(PNAN) – Earlier this month, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman bestowed news of greatness on the North Carolina Arts Council, for being the chosen for the 2010 National Accessibility Leadership Award/grant. The award recognizes outstanding initiatives or programs that make the arts accessible and inclusive for older adults and individuals with disabilities. This coming October, the award will be given to NCAC at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies annual conference in Austin, Texas.
“I would like to congratulate Mary Regan and her colleagues at the North Carolina Arts Council for their work in truly infusing the tenets of accessibility throughout their agency, and more importantly, 
across the state. It is not enough that people of all backgrounds are allowed to participate in the arts; they should be welcomed and encouraged to do so. I am proud that the NEA is able to invest in this work and help extend it even further,” said Chairman Landesman at the time of the announcement in Winston-Salem. NASAA CEO Jonathan Katz added, “On behalf of the nation’s state arts agencies, I want to congratulate the North Carolina Arts Council and thank the NEA for its partnership in recognizing successful efforts to broaden access to the arts.”
National Accessibility Leadership Award recipients from years past went to: the Indiana Arts Commission (2009), Florida Division of Cultural Affairs (2008), the Minnesota State Arts Board (2007), the Maine Arts Commission (2006), the Massachusetts Cultural Council (2005), the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (2004), the New York State Council on the Arts (2003), the Ohio Arts Council (2002), and the Arizona Commission on the Arts (2001).
To discover for information on the National Endowment for the Arts, including the NEA Office of AccessAbility and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), take a visit to: www.arts.gov.