mama.film is beyond honored to be recommended by the National Endowment for the Arts for $50,000 in funding through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) awards! We’re exited to have the opportunity to grow our organization and support more creatives who are both telling mission-aligned stories, and also finding new ways to bring those stories to audiences.

Totaling $57,750,000, awards were bestowed to 567 arts organizations to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. The organizations may use this funding to save jobs, and to fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies, and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation.  The National Endowment for the Arts received more than 7,500 eligible applications requesting $695 million. To review the applications, the agency employed more than 450 expert readers and panelists to review and score each application using the published review criteria.

“Our nation’s arts sector has been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Rescue Plan funding will help arts organizations rebuild and reopen,” said Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the NEA. “The arts are crucial to helping America’s communities heal, unite, and inspire as well as essential to our nation’s economic recovery.”

Grants are recommended to organizations in both rural and urban communities; in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington, DC; and represent all 15 of the NEA’s artistic disciplines. The NEA encouraged applications from a variety of organizations for this opportunity and provided numerous resources for navigating the application process. Among the recommended organizations, 27 percent are first-time NEA grantees and 78 percent are small or medium sized organizations with budgets of less than $2 million. Grant award recommendations are for $50,000, $100,000, or $150,000 and do not require cost share/matching funds. The American Rescue Plan was signed into law in March 2021 and included $135 million for the National Endowment for the Arts for the arts sector.