Home » ArtPlace America grants awarded to two organizations

ArtPlace America grants awarded to two organizations

$730,000 in grants awarded

FRANKFORT, Ky. (July 31, 2015) — ArtPlace America has awarded grants totaling $730,000 to two Kentucky arts organizations. Letcher County’s Appalshop received $450,000 and Roots & Wings in Jefferson County received $280,000. They were among 38 recipients across the nation to receive funding from ArtPlace America.

ArtPlace America is a collaboration of foundations, banks and federal agencies that exists to position art and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical and economic fabric of communities.

artsAppalshop will use its investment to increase arts, media and technology training opportunities for Appalachian youth, strengthen longstanding cultural institutions in Letcher County and contribute to diversifying the county’s economy by helping develop tourism opportunities celebrating place-based traditions. The group will also create conditions that can support entrepreneurs building creative businesses in Letcher County.

Roots & Wings will use its funding to link Appalachian, West African and urban arts in Louisville’s “Zones of Hope,” culminating in a theater production that will exhibit local cultural assets and heritage and engage young people as advocates for equitable development in those neighborhoods.

“It is significant that two grassroots, artist-led efforts in historically disinvested Kentucky communities – west Louisville and Appalachia – are collectively bringing $730,000 in new, national investment into our state’s creative economy this year,” Appalshop and Roots & Wings wrote in a joint statement. “For two Kentucky projects to be chosen among ArtPlace America’s 38 grantees for 2015 is an indication of the growing influence of the voice of Kentucky-based artists within the national creative placemaking conversation. We look forward to supporting each other in these transformational projects over the next 18 months.”

The 38 ArtPlace America grantees were selected from nearly 1,300 applicants across 48 states and the District of Columbia. Grant amounts ranged from $50,000 to $500,000, with an average of $265,000.

“Each one of these grants supports a geographic community: a collection of people who live, work and play within a defined circle on a map,” said F. Javier Torres, ArtPlace America director of national grantmaking. “In each case, a community development challenge or opportunity was identified by local stakeholders, and these 38 grantees are serving as conduits for their communities’ desires by leading arts-based solutions through their projects.”