SMARTS (Students Motivated by the ARTS) will receive $50,000 in federal relief funding from the National Endowment for the Arts through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The Youngstown-based community art school was one of the 855 organizations to be funded out of the more than 3,100 applications from arts organizations located in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A total of $44.5 million was awarded. Twenty-seven grants totaling $1.35 million was awarded in Ohio, mostly in the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati areas.

Grants of $50,000 were offered to 846 organizations while nine local arts agencies will receive $250,000 each to further award to arts organizations in their area.

The NEA used more than 200 application readers and panelists to review and score each application.

Arts and culture are a key component of the U.S. economy that contributed $877.8 billion, or 4.5 percent, to the nation’s gross domestic product in 2017, according to the NEA. Arts and culture also employ more than 5 million wage-and-salary workers who collectively earned $405 billion. The CARES Act money will help support those jobs and those nonprofit organizations during this time of great need so that arts and culture will persevere as a significant contributor to the American economy, a press release from the NEA states.

The funding for SMARTs will enable it to continue providing free classes in visual art, music, dance, theater and creative writing to those PK-12 students who need it the most in our region.