The National Endowment for the Arts is sending over half-a-million dollars to Iowa for arts projects. Ninety-percent of the money will go to the Iowa Arts Council. Spokesperson Jodi Chapman says the Council redistributes the money to organizations across the state through various grants for projects from festivals to visiting artists.Chapman says the grants are given out on a competitive basis, and the competition is always tough. This year they had record number of requests and could only fund one third of them.She says the Council hopes to get more funding in the coming weeks through another NEA grant program.Chapman says 24-thousand dollars of the Iowa funding is earmarked to pay for a support person to help the state folklorist. She says the folklorist is doing a lot to document the history of people from other countries that are coming into the state. The others who received N-E-A grants are: the Old Cremery Theatre in Amana, $8,000; the Des Moines Metro Opera, $10,000; the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, $7,500 and Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, $20,000.
