ABC funds help organizations provide the community with new or unfamiliar innovative arts experiences, offer arts programs that affect positive change, strengthen social engagement, enhance identity or economic development, and help artists and arts administrators develop entrepreneurial skills.
The Johnson City Area Arts Council is the local designated agency serving Carter, Greene, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties. Local grant applications were reviewed and evaluated by a volunteer citizen panel. Representatives from applying organizations were invited to attend the panel discussion. Shannon Ford, director of community arts development, represented the Tennessee Arts Commission.
The grant recipients, amounts awarded and projects are as follow:
· Central Ballet Theatre was awarded $2,000 to help fund the production of an original ballet, "Rapunzel: A Tangled Tale" to be performed in January 2015.
· East Tennessee State University Slocumb Galleries was awarded $2,000 to support the exhibition of 16 American Indian/Alaskan Native artists during ETSU's first Native American Festival.
· Science Hill High School Band Boosters received $1,800 to help fund components of its Second Annual Marching Band Invitational.
· Johnson City Public Library was awarded $1,700 in support of a Contra Dance series offered for youth, families, and the public.
· Appalachian RC&D Council was awarded $1,200 to develop and market a mobile Android app as an innovative educational tool enhancing the "Quilt Trail."
· Johnson City Community Theatre was awarded $1,000 to help fund the production of "White Christmas," a musical adaptation of Irving Berlin's White Christmas.
· Tusculum College Doak House Museum was awarded $1,000 to support public workshops and lectures by wildlife artist and naturalist, David Williams in the spring of 2015.
· Johnson City Senior Center Foundation received $860 to help support the Senior Chorale program.
The Slocumb Galleries under the Department of Art & Design at East Tennessee State University was able to hold an exhibition showing Indigenous artworks. Director of the Slocumb Galleries Karlota Contreras-Koterbay said that the ABC grant made the exhibition possible and is very grateful. Contreras-Koterbay stated that this thought-provoking exhibition was a good way to engage the community by bringing people together and making them look at their identity in a different way.
The Johnson City Public Library is offering bi-monthly family contra dances, which is part of the Appalachian Mountains heritage. The library's Youth Services Manager Betty Cobb described the dance as simple and fun where dancers follow what the caller tells them to do while the live band plays the music. Cobb said that the grant "is supporting the dynamics of the dance by building a community made up of young and old alike."
The ABC grant program is funded through the State of Tennessee Specialty License Sales, and administered in cooperation with the Tennessee Arts Commission and Johnson City Area Arts Council, as the region's designated local arts agency. For more information, contact the Johnson City Area Arts Council at 423-928-8229 or visit their web site at www.arts.org.
