University Times

Pitt's Kuntu Repertory Theatre is one of 32 arts organizations nationwide to receive audience development grants from the Arts & Business Council and American Express.

Totaling approximately $300,000, these grants are part of the National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP). The first national initiative of its kind, NAMP replicates a pilot program developed by the Arts Marketing Center of the Art & Business Council of Chicago. Grant recipients were selected by a national panel of experts from business, marketing and the arts.

According to ProArts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening, supporting and promoting the arts in Greater Pittsburgh and which operates NAMP in Pittsburgh, Kuntu will receive $20,750 to help it target groups, urban professionals (both Anglo and African American), and increase its marketing efforts.

Vernell Lillie, Kuntu founder and artistic director, said: "Over a quarter of a century, Kuntu has become Pittsburgh's oldest and largest African-American performing arts organization dedicated to producing theater that explores and celebrates the black experience through the Dias-pora, African American, African and Caribbean playwrights and poets.

"Kuntu gives tribute to the central voices representing the broad spectrum of black culture and history. We are pleased that this grant will enable us to share those voices with a wider audience."