Spy Hop Productions to Receive $15,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Salt Lake City, UT—National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $30 million in grants as part of the NEA’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $15,000 to Salt Lake City’s Spy Hop Productions to support their Youth Documentary Arts Program. The Art Works category focuses on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

“The arts are for all of us, and by supporting organizations such as Spy Hop, the National Endowment for the Arts is providing more opportunities for the public to engage with the arts,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Whether in a theater, a town square, a museum, or a hospital, the arts are everywhere and make our lives richer.”

“We are honored and so grateful for the continued support from the National Endowment for the Arts,” said Kasandra VerBrugghen, Spy Hop’s Executive Director. “This grant brings national recognition for the merit and excellence of the work of creative youth in Utah.”

This grant will support the Youth Documentary Arts Program at Spy Hop. Under the mentorship of professional artists, students will explore stories and issues pertinent to their lives and communities, while immersed in the artistic, technical, and theoretical aspects of film and audio documentary arts. Project partners include 90.9FM KRCL, Utah Education Network (UEN), the Salt Lake Film Society, and the Utah Department of Juvenile Justice.

For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visitarts.gov/news.

About Spy Hop

Since 1999, Spy Hop has offered classes in the digital media arts to Utah’s young people in our downtown Salt Lake City studio, as well as across the state of Utah. Our mission is to mentor young people in the digital media arts to help them find their voice, tell their stories, and be empowered to affect positive change in their lives, their communities, and the world.

Spy Hop is now widely recognized as one of the leading youth media organizations in the country, and is setting the standard for media arts learning across the nation. In 2015 Spy Hop was honored at the White House as one of the nation’s best after school arts and humanities programs, receiving the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

For more information about Spy Hop, please visit spyhop.org.