Westmoreland Museum of American Art to Receive National Endowment for the Arts Grant Award
Contact: Claire Ertl, Director of Marketing & PR
May 18, 2015
GREENSBURG, PA – Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.
In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the NEA will make a $30,000 award to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art to help fund the Museum’s education and visitor engagement programs and activities tied to the Center for Creative Connections. The NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round.
NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from the Westmoreland Museum of American Art represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”
Judith O’Toole, Director/CEO of The Westmoreland, stated, “We are very appreciative of the strong support we have received from the NEA for our new initiatives both in the past and now to help with funding the Center for Creative Connections programming. It will be exciting to see visitors having fun and developing deeper connections to the art in our collection through participating in the activities featured in this space.”
The Center for Creative Connections, a new interactive space with a variety of activities designed to enhance the visitor experience, will be unveiled when the Museum reopens this fall after a two-year renovation and expansion project. Relating directly to main themes in the Museum’s permanent collection, the activities planned for the space include a “drawing glass” exploring portraiture, stations to “build a landscape” and “build a bridge” as well as one featuring stop motion animation. The activities are being designed by Quatrefoil Associates of Maryland in collaboration with Director of Education & Visitor Engagement Joan McGarry. Additional funding for the Center for Creative Connections comes from The Ferrier Family Fund and The Fisher Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation.
To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring2015. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov.
About the Westmoreland Museum of American Art
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is currently operating out of a temporary location Westmoreland @rt 30 while the Museum undergoes a major renovation and expansion. Located at 4764 State Route 30, between Greensburg and Latrobe, Westmoreland @rt 30 features works from the permanent collection, monthly Pop-Up Exhibitions, Studio Workshops, hands-on art activities for children on Saturdays and Sundays, Art on Tap “happy hour” events on the second Friday of every month and more. Regular hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 AM – 5 PM. An American Marketplace, the Shop at Westmoreland @rt 30, is open seven days a week from 11 AM – 5 PM. As part of a multi-year business plan tied to the renovation and expansion project, the Museum has launched Imagine What’s Possible: The Westmoreland Capital and Endowment Campaign. To date, over $27.5 million has been raised towards the $38 million campaign goal. More information is available at wmuseumaa.org.