Ohio Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts Award Grants to Wick Poetry Center

Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center has been awarded two grants from the Ohio Arts Council. A sustainability grant of $13,308 will go toward general programming, and an arts partnership grant of $13,958 will support the Wick Poetry Center’s Traveling Stanzas Community Arts Project.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) also has awarded a $10,000 grant for community engagement to the Wick Poetry Center. The NEA grant will support the center's Encouraging Community Voices Project, an outreach initiative that will serve communities in Northeast Ohio. Wick Poetry Center staff also will deliver the pleasures and power of poetry to the community through poetry writing workshops, discussion groups and readings for all ages in Akron Public Schools' Impact Network schools.

“We are excited to offer poetry workshops to students throughout the Akron Public School system who are struggling with their experience in school,” said David Hassler, director of the Wick Poetry Center. “We have found that engaging students in the creative process of poetry gives them a voice to make meaning of their own lives and motivates them to be more engaged in school. The NEA grant helps us deliver excellent programming both for Kent State and the surrounding community.”

The Wick Poetry Center was ranked second out of 263 art centers in Ohio by the Ohio Arts Council for its Traveling Stanzas Project, which was established in 2009 to promote awareness of poetry and graphic design within the community.

The Wick Poetry Center also was a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council’s sustainability and arts partnership grants in 2012. The center has received several grants in the past from the NEA, including literature grants to support outreach initiatives and program activities.

“We have been remarkably fortunate for the continued recognition and support from both the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts,” said Jessica Jewell, program manager for the Wick Poetry Center. “In continuing to support our center, both agencies have essentially endorsed the importance of Wick’s mission — encouraging new voices and engaging emerging and established poets and poetry audiences.”

For more information about Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, visit www.kent.edu/wick.

For more information about Traveling Stanzas, visit www.travelingstanzas.com.

For more information about the Ohio Arts Council, visit www.oac.state.oh.us.

For more information about the National Endowment for the Arts, visit www.nea.gov.

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Photo Caption:
Participants in the Wick Juniors’ Summer Writing Camp, presented by Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center, enjoy the great outdoors while working on assignments. The camp is sponsored by grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Media Contacts:
Jessica Jewell, jjewell2@kent.edu, 330-672-2067
Bob Burford, rburford@kent.edu, 330-672-8516