Lucas Arts and Humanities Council Receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant

The National Endowment for the Arts is awarding Lucas Arts and Humanities Council, Inc. a $10,000 grant to support art center staff salaries and general operations.

"The arts make communities more vibrant and fulfilling places, help us to heal and strengthen our nation's economy," said Ann Eilers, Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. "The National Endowment for the Arts is committed to supporting organizations nationwide, such as the Grassroots Art Center, helping to make it possible for our arts and culture sector to grow and for more Americans to have access to the arts."

Rosslyn Schultz, Executive Director of the Art Center, said that NEA funding will be essential to continued operations after the impact on admissions and gift sales income due to COVID-19.

For a quarter of a century, the Lucas Arts and Humanities Council, Inc. and the Grassroots Art Center have educated, documented, preserved and exhibited the works of 118 Kansas visionary artists and more than 35 out-of-state yard art environments. The museum manages five sites in Lucas that attract more than 13,000 guests each year – a multi-building art center, an educational Post Rock Limestone Courtyard, the Bowl Plaza attraction and public restroom facility, local outsider artist's Florence Deeble Rock Garden and Mri-Pilar’s interior installation, The Garden of Isis. The Grassroots Art Center's special 25th anniversary exhibition, Flying Free, will close October 31.

Self-taught art is crucial to the history of Lucas as a community, named one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Art. In 2021, Lucas was voted the fourth best small arts town in a poll by USA Today.

Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies and the philanthropic sector, the Arts Endowment supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America's rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. Visit arts.gov to learn more.

(Information courtesy Lucas Arts and Humanities Council, Inc.)