a successful pilot Big Read
program with ten communities in 2006, the Arts Endowment
announced in May that it would take the Big Read nationwide.
In July, Mrs. Laura Bush enthusiastically joined the Big
Read as its Honorary Chair.
Modeled on successful "city reads"
programs, the Big Read is meant to address the national
decline in literary reading as documented in the NEA's
2004 landmark survey Reading at Risk: A Survey of
Literary Reading in America. The survey showed that
less than half the American adult population now reads
literature.
"With the Big Read we want to get everyone
in a community -- from high school kids and office workers
to public officials and senior citizens -- reading a great
book together," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "Our
goal is to get people talking about Fahrenheit 451
or The Great Gatsby with the same conviction
that they debate the World Series. We want people to feel
worse about not reading the book than they do about missing
an episode of Lost or CSI."
"We are delighted to be partners in
The Big Read. It's exciting to know that our partnership
on the national level can make it possible for local communities
across the United States to connect around reading a good
book," said IMLS Director Dr. Anne-Imelda M. Radice.
"My message to the new communities that are now part
of The Big Read is: Bravo, I urge everyone to get involved;
reading together is a powerful experience!"
Participating communities, ranging in population
from 7,000 to more than four million, will read and celebrate
one of eight classic American novels: Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury, My Antonia by Willa Cather,
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Farewell
to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Their Eyes Were
Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, To Kill a
Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck, or The Joy Luck Club by Amy
Tan. To encourage community-wide participation in the
project, each organization will collaborate with public
and private partners within its community to develop a
program of activities related to the selected novel, including
read-a-thons, keynote presentations, film series, symphonic
concerts, and museum exhibits.
In addition to grants, the NEA also will
provide participating communities with a library of free
materials, including reader's and teacher's guides for
each of the Big Read novels, an audio guide for each novel
featuring distinguished actors and writers, an online
organizer's guide for hosting a Big Read program, a customized
television public service announcement, Big Read display
materials, and a comprehensive program Web site. The Boeing
Company will support the Big Read in communities with
a military base.
The Arts Endowment will support a second
round of Big Read grants for the second half of 2007 to
support programs running from September to December 2007.
Four additional novels will be available to those communities:
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, The Maltese
Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Heart Is a Lonely
Hunter by Carson McCullers, and The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton.
Please see the complete
list of grantees.
For more information on the Big Read, please
visit www.neabigread.org.
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