SHARING SACRED SPACES WINS 
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS - “OUR TOWN” GRANT
 

On May 15, 2024, Sharing Sacred Spaces was awarded a 2024 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The $50,000 grant will go toward Sharing Sacred Spaces' public art and storytelling initiative to heal divides and create unity across the city of Dallas, Texas. Sharing Sacred Spaces is joined with incredible partners-- Thanks-Giving Foundation, Dallas Housing Authority, and The Dallas Office of Arts and Culture-- in this initiative.  

 

Entitled Who Are Our Neighbors?, the art and storytelling initiative features eight local artists who have created special artworks to uplift and highlight exemplary community members who has crossed lines of difference and served to better the greater Dallas community. The public art and storytelling display will invite Dallas residents into creative visions of a healthier, more connected future based on kindness, caring, commitment to one another, and common humanity.

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The greater Dallas community is diverse, but like many large cities, is geographically divided. The north-south divide artificially imposed by Interstate 30 reflects the legacy of redlining and continued sharp racial, social, and economic differences.

 

Based on community-building success in five previous cities, Sharing Sacred Spaces was invited to Dallas to put their bridging and unifying skills to work within the city even before this NEA-funded project was won. Working with Thanks-Giving Foundation, Dialogue Institute, a wide variety of religious congregations, and sponsored by the local architecture firm GFFdesign, Sharing Sacred Spaces got its start in Dallas with the invitation to run its hallmark Interreligious Communities Project (ICP) focused on north-south relationships, communal and individual story-sharing, and hospitality and welcome across divides. It was in light of the tremendous enthusiasm behind the ICP that the NEA project, as a connected program, was born.

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In June 2025, the final artworks will be introduced at a public ceremony at Thanks-Giving Square in downtown Dallas in conjunction with the ICP graduation celebration. Following this, we will distribute the artworks to distinct locations across north and south Dallas for tours with accompanying workshops, activities, and dialogues. The artworks will then be installed in their permanent homes across Dallas as beacons of hope to combat loneliness and division, and as inspiration and reasons for ongoing tours and gatherings.

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If you'd like to learn more, please click here.