Staff report

Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) announced Thursday that the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts will receive $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts’ (NEA) Challenge America grant program.

&uot;This is wonderful news for the City of Suffolk, and for the entire Fourth District of Virginia,&uot; Forbes said. &uot;This funding will help restore a key landmark in the City of Suffolk’s history.&uot;

The grant will be used to support the development of a landscape design around the Suffolk High School, which is being renovated as a multidisciplinary arts and community center. The new center – now the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts – will house a theater, galleries, restaurant, a school museum, technology labs, and various visual arts studios, rehearsal and workshop spaces, he said.

&uot;The Center for Cultural Arts will provide a much-needed cultural element for the residents of Suffolk.

It will be used for special events and banquets, educational and cultural activities and community meetings,&uot; Forbes commented.

&uot;Congressman Forbes has stepped up to the plate to make wonderful things happen for Suffolk,&uot; said Betsy Brothers, president of the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts Foundation. This funding is one more step to ensure the success of the renovation of old Suffolk High School into a Center for Cultural Arts.&uot;