Two Great Days for Santa Monica State Beach: Grant Awards Announced 

Santa Monica — The City of Santa Monica’s Department of Community & Cultural Services is pleased to announce that over the course of two days, two grants totaling $120,000 were awarded to projects related to Santa Monica State Beach.

On Thursday, April 3, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) committed to $20,000 in funding for the inaugural all-night festival, Glow, to be held on July 19, 2008. The NEA is dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts and bringing the arts to all Americans. Taking its inspiration from the phosphorescence of the sea, Glow will take place on the beach and Pier, filling the hours between dusk to dawn with compelling, enchanting and effervescent sights and sounds that will change the way the public experiences contemporary art. Two innovative, participatory works of art have been commissioned for the evening, along with additional performances by local artists. The festival is based on Nuit Blanche in Paris. For more information, please visit www.glowsantamonica.org. 

On Friday, April 4, the Department of the Interior and Advisory Council on Historic Preservation announced an award of $100,000 for a cultural mapping project through the Preserve America initiative. The program encourages and supports community-based efforts to preserve and enjoy our nation’s cultural and natural heritage. Of the 43 grants awarded across 25 states in Round 1 of 2008, Santa Monica is the only community in California to receive funding, and one of only 11 to receive funding at the $100k+ level (maximum award amount is $150,000). The cultural mapping project will seek to uncover and preserve the rich heritage of Santa Monica State Beach through comprehensive research including collection of oral histories. The resulting inventory of resources will be available to the community and will provide the foundation from which other projects may grow, including interpretive displays at the new Annenberg Community Beach House and a comprehensive signage and wayfinding system at the beach. The project will ultimately promote heritage tourism in Santa Monica, one of the fastest growing tourism industries in the country. For more information on the Preserve America initiative, please visit www.preserveamerica.gov.