M-AAA | Press Releases | October 5, 2000


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2000

Knight Foundation Approves $350,000 Grant to Mid-America Arts Alliance
Funding Supports ExhibitsUSA

ExhibitsUSA, a national museum services organization of Mid-America Arts Alliance, has received a two-year $350,000 partial challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The purpose of the grant is three-fold:

    • To support the mission of ExhibitsUSA by developing new, reasonably priced arts and humanities exhibitions of museum quality based on diverse art forms and cultures for smaller and mid-sized community exhibition spaces.

    • To continue a fee subsidy program for underserved rural and urban areas.

    • To research the organizational capacity needs of museums in 26 Knight communities across the country and create technical assistance programs.

The grant is awarded in two installments. $250,000 has been awarded outright; and $100,000 will be paid when matched two-to-one.

According to Gary Burger, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Arts and Culture Programs Director, "ExhibitsUSA is a very compelling program. It is a high-quality, one-of-a-kind undertaking that has responded creatively to a significant need within the museum, gallery, and public exhibition space community. Making the decision to continue our support was an easy and satisfying one."

ExhibitsUSA provides a variety of professional services and technical assistance to museums across the country. Its traveling exhibition program provides high quality arts and humanities exhibitions at affordable costs for communities of all sizes and characteristics. Since 1988, the exhibitions have reached all 50 states attracting more than 12 million persons in 786 communities varying in population from 500 to 5,000,000.

ExhibitsUSA excels at exhibitions with comprehensive educational components designed to meet the needs of small and mid-sized museums, galleries, and exhibition spaces where permanent collections, staff, and budgets are limited, as well as larger institutions where collections may be lacking in particular areas, such as work by contemporary artists of color.

ExhibitsUSA annually tours an average of 30 exhibitions. Its offerings range chronologically from Old Master prints to today's celebrated living artists. Included are exhibitions in fine art, decorative art, crafts, folk art, contemporary cultures, history, photography, and sculpture with subject matter for children, rural themes, environmental concerns, multi-cultural and women's issues.

"The Knight Foundation's generous commitment to ExhibitsUSA propels the development and distribution of outstanding arts and humanities exhibitions that are affordable for museums not able to regularly access such resources for their communities, " said Henry Moran, Executive Director of Mid-America Arts Alliance, "We are grateful, thrilled and challenged."

Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a non-profit regional arts organization based in Kansas City, Mo. Supported by its partnering states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, leading foundations, and businesses, its activities encompass regional, national, and international programs. Mid-America Arts Alliance also collaborates with its neighboring regional organization, Arts Midwest, to offer to the combined 15 states the Heartland Arts Fund, which supports performing arts presenting organizations and more than 200 touring performing artists.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2000, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation makes national grants in journalism, education, and arts and culture. Its fourth program, community initiatives, is concentrated in 26 communities where the Knight brothers published newspapers, but the Foundation is wholly separate from and independent of those newspapers.

In addition to the commitment of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, ExhibitsUSA is supported by the H&R Block Foundation; Cooper Foundation; Bank of America; Richard Florsheim Art Fund; James Irvine Foundation; William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank, Trustee; Samuel H. Kress Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; National Endowment for the Humanities; Phillips Petroleum Company; and Sprint. Past support from Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation has made possible many of the exhibitions currently available.

For more information on Mid-America Arts Alliance, ExhibitsUSA, or the Knight Foundation, visit their websites at: www.maaa.org, www.eusa.org, and www.knightfdn.org.