The National Endowment for the Arts will award $20,000 to the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation to support free programming for underserved and economically disadvantaged groups during its 2021 music festival.
The grant is one of more than 1,000 awarded across the country in this round of the NEA's Grants for Arts Projects program.
The Lotus World Music and Arts Festival is one of Bloomington's biggest events and normally draws thousands of attendees and volunteers to the downtown area.
“In the past year, as the pandemic has closed our physical doors, Lotus has been privileged to continue serving our mission, with support from grants such as this one from the National Endowment for the Arts,” Lotus Executive Director Tamara Loewenthal said in a Thursday evening news release.
In November, the foundation received a $10,000 grant from the Youth Program Resilience Fund of Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lotus, like most local organizers of summer events, moved its 2020 World Music and Arts Festival online amid the pandemic. The 2021 festival is scheduled for Sept. 23-26.
