NEA GRANTS FOR PUBLIC PROJECTS

The National Endowment for the Arts says it will award $189,875 in federal grants to designers and artists collaborating on model projects to develop public spaces. The grants are the first intended to stimulate cooperation between visual artists and design professionals.

The grants include $28,500 to the city of Concord, Calif., for a statewide competition to develop a landscape design and artwork for the downtown Todos Santos Plaza; $11,000 to the Headlands Art Center of Sausalito, Calif., to design innovative furniture for public performances and lectures in the multimedia art center across from San Francisco; $80,000 to the Seattle Arts Commission for the design of a new, $160-million civic center by a team of artists, architects, landscape architects and engineers, and $35,375 to Creative Time of New York to plan for the development of Hunters Point, a 92-acre landfill site on the East River in Queens, N.Y., as a waterfront park and arts center.