The Salt Lake Arts Council Foundation has been approved for a $20,000 Art Works grant to support the 2020 Living Traditions Festival. The 2020 Living Traditions Festival is a three-day festival, free to the public, that engages and presents over 80 cultures through stage performances, panel discussions, craft booths where artists demonstrate their respective art forms, hands-on arts activities for youth, school field trips, a food market where nonprofit groups prepare and sell their traditional cuisines, and hands-on workshops where festival attendees learn traditional artforms from artists. The festival will be presented on May 15, 16, and 17, 2020 in downtown Salt Lake City at Library Square.

Overall, the National Endowment for the Arts has approved 1,187 grants totaling $27.3 million in the first round of fiscal year 2020 funding to support arts projects in every state in the nation, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The Art Works funding category supports projects that focus on public engagement with, and access to, various forms of excellent art across the nation; the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence; learning in the arts at all stages of life; and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life.

“The arts are at the heart of our communities, connecting people through shared experiences and artistic expression,” said Arts Endowment chairman Mary Anne Carter. “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support projects the Living Traditions Festival.”

Arts Council Executive Director, Felicia Baca, says the Festival is important because, “the program fosters the preservation and inclusion of Utah’s diverse landscape along with the artistic traditions that reflect varied cultural perspectives. We do this by presenting folk & traditional art-—art that reflects both the unique qualities of various communities and the similarities of human experience.  The festival fosters community conversations around social justice and equity and helps us to celebrate the richness of our cultural diversity and build civic pride as a whole.”

The mission of the Salt Lake City Arts Council is to promote, present, and support artists, arts organizations, and arts activities in order to further the development of the arts community and to benefit the public by expanding awareness, access, and participation. For more information, please visit www.saltlakearts.org.

For more information on projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.