Arts Council
Kentucky Arts Council Supports Local Arts Projects through Arts Build Communities Grants
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Arts Build Communities grants of up to $5,000 each have been awarded in 10 counties to encourage new opportunities and partnerships between artists and community organizations for cultural, social, educational and/or economic development through the arts.
"This matching grant program motivates businesses, organizations, agencies and artists to partner together in their community to create opportunities for arts participation and enjoyment," says Lori Meadows, executive director of the Kentucky Arts Council. "Many of the projects involve hands-on arts experiences for youth that might not be possible without this seed money."
For more information about the Arts Build Communities grant program, contact Program Branch Manager Chris Cathers at (502) 564-3757 ext. 488 or christopher.cathers@ky.gov. The next application deadline is February 1, 2010.
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, creates opportunities for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Grant recipients and project descriptions are listed below by county.
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Daviess
International Bluegrass Music Museum
Contact: Gabrielle Gray, Executive Director
Phone: (270) 926-7891
E-Mail: gabrielle@bluegrassmuseum.org
Partnership Project: Bill Monroe Centennial Exhibit $5,000
The International Bluegrass Music Museum will be the epicenter of a two-year worldwide celebration of the birth of Bill Monroe in 1911, widely heralded as the father of bluegrass music. The exhibit will call on visual artists from the region to create paintings based on Bill Monroe songs. The artwork will be accompanied by song lyrics of each song and old recordings of Bill Monroe playing these songs will reverberate through the exhibit hall. DVDs of the exhibit will also be recorded and made available to bluegrass festivals and events worldwide.
Estill
Estill Arts Council
Contact: Francine Bonny, Folklife Community Scholar
Phone: (606) 723-5694
E-Mail: thb@irvineonline.net
Partnership Project: Preserving Our Appalachian Heritage $5,000
The Estill Arts Council and artist, Octavia Sexton, will partner to develop, implement and evaluate a community literary art and drama project called Preserving Our Appalachian Heritage. Students, parents and community members will work together at West Irvine Elementary School in writing, scripting, and dramatizing Appalachian Jack Tales, culminating in performances at the Estill County Reading Celebration in May 2010. Parents and grandparents will be encouraged to share family stories with students during the project. Students and their families will write and compile these stories into a Community Heritage Book to be published in May 2010, in time for the Reading Celebration.
Fayette (Statewide Impact)
Kentucky Women Writers Conference, Inc.
Contact: Julie Wrinn, Director
Phone: (859) 257-2874
E-Mail: julie.wrinn@uky.edu
Partnership Project: Kentucky Women Writers Conference Documentary Film $5,000
A documentary film about the thirty-year history of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference will be produced to depict the celebration of cultural identity through art as an impetus for social change and unity among diverse communities. Three decades' worth of historical material, consisting of videotape, audiotape, CDs, DVDs, posters, photographs, correspondence, and planning have recently been archived by Vaughan Fielder at the University of Kentucky. Filmmaker, Sarah Wylie Ammerman, will draw upon this archive and also conduct new interviews to honor this unique cultural tradition, and help ensure a thriving future for women's arts and letters in Kentucky.
Franklin (Statewide Impact)
Kentucky Storytelling Association, Inc.
Contact: Betsy Fleischer, Program Chair, Kentucky Storytelling Association
Phone: (859) 734-3194
E-Mail: info@kystory.org
Partnership Project: Kentucky Storytelling Conference $5,000
The Kentucky Storytelling Association will collaborate with artist, Cynthia Changaris, Knowledge Center on Deafness, Richmond Area Arts Council, Madison County Public Library, Berea Early Childhood Regional Training Center, and McCready Manor to produce the 6th Kentucky Storytelling Conference, which will be held at Eastern Kentucky University this November. Conference features include workshops on storytelling for early childhood audiences and seniors, storytelling performances by deaf and hearing storytellers, open-mike sessions and a story-slam contest for young storytellers.
Jefferson
Juneteenth Legacy Theatre
Contact: Kristi Papailler, Co-Founding Producer
Phone: (502) 896-9829
E-Mail: juneteenthlegacy@aol.com
Partnership Project: Drama Change Exchange Camp $2,875
Juneteenth Legacy Theatre will partner with artist, Robert Greene, and Sacred Heart School for the Arts to provide teaching and documentation for the Drama Change Exchange Camp, a two-week day camp for middle school students interested in using theatre to create positive social change. The camp uses Theatre of the Oppressed techniques and viewpoints and personal discoveries that the teaching artists have made to enhance the self-expression experience. The program centers around creating an ensemble that presents new works to the community about social justice issues they have identified. The subject matter and theatrical demonstration come strictly from the student's imagination or experience. The artists provide the template for the work to be effective in bringing about social change and self-confidence. The creative process of each new work created during the camp will be recorded.
Center For Neighborhoods
Contact: Hallie Jones, Director of Marketing & Communications
Phone: (502) 589-0343
E-Mail: halliej@centerforneighborhoods.org
Partnership Project: Community Building Public Art Project $5,000
Center For Neighborhoods will partner with fiber artist Pat Sturtzel to conduct a community-building public art project with the youth and their mothers residing at Parkway Place, a public housing development in Louisville. Responding to the residents' primary concerns and visions for improving their community, this project seeks to provide increased activities to engage the youth and bridge the cultural divide between the long-time residents of the community and the African (Somali-Bantu) immigrants. This youth-focused summer project is to execute a new public artwork on a chain linked fence fronting the housing development. Prior to the project, a design for the artwork on the fence will be collaboratively designed by American and Somali women during a series of workshops sponsored by the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. The designers will then supervise the youth working on the project while building community and understanding between the families of different cultures.
Louisville Visual Art Assciation
Contact: Ashley Cecil, Program Manager
Phone: (502) 896-2146
E-Mail: ashley@louisvillevisualart.org
Partnership Project: Open Doors $3,000
The Louisville Visual Art Association will expand the Open Doors program in partnership with GuardiaCare and art therapist Laura Malbasa. Selected students from the organization's Children's Free Art Classes with an interest in art therapy will be trained to assist in expressive therapy sessions with seniors with cognitive, medical, and/or developmental challenges at GuardiaCare's Adult Day Health Center. There will be three separate eight-week projects, engaging new students for each project.
Phoenix Hill Neighborhood Association
Contact: Cindy Brown Kinloch, Executive Director
Phone: (502) 583-7133
E-Mail: phoenixhillartassociation@juno.com
Partnership Project: Public Art Project $5,000
The Phoenix Hill Neighborhood Association in partnership with local curator and artist, Aron Conaway, will develop several neighborhood-based art and cultural collaborative initiatives to increase the neighborhood's visibility and strengthen connections between the East Market Street Art Gallery district and the various pocket communities within Phoenix Hill neighborhood. The communities within the neighborhood are home to small businesses, medical complexes, industry, subsidized housing, homeless shelters, churches and social service agencies. The project will commission 12 artists represented in the gallery district to create public art pieces for parts of the neighborhood outside of the gallery district as identified by the desires of the community. There will also be a community celebration to display the artworks incorporating hands-on arts activities for the community.
Squallis Puppeteers
Contact: Jessica Myers, Co-Executive Director
Phone: (502) 636-1974
E-Mail: squallispuppeteers@yahoo.com
Partnership Project: Comics to Puppets $4,145
Squallis Puppeteers will partner with artist, Ted Nathanson, in creating the Comics to Puppets program which will develop new puppet performances based on comic books created by a teens at Louisville libraries. Comics to Puppets connects the arts to literacy and addresses the need for additional quality children's programming for the libraries.
Kenton
Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington
Contact: Jean St. John, Director of Community Arts
Phone: (859) 491-2220
E-Mail: jean@greatneighborhoods.org
Partnership Project: Art by Covington's Future $5,000
The Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington will work in partnership with Carnegie Visual and Performing Art Center, Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center, Artisans Enterprise Center and artists to expand Art by Covington's Future, an arts micro-enterprise program for youth 12-18 years old. The aim of the program, now in its third year, is to develop artistic competence, while promoting entrepreneurial and leadership skills, productive workplace behavior and positive future and career orientation. The Carnegie will provide a new digital photography studio with photographer, Matt Steffen, and Baker Hunt will provide a mosaic studio with visual artists, Jackie Slone and Rosemary Topie. The collaboration also includes the Artisans Enterprise Center with artist, Christian Schmit, at the screen printing studio and Ann Schoenenberger teaching computer design skills.
Knox
Knox Arts, Crafts, and Humanities Council, Inc.
Contact: Ruth Cross, President
Phone: (606) 546-7766
E-Mail: ruthcross4099@hotmail.com
Partnership Project: Kids College Art Camp $2,500
The Knox Arts, Crafts, and Humanities Council partners with Union College and Barbourville Junior Woman's Study Club to host Kids College Art Camp, serving up to 80 students ages 5-14, 50% of whom will be given scholarships. Artists teach classes in the arts daily and this year's camp is focused on the theme of quilts including painting a quilt block for the Clothesline of Quilts Trail in Knox County, learning to make yo-yo quilts, exploring the art of tandem storytelling pulling from family stories involving quilts and designing their own t-shirts and tote bags.
Laurel
Union College
Contact: Mona Powell, Coordinator of Programs
Phone: (606) 546-1683
E-Mail: mpowell@unionky.edu
Partnership Project: Arts Heal $5,000
Union College London Center will continue the program in partnership with the Laurel County and Knox County Drug Courts called Arts Heal. Convicted non-violent drug offenders can explore their past experiences and negative choices that have combined to lead them into their current situation within the court system. The participants are then encouraged by the artists and program leaders to use the arts to move through the emotional entanglements to a socially acceptable method of expression and communication. This also empowers the participants to serve as mentors to other members of the Drug Court system in helping them choose better alternatives to deal with the pain of addiction. This year Union College will add Knox County and Rockcastle County Drug Courts as new partners.
McCracken
Yeiser Art Center
Contact: Teri Moore, Executive Director
Phone: (270) 442-2453
E-Mail: info@theyeiser.org
Partnership Project: Youth Arts Workshops $5,000
The Yeiser Arts Center will partner with artists and community centers of the Housing Authority of Paducah to provide free workshops to children age 4-14 in a variety arts disciplines and promote community awareness of the importance of arts education. Monthly workshops will be offered in the gallery room at the Yeiser Art Center, and others will be offered on site at the community centers. The program will tie in literary references where possible and involving learning by demonstration and hands-on art making.
Monroe
Monroe County Economic Development Board, Inc.
Contact: Kathy Grace, Facilitator
Phone: (270) 487-6181
Partnership Project: Monroe Youth Theatre Program $5,000
The Monroe Youth Theatre Program will consist of four free theatre workshops for students ages 5-21, which will culminate in public presentations. The first, for children grades K-2, will be a two-week Creative Dramatics workshop with a process-centered approach, culminating in a showcase. The second workshop, will be three weeks long, designed for grades 3-5, it will culminate in a performance of one-act plays. The third eight-week workshop, for 9th grade through age 21, will begin with a workshop in theatre basics and will result in the formation of a student production company, which will then present a full-length royalty play for grades 5-12 and the public. This company will produce every aspect of the performances, resulting in a student-created production.
The fourth eight-week workshop is a new initiative. This will be the first time Monroe Youth Theatre will involve grades 6-8 as active participants as actors and crew members, thus providing all school-aged children in Monroe County the opportunity to participate in live theatre. Students from grades 9-12 will act as production managers for a children's play to be presented to grades K-8, and the public.
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