WAM Theatre Receives NEA American Rescue Plan Grant

WAM Theatre have been approved to receive an American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. WAM is recommended to receive $50,000 and may use this funding to save jobs and to fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies, and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation. In total, the NEA will award grants totaling $57,750,000 to 567 arts organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, DC.

"Our nation's arts sector has been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Endowment for the Arts' American Rescue Plan funding will help arts organizations, such as WAM Theatre, rebuild," said Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the NEA. "The arts are crucial in helping America's communities heal, unite, and inspire, as well as essential to our nation's economic recovery."

"WAM is both excited and humbled to be a recipient of NEA American Rescue Plan funding," said Wendy Healey, WAM Theatre Board President. "It shows just how important our mission of using theatre as activism to improve the lives of women and girls is. With the help of this funding we will be able to continue making theatre for our community, telling women's stories, and supporting women's organizations."

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law in March 2021 when the NEA was provided $135 million for the arts sector. The funding for organizations is the third installment providing more than $57.7 million for arts organizations. In April 2021, the NEA announced $52 million (40 percent) in ARP funding would be allocated to 62 state, jurisdictional, and regional arts organizations for regranting through their respective programs. The second installment in November 2021 allocated $20.2 million to 66 local arts agencies for subgranting to local artists and art organizations.

"WAM is grateful to be one of sixteen Massachusetts arts organizations to receive this support from the NEA," said Molly Merrihew, WAM Theatre Managing Director. "The ongoing pandemic has introduced many new costs for theatre makers, and this special funding will help support our wonderful year-round staff who make all that we do possible."

For more information on the NEA's American Rescue Plan grants, including the full list of arts organizations funded in this announcement, visit http://www.arts.gov/COVID-19/the-american-rescue-plan.

For more information, visit www.WAMTheatre.com

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