SHARING SACRED SPACES WINS 
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS - “OUR TOWN” GRANT
 

On May 15, 2024, Sharing Sacred Spaces was awarded a 2024 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The $50,000 grant will go toward a joint venture between Sharing Sacred Spaces and Thanks-Giving Foundation for a public art initiative to heal divides and create unity across the city of Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Office of Arts and Culture joined in funding support of the initiative, which launched in October.  

 

Entitled Who Are Our Neighbors?, the art initiative will invite eight local artists to create works that will uplift and highlight an exemplary community member who has crossed lines of difference and served to better the greater Dallas community. The public art display will invite Dallas residents into creative visions of a healthier, more connected future based on kindness, caring, commitment to one another, and common humanity.

​

The greater Dallas community is diverse, but like many large cities, is geographically divided. The north-south divide artificially imposed by Interstate 30 reflects the legacy of redlining and continued sharp racial, social, and economic differences.

 

Based on community-building success in five previous cities, Sharing Sacred Spaces was invited to Dallas to put their bridging and unifying skills to work within the city. Working with local partner Thanks-Giving Foundation and a wide diversity of religious congregations, Sharing Sacred Spaces will run its hallmark Interreligious Communities Project (ICP) focused on north-south relationships, communal and individual story-sharing, and hospitality and welcome across divides. 

 

Who Are Our Neighbors? is being done jointly with Thanks-Giving Foundation as well as a wide array of Dallas partners including The Dallas Office of Arts and Culture and Dallas Housing Authority.

 

In June 2025, the final artworks will be introduced at a public ceremony at Thanks-Giving Square in downtown Dallas in conjunction with the ICP graduation celebration. Following this, we will distribute the artworks to distinct locations across north and south Dallas, and offer a short run of trolley tours with accompanying lectures, activities, and dialogues. The artworks will then be installed in their permanent homes across Dallas as beacons of hope to combat loneliness and division, and as inspiration and reasons for ongoing tours and gatherings.

​​

​​

​

We are currently inviting story submissions of exemplars to build a database of local heroes from which the artists can gain inspiration for their works.

 

If you'd like to submit a story or learn more, please click here.