In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the National Endowment for the Arts said earlier this month that it will make a grant award to the Architects Foundation to support a forum on how architects and the American Institute of Architects can influence the regulation of the built environment to improve public health.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu says, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from the Architects Foundation represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”

Architects Foundation Executive Director Sherry-Lea Bloodworth-Botop says, “Networking and sharing information is the key to any successful effort at the local level when it comes to advancing solutions to America’s health crisis. We look forward to being a central hub for this activity.”

The forum, which will be hosted in 2016 by the Architects Foundation in Washington, D.C., will invite AIA members, AIA component leaders, public health experts, and leaders in the field of environmental health to showcase the power of advocacy and community engagement to advance healthy built environment policy. During the event, participants will attend workshops and present implementable solutions to improve their community’s health through changes to public policy.

Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the NEA promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity. The NEA says it will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round.

The American Institute of Architects Foundation, now called the Architects Foundation, is a nonprofit philanthropic extension of AIA, which describes the foundation as “the consummate voice and advocate for architecture and design in America.”  The foundation, it says, is dedicated to the belief that good design is good for all and plays an essential role in transforming lives and building a better world.