FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Mollie LaFavers
mlafavers@fundforthearts.org
859.324.0181
LOUISVILLE, KY (October 20, 2020) – Fund for the Arts (FFTA) announced recipients of two essential grants, the Sustaining Impact Grants and the Cultural Lou Recovery Grants. A total investment of $2.75 million was made to a total of 33 local arts and cultural institutions. These grants were made in addition to recently announced grants to Black artists, Black-owned restaurants, and COVID relief grants to individual artists and organizations over the past six months.
Christen Boone, President and CEO of Fund for the Arts said, “The arts have an incredibly unique and powerful role in healing and rebuilding our community as we create a stronger future in the face of the pandemic and systemic racism. The arts and cultural community are challenging, educating and leading us to greater racial equity and our institutions will be a critical piece in rebuilding our social wellbeing and our economy.”
Amid challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial justice movement, Greater Louisville’s arts and culture organizations have been amazingly resilient. Despite industry-wide cancellations, budgets that are 10-50% smaller, and extensive furloughs, the arts continue to innovate and impact our community. When peers across the country started going dark, our local arts organizations doubled down on their commitment to our community. Our arts organizations immediately shifted to parking lot performances, porch concerts, online seasons, and digital programming for NTI students. Artists and organizations have been on the front lines of the racial justice movement, helping to promote conversation, action and healing.
Dave Christopher, Executive Director and Founder of AMPED, a Sustaining Impact Grant recipient said, “The Fund for the Arts Sustaining Impact Grant is one of the most powerful and impactful grants that AMPED has received because it’s so much more than money! It’s technical support, knowledge building, capacity building tools, and most importantly moral support. Simply put, FFTA cares about our organization and its success.”
Sustaining Impact Grants provide mission-based foundational operating support to Greater Louisville arts organizations whose programming supports the priorities of Imagine Greater Louisville 2020 – access, cultivation, education, promotion, and equity, diversity, and inclusion – to ensure the organization’s ongoing capacity to drive impact. This year, the review process focused its attention on how recipient organizations are addressing racial inequity within their own organizations and across the community, how they are helping individuals to heal and connect in the face of social distancing, and how they are ensuring their own sustainability so that they can help our economy rebound as well.
Cultural Lou Recovery Grants were made possible this year by the Cultural Lou Recovery Campaign to non-Sustaining Impact Grant recipients. The purpose is to provide mission-based foundational operating support to Greater Louisville arts and culture organizations to support recovery from the impact of COVID-19 and to rebuild a thriving, vibrant, inclusive, and equitable community for all.
Eileen Yanoviak, Director of the Carnegie Center for Art and History, a Cultural Lou Recovery Grant recipient said, “The Cultural Lou Recovery Grant is the critical funding we needed to confirm plans for our next exhibition season, which includes an ambitious exhibition of women artists working in artificial intelligence. This groundbreaking show will bring internationally-recognized, cutting-edge artists to Southern Indiana and Greater Louisville, broadening our understanding of art and technology.”
This year, Fund for the Arts has shifted applications for the FY2021 Sustaining Impact Grants and the Cultural Lou Recovery Grants so that the score weighting reflects an increased emphasis on the applicants’ plans to heal and rebuild in light of the pandemic and the racial injustice movement.
Congratulations to the following Sustaining Impact Grant recipients:
Actors Theatre of Louisville
AMPED (Academy of Music Production Education and Development)
Arts Association of Oldham County
Bunbury Repertory Theatre Company
Commonwealth Theatre Center, Inc.
Kentucky Opera Association
Kentucky Shakespeare, Inc.
KMAC Museum
Looking for Lilith Theatre Company
Louisville Ballet
Louisville Chorus
Louisville Story Program Inc.
Louisville Visual Art / LVA
Louisville Youth Choir
Louisville Youth Orchestra
Pandora Productions
River City Drum Corp Cultural Arts Institute Inc. LLC
Speed Art Museum
Squallis Puppeteers
StageOne Family Theatre
The Lou Tate Foundation Inc DBA The Little Loomhouse
The Louisville Orchestra, Inc.
West Louisville Performing Arts Academy
Congratulations to the following Cultural Lou Recovery Grant Recipients:
Carnegie Center for Art and History
CirqueLouis
Conrad-Caldwell House (St. James Historic Foundation)
Historic Locust Grove
Jewish Community Center
Kentucky Performing Arts
Louisville Academy of Music
Sarabande Books
The Filson Historical Society
Young Authors Greenhouse
About Fund for the Arts
Fund for the Arts is a regional nonprofit with the mission to maximize the impact of the arts on economic development, education, and quality of life in our community. The Fund is a convener, promoter, leader, and driver of Imagine Greater Louisville 2020, the region’s arts and cultural plan. It facilitates the largest arts grant program in Kentucky as well as conducts one of the oldest united arts campaigns in the country. For more information, visit www.fundforthearts.org
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