Film Pittsburgh, other area organizations awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts

Film Pittsburgh this week received its first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, placing it among seven other arts organizations in the region to receive funding from the federal agency.

The $25,000 grant will support its filmmaking conference in November, where the group will welcome 50-100 filmmakers for its first such dedicated conference.

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, a longstanding recipient of NEA support, was awarded a $30,000 grant. The other grants went to the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council ($35,000), Pittsburgh Glass Center ($20,000), Society for Contemporary Craft ($20,000), Squonk Opera ($15,000), New Hazlett Center for the Performing Arts ($15,000) and Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures ($10,000).

Bridgeway Capital, a community development firm that operates in Pittsburgh, Uniontown and Erie, received $50,000 for the design of its “Our Towns” project.

At Film Pittsburgh, receiving an NEA grant is a strong validation of the organization’s work, said Executive Director Kathryn Spitz Cohan, who’s led the group for 20 years. “They look at your track record. We outlined who the organization is, and what it does, and our successes. I guess they liked that.”

The NEA requires an organization to have three years of programming experience to apply. Associate director Caroline Collins “did so much of the legwork on this grant application,” Spitz Cohan said.

The Nov. 19-21 conference will be part of its Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival, showing contemporary short films from around the world. It will follow the annual Three Rivers Film Festival, a collection of independent feature films in a variety of genres, scheduled for Nov. 10-17.

Film Pittsburgh is scouting venues, for screening films and for the conference.

“And oh, yes, oh yes,” Spitz Cohan said, “the conference will be in person.”

In this round of grants, the NEA distributed nearly $27 million to more than 1,100 projects nationwide. A full list can be found here.

“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as Film Pittsburgh reengage fully with partners and audiences,” National Endowment for the Arts acting chairperson Ann Eilers said in a statement. “Although the arts have sustained many during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”