The Cincinnati Art Museum is one of 895 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA ArtWorks grant. The NEA has awarded the Cincinnati Art Museum a $40,000 grant to support its 2014 Cincinnati Silver exhibition.

The exhibition Cincinnati Silver, on view June 14-August 17, 2014, developed by Amy Dehan Curator of  Decorative Arts and Design reveal genuinely new scholarship on the history and importance of the luxury silver goods market in Cincinnati—the earliest in the Midwest. The exhibition will showcase approximately 150 silver works made and sold in the Queen City between 1788 and 1940, most which have never been on public display. Ranging from elegantly wrought soup tureens to tea sets, these artworks represent the city’s earliest activities in the trade through the Art Deco period.  Displayed with related account and sample books, archival photographs, portraits, and furnishings of the period, the nature and riches of Cincinnati’s history in silver will unfold.

ArtWorks grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence: public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and enhancing the livability of communities through the arts.  The NEA received 1,528 eligible ArtWorks applications, requesting more than $75 million in funding.   Of those applications, 895 are recommended for grants for a total of $ 23.4 million.