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Arts Huntsville celebrates arts community funding in State of the Arts program

Published on January 20, 2023

picture of a group of people standing in a stairwell

Arts Huntsville, with support from the Pei Ling Charitable Trust, celebrated the arts by honoring the Huntsville Arts & Cultural Grant program recipients. Now in its 11th  year, the 2023 Arts & Cultural Grant program presented grants to 21 regional arts organizations to support their community programming.

The City of Huntsville awarded $280,000 in pass-through grant funding as part of the City’s FY23 budget, and eligible Huntsville-based nonprofit arts organizations completed detailed grant applications in fall 2022. A citizen-grant panel with experience in varied artistic disciplines and representative of each of Huntsville’s five City Council districts reviewed the applications. The FY23 Arts & Cultural grant panel included: Wesley Ortiz, District 1; Cathy Callaway, District 2; Tasha Wiley, District 3; Amy Bailey, District 4; and Victoria Jones, District 5. The panel convened in meetings in November and December 2022 to assess the grants and allocate the available City grant funds to eligible applicants.

“It is vital – and just plain smart for us to grow our investment in the arts if we are going to be able to attract people from anywhere in the world to Huntsville,” said Mayor Tommy Battle. “The arts help us create a welcoming sense of place.’ 

For Arts Huntsville executive director Allison Dillon-Jauken, every thriving city has a dynamic creative arts community. “This year, as Huntsville celebrates its number one ranking as the best place to live in the US, we’re proud to honor our vibrant arts community that contributes so much to our quality of life,” she said.  “From dance to theatre, music and visual arts, these grant-funded programs serve more than 180,000 area residents and visitors with vital arts experiences and educational opportunities that enrich our community every day.”

This year, the following 21 local nonprofit arts organizations received grant awards:

  • Project Alabama Youth Ballet Theatre, Inc. $11,757 AYBT’s 17th program year of performances, dance education, and education-based outreach
  • Ars Nova, Inc. $18,510 Ars Nova’s 2022-23 Season: A Study in Contrasts
  • Brass Band of Huntsville $14,252 Brass Band of Huntsville’s Youth Brass Academy
  • Broadway Theatre League of Huntsville $17,638 BTL’s Student Outreach Program presenting professional touring family shows
  • Dance All Productions, Inc., $16,548 Girls Like Us Youth Enrichment Program and Creative Natives Young Choreographers Project
  • Fantasy Playhouse Children’s Theater $19,600 Performances and Educational Activities for Fantasy Playhouse’s 62nd Season
  • Huntsville Chamber Music Guild (HCMG) $12,248 HCMG’s 2022-23 Season of 8 concerts by artists from Russia, Asia, Ukraine, Korea, and the US
  • Huntsville Community Chorus Association $13,510 Expansion of HCCA Administrative Staff and Treble/Chorale Music Library
  • Huntsville Community Drumline $15,567 Funding to Provide Free Percussion Lessons to the Community
  • Huntsville Literary Association $1,262 Huntsville Literary Association’s 55th Annual Young Writers Contest
  • Huntsville Master Chorale $12,861 Huntsville Master Chorale’s 2023 Season & Community Choral Festival II
  • Huntsville Traditional Music Association $2,475 Support for the Association’s 2023 Programming
  • Huntsville Youth Orchestra $13,496 Support for HYO’s Music of the Americas Project
  • Independent Musical Productions, Inc. $16,657 Support for IMP’s 2022 – 2023 Season and 30th year Celebration
  • Inside Out Studio Inc. $16,112 Funding for Inside Out’s Studio Manager Position
  • Maitland Arts Initiative $12,166 2023 Urban Orchestra Feeder Strings Program Support
  • Merrimack Hall Performing Arts Center $14,259 Support for the Happy HeARTS Program
  • Opera Huntsville $19,600 Support for Opera Huntsville’s 2023 Season
  • Southern Fried Film Festival $7,675 Support for 2023 Southern Fried Film Festival
  • Tennessee Valley Jazz Society $7,477 Support for TVJS “Music of the Civil Rights Movement” Project
  • Theatre Huntsville $16,330 Theatre Huntsville 2022-2023 Season Support

The Huntsville Arts & Cultural Grant Program was launched in 2013 by Mayor Battle. The program is designed to nurture artistic excellence, encourage public access to arts and cultural programming, expand arts education opportunities, and develop the organizational capacity of Huntsville’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. In 2013 the initial award for this program was $100,000 in city-funded grants for numerous area arts organizations. This year, the fund’s award amount increased to $280,000 from $250,000 in 2022.

For more information about Arts Huntsville, visit artshuntsville.org.

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