BOSTON: New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) has received a $101,250 grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). NEFA will use the funds to explore the impact of performing arts projects that address military and veterans’s issues.
“This is an opportunity to advance understanding of how the performing arts can connect military and civilian experiences,” said NEFA executive director Cathy Edwards in a statement. “Creating case studies of previous projects will help identify best practices around artist-military collaborations and seed future investment in projects that build understanding between two often-distinct worlds.”
The grant will also support a convening that will take place in the fall of 2016. NEFA, Howlround, ArtsEmerson, and the Foundation for Art and Healing will organize the event, which will bring together artists, researchers, health care experts, military personnel, and policy leaders.
“We are proud to support NEFA in this effort, which will bring key voices together around a powerfully important subject—the transformative potential of the arts to promote healing, build empathy, and create important connections between civilians and those in the military,” said Ben Cameron, program director for the Arts at DDCF, in a statement. “This conversation to examine the most effective methods for doing so is fruitful ground, and we look forward to the ideas that come out of it.”
Over the past five years, NEFA has invested $500,000 in the creation and touring of new dance and theatre pieces that reflect on the military experience and the current state of America at war.
