National Endowment for the Arts FY 2017 Fall Grant Announcement

communities. Program activities will connect teachers, artist fellows, school officials, and local arts organizations
with community and business leaders, public officials, family specialists, and funders in as many as five U.S.
cities. Teachers will be trained to integrate performing arts into their classroom curricula and the project's key
findings will be published for national dissemination with accompanying resource guides. Performing artist
fellows will have the opportunity to create new work in each participating city, engaging children in
transformative creative experiences.
Writers in the Schools (aka WITS)
$100,000 Houston, TX
To support the creation of Writers in the Schools (WITS) Digital, in partnership with Histrionix Learning
Company. WITS Digital will use game design as a tool to connect the arts to science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM)-based education and promote learning through digital storytelling. A newly designed video
game, "Gamestar Mechanic," will be re-engineered as a classroom-friendly literary tool that will enable students
to publish original stories as video games. It will enable students to integrate literary elements, such as plot,
characters, setting, and themes - components that complement the writing process. Additionally, the initiative
will explore conflict resolution, dialogue, voice, and literary techniques. WITS will partner with Teachers and
Writers Collaborative to coach teaching artists and disseminate digital pedagogy across a collaborative network
of schools and learning centers in Houston and New York City, and in additional WITS Alliance cities. WITS
Alliance is a professional network of literary arts education programs for K-12 students and teachers.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (aka YBCA)
$90,000 San Francisco, CA
To support Citizenship 2.0, in partnership with Neighborland, an online civic communications platform. The
collaboration will focus on integrating the arts and technology to spur community participation and civic action
leading to positive change in San Francisco and the Bay Area. A cohort of YBCA fellows, as many as 90 diverse
thought leaders, will participate in a paid collective research opportunity investigating current social questions.
Guided by YBCA and Neighborland, the fellows will hold quarterly cohort meetings, create project web pages on
Neighborland.com, and establish a platform for ongoing online dialogue with the Bay Area community. Teams of
fellows will develop community-driven art installations for public spaces, addressing particular social questions.
They will curate vibrant community festivals, filling YBCA's indoor and outdoor spaces with the creative
multidisciplinary projects presenting themes of Freedom, Equity, and Citizenship that will result from this
process. Together, YBCA, Neighborland, and the YBCA fellows will use art and creativity to drive new possibilities
in the public imagination, as well as find specific, creative, community-driven solutions to specific community
problems.
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of
December 7, 2016.