Weeksville Heritage Center Awarded Prestigious NEA Grant

The National Endowment for the Arts on Tuesday named Weeksville Heritage Center one of 153 nationwide to receive the prestigious NEA Challenge America Fast-Track grant, an award of $10,000. 

Located at the intersection of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, Weeksville is the site of the first independent and free African-American community in New York City.

The settlement is named for African American, James Weeks, who was among a group of investors who acquired the property in 1838 and went on to establish it as an intentional land-owning community of free families and entrepreneurs.

WHC today is a multi-dimensional museum dedicated to preserving, documenting and interpreting the history of the thriving free community of Weeksville, Brooklyn, as well as advancing its mission through visual and performing arts, ecology and the built environment.

The Center is recommended for a $10,000 grant to support Past, Present and Future, a public art exhibition featuring photographer Barron Claiborne. 

WHC Executive Director Pamela E. Green said the Center is thrilled to receive a grant from the NEA that will support an exhibition of the photographs of Claiborne, noting that it will coincide with the opening of the new Education and Cultural Arts Building, scheduled for the late 2013.