City Awards $40,000 in Grants to Arts Organizations

Mayor Mufi Hannemann today announced the City has awarded grants of $5,000 each to eight nonprofit organizations under the Mayor’s Production Grant Program.

Now in its fourth year, the grant program supports the production of new works in dance, theater, music, literature, and short film that will be part of each organization’s future repertoire.

This year’s recipients are:

·       Alliance for Drama Education, for the production of T-Shirt Theatre’s “Manners Matter”;

·       Bamboo Ridge Press, for the publication of “The Company of Strangers”;

·       Dance Pioneers, for the dance production “Roots and Offshoots”;

·       Hanayagi Dancing Academy Hawaii Foundation, for the production of “Shamisen Experience”;

·       Na Pualei O Likolehua, for the production of “Keamomelemele”;

·       Nova Arts Foundation, for the production of “The Living Earth”;

·       Oahu Choral Society, for the production of “A Choral Celebration of Father Damien”; and

·       Taiko Arts Center, for the production of “Taiko and Percussive Dance,” a collaborative work for taiko and Bharata Natyam, a classical dance tradition from South India.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said, “The only one of its kind in Hawaii, the Production Grant Program is helping to demonstrate that the artistic community in Honolulu is filled with creativity and potential for greater achievements.  It’s a privilege to be able to support a diversity of projects that represent the wealth of artistic talent in Honolulu, while fostering and perpetuating the arts for the benefit of all.”

The grant funds were appropriated from the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts (MOCA).  The program is part of MOCA’s initiative of encouraging, sustaining, and incorporating culture and the arts as an essential part of Honolulu’s social and economic life.

The Commission on Culture and the Arts assists the City in preserving the artistic and cultural heritage of Honolulu residents.  The commission assisted the City in the selection for the Mayor’s Production Grant Program.

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Contact:

Dymian Racoma, 768-5288