NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS ANNOUNCES BIG READ GRANT TO MASSANUTTEN REGIONAL LIBRARY TO CELEBRATE "THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER" PROGRAM BEGINS OCTOBER 3, 2008

Central Shenandoah Valley to participate in national, federally funded program that brings community together to promote literary reading

Washington, D.C. – June 16, 2008 ---The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced that Massanutten Regional Library (MRL) is one of 208 organizations that will receive grants to support Big Read programs through  September 2009.

The Big Read is a national program by the NEA, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Arts Midwest, that encourages literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book. The organizations selected to participate in The Big Read receive grants to promote and carry out month-long, community-based programs based on the themes in the chosen book.

The Big Read at Massanutten Regional Library is a $10,000 grant, matched through generous partnership by Daily News-Record, WVPT and other community partners. MRL will be bringing Mark Twain'sThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer alive in the Valley through free book distribution, public readings and book discussions, family festivals and the production of the play version in cooperation with the drama department of Thomas Harrison Middle School. Kick-off will take place on Court Square at Noon on October 3 and free community programming and events will run through November 23.

“We are delighted to again be chosen for this exciting community initiative,” said Mary Golden-Hughes, Public Relations Manager for Massanutten Regional Library. “We greatly enjoyed our experiences with our Big Read for To Kill a Mockingbird in the fall of 2007 and look forward to uniting our Valley again through the power of great literature.”

During its fall 2007 Big Read, MRL distributed over 3,000 free copies of Mockingbird, held over 50 book discussions,commissioned both a modern dance piece by the Shenandoah Contemporary Dance Theatre, a reader's theatre of the book and an original mockingbird mosaic wall, hand-crafted by local artist Cyndi Gusler, which is permanently placed outside the MRL Main Branch in downtown Harrisonburg.

Components of the 2008 Tom Sawyer Big Read will include:

• Distribution of 4,000 free copies of the book (including 1,000 to area middle and high schools)

• Kick-off celebration on Court Square featuring live music, barbecue and celebrity readers

• free family admission to Harrisonburg Children's Museum for “Tom Sawyer Adventure Night” featuring old-time games and activities like fence white washing, hoop rolling, frog jumping, watermelon-seed spitting contests and more led by museum staff and featuring Court Days festival actors appearing as Tom Sawyer and Becky Thacher

• free screening of the PBS documentary Mark Twain

• a community service fencing project bringing new fences to local non-profits

• the stage production of Tom Sawyer in partnership with students and faculty from Thomas Harrison Middle School

• weekly book discussions and more.

Modeled on successful “city reads” programs, the Big Read is meant to address the national decline in literary reading as documented in the NEA’s 2004 landmark survey Reading at Risk A Survey of Literary Reading in America. The survey showed that less than half the American adult population now reads literature.

“With the Big Read we want to get everyone in a community—from high school kids and office workers to public officials and senior citizens—reading a great book together,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. “Our goal is to get people talking about Fahrenheit 451 or The Great Gatsby with the same conviction that they debate the World Series. We want people to feel worse about not reading the book than they do about missing an episode of Lost or CSI.”

Participating communities, ranging in population from 7,000 to more than 4 million, will read and celebrate one of twenty-two classic American novels through the NEA Big Read. A complete list is available on www.neabigread.org. To encourage community-wide participation in the project, each organization will collaborate with public and private partners within its community to develop a program of activities related to the selected novel.

“One of the most fulfilling aspects of our Mockingbird Big Read was the tremendous community support we received for the project. From monetary donations to in-kind donations of services and goods, the Valley business community stood squarely behind The Big Read project and enabled us to bring a literary experience to the entire Valley. There is power in great literature and in the ways in which it can connect a community. We feel honored to be chosen as the conduit to do this again and are determined to again bring quality literature, programming and experiences to our library patrons, Valley readers and students. We want everyone in the Central Shenandoah Valley to participate, whether it’s through reading, attending an event or just talking about the book’s themes at the local coffee shop, at work, at church. We invite everyone in our service area to participate in the project and experience the pure pleasure of literature.”

A complete schedule of  MRL Big Read events will be posted at www.mrlib.org by September 12, 2008.

For more information on The Big Read, please note the contacts listed above. For a complete list of other communities participating in the Big Read or for more information on the program, please visit www.neabigread.org. 

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts—both new and established—bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more information, please visit www.arts.gov.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit: www.imls.gov.

Arts Midwest connects people throughout the Midwest and the world to meaningful arts opportunities, sharing creativity, knowledge, and understanding across boundaries. Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years. For more information, please visit www.artsmidwest.org

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