Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX30) :: Press Release :: CONGRESSWOMAN EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON ANNOUNCES NEA GRANTS

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Proudly Representing the 30th District of Texas

	For Immediate Release
	Contact: Phoebe Silag
	Phone: (202) 225-8885
	April 16, 2008

	CONGRESSWOMAN EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON ANNOUNCES NEA GRANTS
	*National Endowment for the Arts to grant funding to Big Thought and Shakespeare Festival of Dallas*

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson today announced that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will award funding to two arts organizations in Texas’s 30th Congressional District in its second major round of FY 2008 grants. The NEA will award matching grants of $65,000 to Big Thought and $10,000 to the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas.

Big Thought will use its grant to support the Creative Solutions Program, a program that targets at-risk teenagers. NEA funding will support performance and visual arts education residencies for four separate after-school programs and an intensive summer program. The Shakespeare Festival of Dallas will use its grant to supplement the cost of staging "Othello" and "All’s Well That Ends Well." The money will also support educational programming, including the "Shakespeare on the Go Education Tour," which works with students in grades 7-12.

"Big Thought and the Shakespeare Festival strengthen Dallas by making our culture richer and by engaging our young people in the arts and in the community," Congresswoman Johnson said. "I am pleased that funding from the National Endowment for the Arts will enable them to continue the good work they are doing."

More information about the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as application guidelines and forms for NEA grants, are available online at www.arts.gov. More information about Big Thought and the Shakespeare Festival of Dallas can be found at www.bigthought.org and www.shakespearedallas.org, respectively.

U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and a senior member of the Science Committee. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas, which, includes Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Oak Lawn, Old East Dallas, Pleasant Grove, & South Oak Cliff; all of Balch Springs, DeSoto, Hutchins, Lancaster & Wilmer and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Ferris, Glenn Heights and Ovilla.

- 30 -