NEA aids Cinnabar, Burbank Center

In its second major grant announcement of the year, the National Endowment for the Arts has given grants to support live performances at the Cinnabar Opera Theater of Petaluma and the Burbank Center for the Arts of Santa Rosa.

It is the first time either organization has received a grant from the NEA, which is chaired by Sonoma County poet Dana Gioia.

Cinnabar Arts Corporation received a $5,000 grant from the NEA to help underwrite an upcoming production of Robert Xavier Rodriguez's new opera, "La Curandera," about a female sorceress in the Mexican folk tradition.

"We were encouraged to continue our application by Dana Gioia, who spent New Year's Eve here," said Elly Lichenstein, Cinnabar's executive director. "He really loves our work, and he understands that it's a way for opera to survive."

"La Curandera" will premiere at Opera Colorado in Denver next year, then move on to the Cinnabar Opera Theatre, which will present its West Coast premiere.

The Burbank Center received a $25,000 grant from the NEA to support its Hispanic Community Cultural Outreach Program, which was initiated in 2002 to give more arts accessibility to the North Bay's Latino community.

"This is our third year of working with the Latino community, and it's been growing every year," said David Fischer, the center's executive director. "We have done two Latino Father's Day festivals, a Mexican Independence Day festival in September, and we've presented Ballet Hispanico de Vera Cruz."

With the NEA grant, the center plans to continue to present Latino programs, including an arts exhibit with Enrique Chagoya this fall and popular music programs with the Gipsy Kings in August and Los Cenzontles next spring. It also will continue to hold roundtables with the Latino community, in order to get feedback on its programming.

The two NEA grants were among 595 projects recommended for funding in the Access to Artistic Excellence category, which goes toward the creation and presentation of arts projects.

The NEA recommends a level of funding, but each project must make a contractual agreement with the NEA before the funding is finalized.