Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble to be Awarded $10,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for Outreach Programming with Incarcerated Youth
Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble is pleased to announce it will receive a Challenge America grant of $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This grant will support Sarasa’s award-winning Outreach Programs in 2024 & 2025. In total, the NEA will award 257 Challenge America awards totaling $2,570,000 that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.
“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to Sarasa Ensemble, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”
“Sarasa is very happy to have been successful in our first application for an NEA grant. This, together with other funding, will make it possible to continue and expand our unique outreach programs, which remain central to our mission,” commented Timothy Merton, Sarasa’s Executive Director.
This grant will subsidize 4 Outreach Residencies and 4 Outreach Presentations between June 2024 and May 2025 at Massachusetts Department of Youth Services facilities throughout Eastern Massachusetts. Sarasa Ensemble will introduce incarcerated teens to composers such as J.S. Bach, Telemann, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Purcell, Haydn, Schubert, Finzi, Tavener, and Emilie Mayer, as well as new works by young composers from the Boston area. Our programs foster the teens’ own artistic voices through musical exchanges and collaboration.
While the NEA does require a 1:1 match from Sarasa to fund the entire Outreach project, Sarasa has a wonderful base of patrons and donors—like you!—who we hope will continue to support this work. As Board Chair Deborah A. Hoover noted, "We are optimistic that our committed donors will enable us to meet and possibly exceed this exceptional NEA Challenge America grant."
Since the inception of its Outreach Program at teen lock-up facilities in 1998, Sarasa has observed first-hand the extraordinary empowerment music offers. Sarasa encounters disproportionately Black and Latinx teens from disadvantaged homes, many of whom have high recidivism rates. They have largely not been afforded the opportunity to experience or express themselves through music. As a participant once said, “...not many people give us open ears to show them our art”. An open, non-judgemental dialogue through music gives each teen the opportunity to develop trust in each other and to co-create something special.
A resident at Pelletier Assessment Program once wrote to us, “Music is important to me and a coping skill. Thank you for coming and teaching us for these days and for spending time with us. I appreciate it.” As a DYS staff member commented, "It’s an experience some of them [the students] might never have been exposed to otherwise.” The MA Department of Youth Services has very little budget for arts programming, a gap which Sarasa is honored to fill.
To learn more about Sarasa Outreach Programs, read comments from past teen participants, and listen to outreach recordings, visit www.sarasamusic.org/outreach. For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
