About the NEA Arts Journalism Institute
The NEA Arts Journalism Institute for Theater and Musical Theater is a competitively selected Fellowship Program seeking the nation's arts writers, critics, editors, broadcast and online producers, who have been making theater coverage part of their regular journalism work for the past two years. The Theater and Musical Theater Institute at USC Annenberg School for Communication is one of three NEA Arts Journalism Institutes, along with the Institute for Music and Opera at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York and the Institute for Dance Criticism at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina. Funded by a multimillion-dollar NEA initiative, the institutes offer intensive training for arts reporters and their editors, especially those who live and work outside the major cultural centers of Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago. Our goal is to encourage arts journalists to be media leaders. We want to give these journalists the tools to be able to apply their newfound understanding of theater to their jobs as a whole.
Open to 23-25 journalists, this 11-day intensive workshop in Los Angeles includes writing workshops, history lectures, acting and directing classes, observation of rehearsals, encounters with theater professionals, and performances of plays and musicals.
A recent exciting outcome from our past Fellowships is a web community created for theater critics across America. Fellows Joe Nickell, John Stoehr, Bridgette Redman and Jennifer Smith from the 
2007 Fellowship were inspired by their experience during the program and launched a blog to discuss issues facing the nation’s theater critics and artists outside the major cities. Founder and editor of Arts Journal, Douglas McLennan, who led the NEA’s digital media training sessions, invited these fellows to host on his heavily trafficked site, artsjournal.com. Thus, “Flyover: Arts from the American Outback” was born and the Institute gained a significant base in the blogosphere where hundreds of theater writers and supporters now regularly congregate.
“As arts coverage continues to shrink on paper and expand online, USC Annenberg School for Communication has retooled its already exemplary program to help media professionals keep pace with current changes in their field,” said NEA acting chairman Patrice Walker Powell. “No matter what their medium, these arts journalists will return home ready to craft quality arts critical commentaries, reports and reviews for their communities.”
About the USC Annenberg School for Communication
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the USC Annenberg School for Communication is among the nation's leading institutions devoted to the study of arts journalism and criticism. It offers an innovative, nine-month graduate degree program focusing on arts journalism in partnership with USC's five arts schools (click here to learn more). Its midcareer education programs include the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program, the Knight Digital Media Center, the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, and the Institute for Justice and Journalism (click here to learn more). In addition to its programs for working journalists, USC Annenberg enrolls more than 1,900 students earning undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in journalism, communication, public diplomacy and public relations.
About the NEA
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts — both new and established — bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more information, please visit their www.arts.gov.
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