Media contact: Bruce Peterson, (620) 332-5492
The William Inge Festival Foundation won triple distinction from the Kansas Arts Commission, being awarded three grants for more than $23,000 to support year-round programs of the William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community college.
A total of $16,000 of arts-in-education funds is allocated for the Inge Center's unique "Playwrights-in-the-Schools" program, which serves southeastern Kansas high schools. An additional $7.808 is earmarked for general operating support for all Inge Center activities.
"We again thank the Kansas Arts Commission, in their continued support of quality arts that serve all types of people," said Inge Center Artistic Director Peter Ellenstein. "We are honored and appreciative to receive these highly competitive grants, which we believe bestow recognition for excellence in programming."
The Inge Center received two separate Arts In Education grants: one specifically for youth at risk and another for general student population. They fund the Playwrights-in-the-Schools program, an extensive teaching residency where accomplished playwrights teach literary skills in area schools. It is one of only a handful of similar distinctive programs in the nation to serve rural students.
The William Inge Festival Foundation, founded in 1992, helps support the activities of the William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College.
The Inge Center is best known for its annual William Inge Theatre Festival, which celebrates its 29th year April 21-24, 2010. The Festival will honor dramatist Paula Vogel.
Additional major supporters of the William Inge Center for the Arts include Hallmark Cards, the William T. Kemper Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Independence Community College.
The center is named for the late Pulitzer Prize ("Picnic") and Oscar winning ("Splendor in the Grass") writer William Inge, a native of Independence.
For more information on Inge Center activities, visit www.ingecenter.org or call (620) 332-5492 or (800) 842-6063 ext. 5835.
