Submitted by Hilltop Artists.
Hilltop Artists is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive a Challenge America award of $10,000. This grant will support Hilltop Artists’ Hot Shop Hot Nights program, focused on providing both emerging and established Visiting Artists with residencies at Hilltop Artists, while giving students an opportunity to learn from and collaborate with glass professionals.
Teaching Artist Jonathan Bolivar, who helps coordinate the Hot Shop Hot Nights program, highlighted the importance of the grant to the work of Hilltop Artists. “When you hear about money for the arts, you usually hear about how there’s not enough of it or you read about larger institutions receiving the awards. Hilltop Artists is hyper-focused on the Tacoma community so getting this recognition from the NEA through this grant is a great endorsement.”
This March, Hilltop Artists will host visiting artists in partnership with Chicago-based Firebird Community Arts, and artist Cedric Mitchell will be the featured visiting artist in May. As other artists are confirmed, event details can be found at hilltopartists.org.
This grant awarded to Hilltop Artists is one of 262 Challenge America awards totaling $2.62 million that were announced by the NEA as part of its first round of fiscal year 2023 grants.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “Projects such as this one with Hilltop Artists strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy.”
Challenge America offers support primarily to small organizations for projects in all artistic disciplines that extend the reach of the arts to groups/communities with rich and dynamic artistic and cultural contributions to share that are underserved.
“Hilltop Artists is a youth development organization that uses glass arts to engage young people from diverse social and economic backgrounds. Getting an award from the NEA is high praise indeed for the creative side of our program. We are shaping 21st Century Learners who are critical and creative thinkers, and they are also incredible artists. I’m very proud of our staff and students, they have earned and deserve this award”, Dr. Kimberly Keith, Executive Director, Hilltop Artists.
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit
arts.gov/news.
This program has done so much for students who aren’t academically inclined. We aren’t all candidates for STEM. We need to provide more for students who aren’t going into science, technology, engineering, or math. When CPSD had the voc/tech many kids found their real calling.