ORLANDO | Central Florida Community Arts (CFCArts) announced May 12 that the nonprofit theatre organization has been approved for a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA).
The grant will help to fund CFCArts’ Upbeat! Musical Theatre Program, a performance group for teen and young adult exceptional learners that produces multiple performances each year, including both plays and musicals. Upbeat! is open to actors with a variety of exceptionalities, including (but not limited to) autism, Down syndrome and ADHD.
“Making the arts accessible to everyone is a pillar of our mission as an organization,” said Joshua Vickery, founder and executive director of CFCArts, in a press release. “We are so thankful for the National Endowment for the Arts’ role in ensuring this program’s sustainability.”
The grant will allow CFCArts to keep the program low cost or entirely free for the participants. The grant will also allow Upbeat! to expand its theatre options to include a summer show, programs for younger participants and technology for a blended model of in-person and virtual programming.
Upbeat! is one of more than 1,100 projects funded in the U.S. with the NEA’s second round of 2021 grants totaling almost $27 million.
“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as Central Florida Community Arts re-engage fully with partners and audiences,” said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers in the release. “Although the arts have sustained many during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”
The NEA is an independent agency of the United States federal government started in 1965 that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence.
To learn more about CFCArts’ Upbeat!, visit CFCArts.com/Upbeat. For more information on the projects included in UEA’s grant announcement, visit Arts.gov/News.
