Arts Receive Boost in Funds

A total of $25,287 was awarded in Orange County Arts Commission Grassroots Grants this year, said Ann Kaplan, director of the Orange County Arts Commission.

"We were able to give about $6,000 more than usual this year,"she said. "We are hoping and working to get an increase annually, so that we always get an increase in the funds we are able to give out."

A decision made in theGeneral Assembly to make a one-time increase in the N.C. Arts Council budget enabled the Arts Commission to dole out more funds in the form of grants, Kaplan said.

Commissioner Alice Gordon said the grants promoted the integral community component of diversity brought by the arts.

"This is a way to encourage the arts and show that the arts are an important part of the community,"she said. "We want to promote the racial and cultural diversity of the county."

Funding for Grassroots Grants comes directly from the Orange County Arts Commission but originates in the North Carolina Arts Council in Raleigh.

"(The North Carolina Arts Council) distributes a portion of their budget to county organizations, and they decide how to distribute it," Kaplan said.

Nineteen Grassroots Grants were awarded to programs in the visual, performing and literary arts.

County Commissioner Margaret Brown said the board awarded money to a wide range of programs.

"We've always looked for a diversity of programs, from theater to children's education to real individual art creations," she said.

"We look for things that are community-based."

The largest grant was $5,000, granted to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Parent-Teacher Association. Kaplan said the money would be spent on booking performances that would rotate through the schools.

Other programs receiving grants this year include the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community Chorus, the Community Youth Theater and Business Volunteers for the Arts.

Kaplan said programs that received grants were judged on a variety of characteristics including artistic merit, the portion of Orange County served and benefitted by the endeavor and how much of a community art focus was presented.

An 11-member committee at the Orange County Arts Commission selected specific programs to receive the grants, Kaplan said.

There is no limit to the amount of funding an organization can request, but the grants must be matched dollar for dollar by the organization, she said. "We gave over $25,000, but the actual cost for the programs is over $50,000, because every dollar is matched by the organization."

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