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Sarasota News Leader December 14, 2012 Page 87 SARASOTA OPERA RECEIVES NEA GRANT FOR EDUCATIONAL EVENTS National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman has announced that Sarasota Opera is one of 832 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. $22.3 million, spanning 13 artistic disciplines and fields and focusing primarily on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing works for the benefit of American audiences, the release adds. The opera was recommended for a $30,000 grant to support performances of Carlisle Floyd���s opera Of Mice and Men, as part of the third year of the Sarasota Opera���s American Classics Series, ���accompanied by significant educational programming,��� a Sarasota Opera news release says. The opera, will stage six performances of Of Mice and Men, based on John Steinbeck���s acclaimed novel and play; the performances will be part of the 2013 Winter Festival season. In 2011, the NEA awarded Sarasota Opera a $20,000 grant toward its production that year of Robert Ward���s The Crucible. ���The goal of these [American Classic Series] events is to increase our current audience���s knowledge of these great works and to attract new faces to the opera,��� the release says. Among the educational events held in conjunction with the performances will be screenings of both the 1939 and 1992 versions of the movie, a ���conversation��� with composer Floyd ���and a repeat of the extremely popular Spoken and Sung��� program in partnership with the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, the release adds. Check www.sarasotaopera.org for more information. In March 2012, the NEA received 1,509 eligible applications for Art Works that requested more than $74 million in funding, the release notes. The 832 recommended grants total The Sarasota Opera is located on Pineapple Avenue in downtown Sarasota. Photo by Norman Schimmel