The Friends of Dreamland Receive $498,000 From the National Parks Service’s 2020 African American Civil Rights Grant Program

LITTLE ROCK – On Tuesday July 27, 2021, the U.S. Department of Interior and the National Park Service (NPS) announced $15, 035,000.00 to 53 projects in 20 states to help preserve sites and history related to the African American struggle for equality. The Friends of Dreamland (FOD), the 501©3 nonprofit dedicated to the restoration and rehabilitation of the Dreamland Ballroom on W. 9th St in downtown Little Rock, was one of these 53 recipients.

This is the third award that FOD has been granted from the African American Civil Rights Grant Program (AACR). The first two grants totaled approximately one million dollars to make the third-floor ballroom compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Work on those projects is scheduled to be complete in the spring of 2022, opening the Dreamland Ballroom as a fully accessible, public event space for the first time in over 50 years.

Where the first two grant awards indirectly contributed to the preservation effort of the Dreamland Ballroom, this most recent financial opportunity will allow for a more direct approach in the ballroom’s restoration. With this round of funding, FOD will focus on restoring the historic function and many of the character-defining features of the Dreamland Ballroom. This primarily refers to front-of-house and stage refurbishment as well as setting historically appropriate light fixtures, restoration and/or replacement of historic hammered-tin ceiling tiles, and a few other, smaller projects.

Read the FULL ANNOUCEMENT from the National Parks Service. The AACR grants are part of the Historic Preservation Fund.