National Endowment for the Arts Chairman (and former Arkansas resident) Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $50,000 to the Arkansas Arts Center to support the conservation of art works by John Marin.

The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Through the work of organizations such as the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”

The Arkansas Arts Center’s 290-work collection is the second largest repository of John Marin works in the world. The collection was donated to the Arts Center by the artist’s daughter-in-law, Norma Marin, in 2013. Beginning with his 1909 debut exhibition of watercolors at Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery in New York, until his death in 1953, Marin was a major force among the cutting-edge modern artists in America. The artist was best known for his lively, idiosyncratic watercolors, etchings and oil paintings of the disparate worlds of gritty New York City and coastal Maine.

“We are incredibly grateful for this support from the NEA,” said Todd Herman, Arkansas Arts Center Executive Director. “This grant will allow us to continue to preserve this spectacular collection of works by iconic American modernist John Marin for future generations.”