Jun 27 2007
The National Endowment for the Arts has substantially increased its participation in its Big Read program. On Monday the organization awarded 117 new grants totaling over $1.5 million and more than doubling the number of communities participating in the program.
Launched in 2006, the Big Read encourages people in cities and towns to jointly read one of a selected number of books and, is, according to NEA chairman Dana Gioia, a way to use reading as a community building tool. "By joining the Big Read, these cities and towns are showing that reading is necessary to the
cultural, civic, even economic fabric of their communities", Gioia said. The organization's goal is to have 400 communities on board for 2008.
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