National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects across the country in the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017. Included in this announcement is an Art Works $10,000 grant to ArtsBridge Foundation at Cobb Energy Centre to support the 2017 – 2018 ArtsBridge Field Trip Program Season, a calendar of high quality arts education programs designed to engage, motivate and elevate the next generation of artists and arts supporters.
 
“The arts reflect the vision, energy, and talent of America’s artists and arts organizations,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support organizations such as ArtsBridge Foundation in serving their communities by providing excellent and accessible arts experiences.”
 
“ArtsBridge Foundation is extremely grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts for its support of our Field Trip Program,” states Jennifer Dobbs Hill, Executive Director of ArtsBridge Foundation. “NEA funding will help ArtsBridge make art accessible to everyone, and ensure that thousands of schoolchildren will be introduced to and touched by the arts – some of them for the first time.”
 
Built in collaboration with leading regional and national organizations, the ArtsBridge Field Trip Season exposes students to performances by leading arts organizations such as The Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Ballet, Kennesaw State University's College of the Arts and The Kennedy Center, to name a few. Since 2007, ArtsBridge has paved the way for more than 300,000 students from public, charter, private and home schools to experience and benefit from the positive power of the arts. In the 2016 – 2017 ArtsBridge Season, 27,258 students and educators from 182 schools attended Field Trip Programs.