Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) made possible through the support of the Walton Family Foundation, announced the 20 artists receiving project and student grant awards for 2019. Among those 20 artists is Department of Music associate professor Lia Uribe.

Lia Uribe will be producing and recording music for bassoon written by contemporary composers representing marginalized minorities from Latin America and the United States. Through this project she hopes to transcend conventional notions of music-making in an environment dominated by a white-male-Eurocentric canon. "Each one of those pieces has a story of interaction and collaboration" says Uribe. "Being an Artists 360 grant recipient reassures my agency and advocacy for music that represents myself and my audiences, with the intent of fostering change, inclusiveness, equity and social justice around me, especially in the NWA community." 

This year the Artists 360 cohort grows to forty, and the program contributes further to the prosperity of the arts community in Northwest Arkansas. The Walton Family Foundation grant to M-AAA, recommended by Steuart Walton and Tom Walton, allows Artists 360 to provide $7,500 to project grantees and $1,500 to student artists as well as professional development services for all awardees. Artists 360 is a three-year pilot program that will serve a total of sixty individual artists from the Northwest Arkansas area by 2021.