NEWS

For Immediate Release: December 21, 2010

Contact: Denise Buczko, Development and Marketing Manager

215/496-9424

denise@pennpat.org

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Announces
Fall 2010 PennPAT Grants for Touring Engagements
39 Touring Engagements Funded

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation announced today that it has awarded $141,173 for 39 engagements with 21 different PennPAT Roster Artists through the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour (PennPAT) program. A detailed list of grant awards is available by clicking here.

Requests were submitted at the October 15, 2010 deadline. Applications were reviewed by a panel of peers from across the United States who considered the quality of the engagement and the presenting skills of the applicant organization. Panelists included:

• Janet Herman Barlow, Director, Stocker Arts Center, Lorain County Community College, Elyria, OH
• Charles Bethea, Executive Director, Temple Performing Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA
• Dawn Gibson-Brehon, President, GBCo (Arts Consulting), New Haven, CT
• Michelle Reiser-Memmer, Performing Arts Director, Hamilton College, Performing Arts, Clinton, NY

Grant awards ranged from $600 to $22,521.

Funded engagements include performances and residencies at performing arts centers, colleges, festivals, arts councils, and cultural and community centers throughout the mid-Atlantic region and Ohio.  One grant was awarded for a New Directions project, involving a long term residency that allows the artist to explore creative endeavors and develop new connections with the presenter and the community. 

The purpose of the PennPAT program is to increase opportunities for professional Pennsylvania performing artists to obtain successful touring engagements. PennPAT, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, was developed and is funded by a unique public-private partnership including The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts. Additional funding is provided by foundations, corporations, and government agencies.

About Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation fosters and supports arts programming for the benefit of arts organizations, artists and audiences and encourages exchanges that link the arts resources of the mid-Atlantic region to the rest of the nation and the world. The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region's state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional perspective. The region includes nine states and jurisdictions: The District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia and West Virginia. www.midatlanticarts.org