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Dispatches from the Moth · Posted On: Feb 15, 2012

The Moth Receives MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions

by Joan D. Firestone, Executive Director

Dear Moth family,

We are thrilled to announce that The Moth is the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions (also known as the MACEI Award).  On behalf of our Founder, Board and Staff, we would like to express our gratitude to The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for this great honor.

The award will be used in part to preserve The Moth’s 15-year video and audio archive, protecting for history voices of such storytellers as Wanda Bullard, whose stories on her porch in Georgia inspired founder George Dawes Green to launch The Moth in New York; Zoologist and Wildlfe Conservationist Alan Rabinowitz; distinguished author, Salman Rushdie; cultural leader, Al Sharpton; civic hero, Steve Osborne and hundreds of others. Thanks to the MACEI Award, these and many more will be restored and made accessible to our listeners via The Moth Radio Hour and podcast.

The award will also be used to create a cash reserve for the organization, and to more than double production of episodes of The Moth Radio Hour in 2012, allowing the radio show to air weekly beginning January 2013. The MacArthur Foundation’s early support of The Moth Radio Hour contributed to its meteoric growth. Thanks to Producer Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media, and the invaluable resources of The Public Radio Exchange (PRX), The Moth Radio Hour is now programmed on more than 250 public radio stations across the country and won a 2011 Peabody Award.

The Moth would especially like to thank our MacArthur Foundation Program Director, Elspeth Revere, Vice President for Media, Culture and Special Initiatives, for her guidance and encouragement.

Most sincerely,

Anne Maffei,  Board Chair

Joan D. Firestone, Executive Director

Catherine Burns, Artistic Director

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