ArtPlace America announced last week that Queen Muhammad Ali is one of 70 finalists for the 2017 National Creative Placemaking Fund (NCPF).  ArtPlace selected these 70 proposals from 987 applications, making Queen and the community of Faga'itua's  project "Manuia Samoa" one of just 7% of the projects across the country to make this cut.

Ali proposed "Manuia Samoa", a solar powered Social Wellness Hub dedicated to the health, nutrition, and creativity of the people on the beautiful, but health epidemic stricken islands of American Samoa. Inspired by traditional Samoan interior design fused with Tsunami resistant eco- friendly contemporary architecture, the 20,000 sq ft social wellness hub will include three major components; art, health, and education.

Governor Lolo Moliga conveyed last week how proud he is of Queen's efforts and accomplishments and invited her and her group to meet with him in July. “Currently we are in Phoenix working on a film project for Sundance but we will be back in July,” a spokesperson for the project said.

"The National Grants Program is actively building a portfolio that reflects the full breadth of our country’s arts and cultural sector, as well as the community planning and development field,” said ArtPlace’s Director of National Grantmaking F. Javier Torres.  “Knowing that these projects, and the hundreds of others who applied, are using arts and culture strategies to make the communities across this country healthier and stronger is inspirational."

 “We believe that these projects, when added to our tremendously strong portfolio of demonstration projects, will inspire, equip and connect members of the arts and culture field, the community planning and development field and those who are working to make healthy and equitable communities creatively across the country,” said ArtPlace America Executive Director Jamie Bennett.

BACKGROUND

ArtPlace’s  National Creative Placemaking Fund is a highly competitive national program, receiving 987 applications this year. Investing money in communities across the country in which artists, arts organizations, and arts and culture activity help drive community development change across 10 sectors of community planning and development: agriculture and food; economic development; education and youth; environment and energy; health; housing; immigration; public safety; transportation; or workforce development.

To date, ArtPlace’s National Creative Placemaking Fund has invested $77 million in 256 creative placemaking projects across 187communities of all sizes, including 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands

ABOUT QUEEN MUHAMMAD ALI

Queen Muhammad Ali is an award winning film director, multimedia artist/activist, public speaker, television and film producer. Before she began directing films, Queen worked as an elementary grade teacher for a private school in Southern California. Her interest in education led her to film-making. She has produced for MGM Television, Showtime, Univision Television, MTV, and VH1. Her work has also been featured in Ebony Magazine, LA Weekly, Huffington Post, KTLA Los Angeles, Washington Post, NY Times, Oprah Winfrey Network, and Yahoo! News.

Queen has traveled the world on various delegations and humanitarian projects and has spoken at several prestigious universities throughout the US. Not only has she been featured in countless national and international media outlets, she is also the recipient of several distinguished awards including a selected speaker at  Doc Fortnight 2017: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film. A founding member of the nationally distributed magazine, Nation19, Queen published the magazine to educate youth on indigenous empowerment, archaeological research, art, anthropological correctness, Hip Hop culture and social change.

Queen’s name is not by accident. Her Great Grandfather is Paramount Chief Tuli Le’iato of American Samoa whose letters to President Kennedy are on display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

ABOUT ARTPLACE AMERICA

ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) is a ten-year collaboration among 16 partner foundations, along with 8 federal agencies and 6 financial institutions, that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities.

ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking, projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development. This brings artists, arts organizations, and artistic activity into the suite of placemaking strategies pioneered by Jane Jacobs and her colleagues, who believed that community development must be locally informed, human- centric, and holistic.