Sarasota Opera to Receive $50,000 CARES Act Grant

The Grant is one of 855 awarded nationwide by the National Endowment for Arts

Sarasota Opera has been approved for a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act recognizes that the nonprofit arts industry is an important sector of America’s economy. The NEA is distributing the funds to nonprofit arts organizations across the country to help these entities and their employees endure the economic hardships caused by the forced closure of their operations due to the spread of COVID-19.

The NEA recommended 855 arts organizations to receive a total of $44.5 million in non-matching funds to support personnel and facilities costs. Sarasota Opera is one of 33 grantees in the state of Florida. The NEA received more than 3,100 eligible applications requesting $157 million for the $45 million available in direct assistance. 

“We are so grateful for support from the National Endowment for the Arts at this challenging time. As we look towards an uncertain future, this grant will help sustain us and plan for a time when we will be able to welcome people back to the Sarasota Opera House,” states Sarasota Opera Executive Director Richard Russell. 

“All of us at the National Endowment for the Arts are keenly aware that arts organizations across the country are hurting, struggling, and trying to survive and that our supply of funding does not come close to meeting the demand for assistance,” said Arts Endowment Chairman Mary Anne Carter. “That said, I am enormously proud of the over-and-above efforts of the Arts Endowment staff to swiftly and professionally manage such a large amount of additional work in a relatively short period of time on behalf of the American public.”

Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities.