MACON, Ga. – Six cultural groups will help enrich and engage Macon with projects receiving new funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Film buffs, theater lovers and fans of African American art all will benefit from the funding totaling $77,000. The grants are among the first in Knight Foundation’s new national arts program, which focuses on Macon and seven other communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers.
“In Macon, Knight Foundation works to help create a sense of place and belonging through initiatives that promote an informed and engaged Bibb County,” said Beverly Blake, Knight Foundation’s Macon program director. “Nothing engages a community like the arts.”
Knight Foundation is looking for more opportunities to fund innovative arts programs, Blake said.
The first seven awards and projects include:
Macon Film Festival ($20,000): To help the sixth annual festival grow, attract higher quality films and expand community outreach and workshops.
Macon Symphony Orchestra ($15,000): To bring artists out of performance halls and into the streets with a series of “Random Acts of Culture” in everyday places. The Knight Foundation series is producing 1,000 Random Acts of Culture nationwide over the next three years.
Capitol Theatre ($10,000): To provide the opportunity for new and emerging local artists to perform in the Capitol Theatre through reduced facility rental fees.
Macon Arts Alliance ($10,000): To raise the profile of pottery from central Georgia through enhanced marketing for the Fired Works Regional Ceramics Exhibit and Sale, the largest exhibit of functional and sculptural pottery in Georgia.
Tubman African American Museum ($10,000): To expand the reach of the museum’s collection by digitally photographing 100 important works and making them available online. Currently, only 15 percent of the museum’s collection is on display at one time.
Tubman African American Museum ($6,000): To bring spoken word art to a wider audience through events and community workshops run by the group Poetic Peace.
Hayiya Dance Theatre ($6,000): To expand appreciation for African dance by helping the theater enhance programming and community outreach.
Cultural groups seeking funding from Knight Foundation should contact Blake at 478-301-5011, or [email protected].
For more about Knight Foundation’s arts program, visit www.KnightArts.org.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed and engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.