Jay County's Arts Place receives $75,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to collaborate with two other counties

One of Arts Place’s focuses is to expand the reach of the arts in the communities it serves.

It has been awarded funding to help with that mission.

Arts Place was one of 57 organizations nationwide announced Wednesday as a recipient of an Our Town Grant through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in support of its NURTURE Regional Arts Master Plan. The organization, which includes Blackford County Arts Center, will receive $75,000.

“I’m excited,” said Arts Place executive director Carolyn Carducci. “I think it means a lot for our region. We’re looking at not just Arts Place arts, but all the arts together, and how we can collaborate in Auglaize, Jay and Blackford.”

The grant was part of more than $103 million awarded by the NEA through various grant programs during the current grant cycle. Of that total, there were $4.175 million in Our Town grants and $1.03 million to the Indiana Arts Commission “to address priorities identified at the state level.”

The $75,000 grant requires a matching $75,000 from local sources for a total of $150,000 for the initiative. The next step is for Arts Place to get commitments for the matching funds. (Governmental units in all three counties Arts Place serves provided letters of support for the grant application, which was submitted last summer.)

“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects, including Arts Place’s NURTURE Regional Arts Master Plan, demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” said NEA chair Maria Rosario Jackson in a press release. “These organizations play an important role in advancing the creative vitality of our nation and helping to ensure that all people can benefit from arts, culture and design.”

The funding will be used to develop a comprehensive regional arts master plan. Carducci noted that the plan will be for all arts in the region, not just Arts Place.

The process will include bringing in a consultant to lead the process, identifying key individuals and organizations in the communities and seeking public input. There will also be a “cultural asset mapping” process to identify the art the already exists in communities as well as a strategic planning effort to identify what communities would like to add.

The regional master plan will provide a roadmap for achieving those goals with a focus on attracting tourism and expanding the arts.

“I think it’s a unique opportunity,” said Carducci. “This is something that they entire region can use.”

The funding will also go toward the design and construction of portable art studios for Jay, Blackford and Auglaize counties. While the design of those studies is open creativity, the goal is to have a mobile unit that can be used to bring art-related activities anywhere in Arts Place’s service area.

“The idea is that we want to get the arts beyond our buildings,” said Carducci. “And when people see it, they would know that there’s an art activity going on there.”

The only other Our Town Grant awarded to an Indiana organization was $75,000 for Flanner House, an Indianapolis organization that applies “educational, social and economic resources that move members of the community towards stabilization, and self-sufficiency.”