Award Is Among 1,023 Made Nationally

Washington, D.C., May 6, 2015 – Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.

In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the NEA will make a grant award to the Architects Foundation to support a forum on how architects and the AIA component network can influence the regulation of the built environment to improve public health.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from the Architects Foundation represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”

Architects Foundation Executive Director Sherry-Lea Bloodworth-Botop said: “Networking and sharing information is the key to any successful effort at the local level when it comes to advancing solutions to America’s health crisis. We look forward to being a central hub for this activity.”

The forum, which will be hosted in 2016 by the Architects Foundation in Washington, DC, will invite AIA members, AIA component leaders, public health experts, and leaders in the field of environmental health to showcase the power of advocacy and community engagement to advance healthy built environment policy. During the event, participants will workshop and present implementable solutions to improve their community’s health through changes to public policy.

The NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEASpring2015.

For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov

About the Architects Foundation:
The American InstituteofArchitects Foundation, now called the Architects Foundation, advances excellence in design for the benefit of the public.  As a nonprofit philanthropic extension of the American Institute of Architects, the Architects Foundation is the consummate voice and advocate for architecture and design in America.  The Architects Foundation is dedicated to the belief that good design is good for all and plays an essential role in transforming lives and building a better world.