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The National Endowment for the Arts Awards $35,000 Art Works Grant to The Cultural Landscape Foundation


Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553  | M: 202.225.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org


Funding supports production of What's Out There Guidebooks for Indianapolis, Nashville, and Pittsburgh

Washington, D.C. (December 13, 2016) – The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) today announced it has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works grant totaling $35,000. The grant supports the design and printing of three richly illustrated, concisely written, and carefully vetted guidebooks, one each for Indianapolis (IN), Nashville (TN), and Pittsburgh (PA). The guidebooks will be unveiled during What’s Out There Weekend events slated for 2017 and 2018.  The events feature free, expert-led tours of dozens of designed landscapes in each city.  The grant also supports the design and printing of tour brochures, which will include maps, tour sites, and registration information for each of the three cities. 

"The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant is extremely important in helping raise the visibility of the distinct designed landscape legacies of Indianapolis, Nashville, and Pittsburgh," said Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF's president and CEO, adding, "on behalf of TCLF and our regional project partners, we are very grateful to the NEA and the jurors for this honor."

The guidebooks and What's Out There Weekends are an outgrowth of TCLF’s What’s Out There database of North America’s designed landscape legacy.  The profusely illustrated and carefully vetted What’s Out There database features more than 2,000 sites in the U.S. and Canada, 1,000 designer profiles and 11,000 images.  The database is fully optimized for iPhones and similar handheld devices and includes What’s Nearby, a GPS-enabled function that locates all sites in the database with a 25-mile radius of the user’s location.

TCLF has produced thirteen print guidebooks and the series is the recipient of the 2016 Award of Excellence in Communications, the highest award in the category, from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

About the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grants

As the only funder in the country that supports the arts in all 50 states and five U.S. jurisdictions, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will award $25,981,000 in Art Works grants to fund 970 projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA Web site at http://arts.gov.

About the National Endowment for the Arts

Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA 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 NEA 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 about NEA. 

About The Cultural Landscape Foundation

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), founded in 1998, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 to connect people to places. TCLF educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures and other events, TCLF broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes.

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