Kansas City, MO – JULY 12, 2011 – Today, the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City,
in partnership with the Downtown Council of Kansas City, Missouri, announced they will
receive an Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), one of only 51
grants awarded nationwide. The Arts Council and Downtown Council will receive $200,000 to
contribute to the restoration of the Boone Theater in the Historic Jazz District at 18th & Vine.

Our Town is the NEA’s latest investment in creative placemaking, through which partners from
both public and private sectors come together to strategically shape the social, physical, and
economic character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities.

The NEA grant will support the predevelopment, design and community planning phases of
the restoration of the 89-year-old Boone Theater, which is listed on both the Kansas City and
National Registers of Historic Places. The long-abandoned building has been boarded up since
the 1950s.

The restoration and redevelopment of the historic Boone Theater – a $2.5 million project – is
being undertaken with the goal of creating a new home for Folk Alliance International, a non-
profit cultural organization presently based in Memphis, Tennessee, that fosters and promotes
traditional, contemporary, and multicultural folk music and dance and related performing arts.