Miami's The Little Haiti Cultural Center (LHCC) adds one more award to its lists of accolades – the 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) "Our Town" grant.

The 2012 NEA "Our Town" program provides grant awards close to $5 million to just 80 top community programs across the country which provide "innovative arts programming."

The City of Miami and the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance have confirmed that the grant will be used to support the popular "Big Night in Little Haiti" monthly concert series, as well as free arts performances and exhibitions featuring local artists, and youth and family dance programming for the community. Portions of the grants will also go towards the development of a new nine-month pilot program to establish a Haitian artisan craft studio.

With the additional funds, the LHCC hopes to provide increased opportunities for cultural exchange and dialogue about Afro-Caribbean arts and crafts among participants, artists, and visitors to Miami.

"There were 317 applications for Our Town Grants and only 80 grants were awarded. The fact that Miami is one of the recipients indicates the dedication, artistic excellence and merit of our project," said City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado.