National Endowment for the Arts Announces Reading Initiative
January 19, 2006
Washington D.C - The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in partnership with Arts Midwest, announced on December 20, 2005, the pilot phase of The Big Read, a national initiative to encourage literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book. Ten organizations were selected from a pool of 45 applicants to receive grants ranging from $15,000 to $40,000 to promote and carry out four-to six-week, community-based programs to encourage reading by teens and adults. The NEA's Big Read is modeled on successful "city reads" programs. Pilot communities, ranging in population from 7,000 to more than 4 million people, will read one of four classic novels: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
source: Americans for the Arts