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For Immediate Release:
1/11/2022
ACADEMY TO RECEIVE AWARD FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
(Lynchburg, Va) The Academy Center of the Arts has been approved for a $10,000 Challenge America award to support their Academy In Motion mobile arts program. Academy in Motion’s purpose is to reach rural youth in the surrounding counties of the Greater Lynchburg area. This program is among 168 projects and programs across America totaling $1,680,000 that were selected to receive fiscal year 2022 funding in the Challenge America grant category.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from the Academy Center of the Arts that helps support the community’s creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers. “The Academy in Lynchburg, Virginia is among the organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”
“Receiving this award is a momentous occasion for the Academy,” said Executive Director, Geoffrey Kershner. “It is not only financial support, but also acknowledgement from one of the most prestigious arts funding entities in the country that our Academy in Motion program is an important means of improving the lives of our area youth.”
Academy in Motion is a mobile arts program that seeks to impact members of the Greater Lynchburg community by providing arts access to groups and individuals with barriers that would otherwise prevent exposure to the arts on the Academy’s physical campus. The Challenge America grant award specifically supports arts delivery to rural partner organizations in the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, and Campbell.
In partnership with other local nonprofit organizations and social service partners, art instruction can now be executed at community centers, senior living facilities, public spaces, detention centers, and community convenings through Academy in Motion.
The Academy in Motion program brings painting, drawing, handbuilding clay, crafts/arts activities, and more to off-site locations for arts outreach. To learn more about the Academy in Motion mobile arts program and upcoming events visit, academycenter.org/aim/.
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The Academy Center of the Arts, anchored by the historic Academy of Music Theatre, is greater Lynchburg’s multi-facility center for arts, culture, and community building, occupying 1.25 blocks on Main Street in downtown Lynchburg. The Academy Center of the Arts, previously known as the Academy of Fine Arts, was formed in 2003 from the merger of the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center and the Academy of Music Theatre, Inc. Built in 1905 and closed in 1958, the Theatre is one of the few surviving Beaux-Arts style theatres in Virginia. For more information, visit www.AcademyCenter.org.
