POEH CULTURAL CENTER to Receive $150,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the American Rescue Plan

[Pojoaque, NM]—Poeh Cultural Center is pleased to announce they have been approved to receive an American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. Poeh Cultural Center is recommended to receive $150,000 and may use this funding to save jobs and to fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies, and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation. In total, the NEA will award grants totaling $57,750,000 to 567 arts organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, DC.

“Our nation’s arts sector has been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Rescue Plan funding will help arts organizations, such as Poeh Cultural Center, rebuild and reopen,” said Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the NEA. “The arts are crucial in helping America’s communities heal, unite, and inspire, as well as essential to our nation’s economic recovery.”

“For centuries Indigenous communities have used their cultural values to heal and sustain themselves through difficult times. These values are taught and shared through traditional artistry such as pottery, weavings and other material culture,” said Karl Duncan, Executive Director of the Poeh Cultural Center. “During these extraordinary times we look back to our indigenous values and look forward to providing local artists Pueblo arts classes with this award.”

Funding will support the development, instruction and operation of our Poeh Arts program. The program will convey traditional practices and values to Native American artist/entrepreneurs through indigenous arts classes, consisting of micaceous and poly-chrome pottery, traditional Pueblo weaving, Pueblo dress sewing, Pueblo moccasin making and Native jewelry. Classes currently offered at the Poeh reinforce the importance of cultural preservation using traditional materials, techniques and processes. The works created in the classes are used in traditional community dances and sold to provide entrepreneurial income or shared in museum exhibitions.

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law in March 2021 when the NEA was provided $135 million for the arts sector. The funding for organizations is the third installment providing more than $57.7 million for arts organizations. In April 2021, the NEA announced $52 million (40 percent) in ARP funding would be allocated to 62 state, jurisdictional, and regional arts organizations for regranting through their respective programs. The second installment in November 2021 allocated $20.2 million to 66 local arts agencies for subgranting to local artists and art organizations.

For more information on the NEA’s American Rescue Plan grants, including the full list of arts organizations funded in this announcement, visit www.arts.gov/COVID-19/the-american-rescue-plan.

For more information on the Poeh Cultural Center, including upcoming programming visit www.poehcenter.org.

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