Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts to receive $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

The NEA award, among 1,023 grants annually, will support the Kauffman Center’s
5^th annual Future Stages Festival on June 10^th

Photo by Jillian Shoptaw

Kansas City, MO—National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $25 million in grants as part of the NEA’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $25,000 to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. This award is the largest NEA grant awarded to the Kauffman Center in support of Future Stages Festival. The festival is a free community event that provides opportunities for future artists to take center stage at the Kauffman Center. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

The fifth Future Stages Festival will be held at the Kauffman Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 10, 2018. The free, one-day festival invites youth and families to experience a diverse range of performances and arts activities. Future Stages Festival, an extension of the Kauffman Center’s Open Doors Spotlight on Youth program, also provides opportunities for youth and community arts organizations to perform on stage at the Kauffman Center. Since the festival began in 2014, more than 2,500 Kansas City-area youth artists from 60 arts organizations have been featured on Kauffman Center stages.

Presented by Saint Luke’s Health System, Future Stages Festival is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to register at kauffmancenter.org/futurestages to receive the latest event updates and schedule for performances and activities.

For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Photo by Cody Boston