Mesa Arts Center for Jazz Awarded NEA Grant

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 $50,000 award to Mesa Arts Center to support Jazz from A to Z. 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 Mesa Arts Center represents an investment in both local communities and our nation's creative vitality."

Jazz from A to Z is a comprehensive jazz program for students and teachers that fosters an understanding and appreciation of jazz music, its impact on history, and its importance as one of America's greatest cultural resources. In addition to live performances, the program includes professional development workshops, a Band Director's Academy, jazz clinics, National History Day exhibit, jazz performances, and a regional Essentially Ellington Band competition.

Jazz from A to Z is a program of Mesa Arts Center and Arizona State University's School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Mesa Arts Center is located at One East Main Street in downtown Mesa.