HOUGHTON — Michigan Tech’s Director of Music Composition Program Elizabeth “Libby” Meyer, and Rozsa Programming and Development Director Mary Muncil were awarded a $10,000 Challenge America grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the Surround Sound Music Festival. The Surround Sound Music Festival is a two-day music festival that encourages audiences to listen differently. The festival will feature Audio Pharmacy, a Native American Hip Hop band, Evelyn Glennie, a world class percussionist who has been deaf since the age of 12 and Vieux Farka Touré, a Malian blues guitarist. The Surround Sound Music Festival will take place April 3 and 4. The purpose of the Challenge America grant is to support projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations.

National Endowment for the Arts has approved 1,187 grants totaling $27.3 million in the first round of fiscal year 2020 funding to support arts projects across the country.

The Challenge America funding category offers support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to populations that have limited access to the arts due to geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. Each grant is for a fixed amount of $10,000 and requires a minimum $10,000 cost share/match.

“The arts are at the heart of our communities, connecting people through shared experiences and artistic expression,” said Arts Endowment chairman Mary Anne Carter. “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support projects like the Surround Sound Music Festival.”

For more information on projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.