PORT TOWNSEND — Centrum has received two major grants, adding up to $205,000 to support arts activities at Fort Worden.

The arts organization has recently received a $180,000 grant from the C. Keith Birkenfield Memorial Trust and a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The latter grant was announced this week.

It will provide support for the Centrum Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, a Fourth of July tradition at Fort Worden and the Acoustic Blues Festival, held July 31 to Aug. 7 this year.

The trust grant has paid for a fleet of five vans to provide transportation for guests, performers and attendees at the 43-year-old organization, said Karen Clemens, Centrum director of development.

The vans were purchased from Wilder Auto in Port Angeles this week, she said.

Each was decorated with a graphic wrap featuring five of the major activities that Centrum sponsors.

The vans will transport visitors from the Port Townsend ferry terminal to Fort Worden events and to pick up national and international visitors and guests at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

They also will be available for low rental rates to other nonprofit organizations in Jefferson County, Clemens added.

NEA grant

Centrum applied for the NEA grant in the category of folk and traditional art last August, Clemens said.

“It feels like it was made for us,” she said.

Robert Birman, executive director of Centrum, said the organization’s primary goal is to pass tradition and culture from one generation to the next by bringing together folk and traditional artists and musicians from around the nation and the world with students who want to learn those arts.

“We bring these tradition bearers to share their craft and knowledge for all,” Birman said.

Students who come to learn from the masters in their traditional arts not only take classes but also live and eat with instructors during their stays in the historic Fort Worden buildings, he said.

Birman noted that this year, the events run almost nonstop, with camps, clinics and festivals from April through October, and public concerts every Friday at noon.

Free concerts will begin July 1 with the Voice Works showcase.

In addition to performing arts festivals, Centrum also hosts artists and writers-in-residence, who stay in cabins at Fort Worden to be able to work on their own projects in peace and quiet, with a community of artists to support them.

Immigrant children camp

This year, Centrum will introduce a camp for immigrant children June 19-25.

Participants will be selected from across the state by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

At the camp, children will be exposed to theater, spoken word, poetry, dance, visual arts and music, Birman said.

“Many of these children have moved around often and have never been exposed to the arts,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer — who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula — said the NEA grant announcement followed his trip with NEA Chairwoman Jane Chu in February to visit art organizations in Tacoma, Bainbridge Island and Port Townsend.

“The arts play a transformative role in our communities,” Kilmer said in an announcement of the grant Wednesday.

For information about Centrum’s activities, festivals, ticket prices and schedules of performances, see the website at www.centrum.org.

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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.