The Greater Augusta Arts Council has received $250,000 as part of an American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help arts organizations and individual artists who’ve been negatively affected by the pandemic.
“This is a federal grant, so we need to make sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed,” said Brenda Durant, the council’s executive director, Tuesday.
The organization will regrant $150,000 to non-profit arts agencies in Richmond, Columbia and Aiken counties for general administration. Another $50,000 will be regranted to individual artists to create projects in 13 counties in Georgia and South Carolina: Richmond, Columbia, Aiken, Burke, Glascock, Jefferson, Lincoln, McDuffie, Taliaferro, Warren, Wilkes Edgefield and McCormick, according to a news release.
“The focus will be projects that help extend the arts into our rural areas,” the release said. “The Greater Augusta Arts Council will use $50,000 of the grant funds to manage the federal grant, hire a project manager to ensure compliance with federal guidelines and ensure a deep reach into all the counties listed in the grant. Arts organization grant applications will be reviewed by an impartial review panel similar to the city arts grants,” the news release said.
[adrotate banner=”55″]
Durant said one of the first orders of business will be finding the project manager to ensure the federal funds are handled appropriately.
The arts council is the only local arts agency in the state of Georgia to receive funding. Other Georgia-based arts agencies have received funds through previous rounds of funding, she said.
Earlier in the pandemic, the Greater Augusta Arts Council regranted funds to artists through gig grants. These grants were available for performing and visual artists whose gigs were canceled due to pandemic restrictions, Durant said.
About $75,000 was distributed in two separate rounds of funding. Artists had to apply, and an arts consortium went through the applications, she said. Money came through funds raised by the Community Foundation and the United Way of the CSRA.
The latest round of funding will go to recipients to “help save jobs, fund operations and facilities, health and safety supplies and marketing and promotional efforts to encourage attendance and participation,” the news release said. “In total, the NEA awarded grants totaling $20,200,000 to 66 local arts agencies nationwide for subgranting. In this round of awards.”
The individual artists’ grants will be reviewed by the same consortium, who administered the Covid-19 Artist Gig-Grants.
The news release said the arts council expects the applications to open in February 2022 with fund distribution by June 2022.
“We want to get it out as quickly as possible,” she said.
For more information about the part-time staff position, contact Pax Bobrow at (706) 826-4702.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
