ASC disburses $6.6 million in first round of fiscal year 2016 grants

All together now, Mecklenburg arts groups: “Flat is the new up.” “No news is good news.” The 21 annually funded members of the Arts & Science Council will be saying that this morning, as the news goes round: For the first time in five years, their annual operating support grants from the ASC haven’t gone down.

The council has disbursed $6,448, 913 to these groups, which is the bulk of the $6,659,170 it handed out for fiscal year 2015-16 Wednesday in its first round of grants and support. (An additional $4.6 million will be given later, though not as operating support grants.)

A few groups even did a little better than last year. The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art went up about 3 percent to $287,171, in accordance with an agreement struck when it joined the ASC family five years ago. Community School of the Arts got an extra $15,000, because it has absorbed responsibility for Charlotte Children’s Choir. And Matthews Playhouse of the Performing Arts, the only group added to this list for 2015-16, gets a $12,500 grant.

“We think it’s a positive thing that we’re able to hold things steady for the first time since 2010,” says ASC President Robert Bush. “Stability is one of our themes this year.”

Another is the value of neighborhood culture. Mecklenburg County commissioners have given the ASC an extra $300,000 to work with communities that have historically had low levels of participation in ASC-funded programs. The ASC will work as a partner to parks, recreation centers and libraries to find out what neighborhoods want and figure out how to get that culture to them.

“It takes not just the funds ASC raises but public partners at the local and state levels to make these grants a possibility. A public-private partnership is still working in this community,” Bush says.

“We will identify underserved neighborhoods, using ticket sales and contributions and memberships to groups, then identify the kind of programming they would like. We’ll hire groups or independent artists who can provide those services, with some of the first (activities) probably coming this fall.

“That could mean an art exhibition in a library or a community performance in a park or the symphony playing. These people pay for the county’s resources, and the arts belong to them, too.”

Of course, the ASC has already been addressing such needs bit by bit with Town Initiatives Grants, Cultural Festivals Grants and Cultural Project Grants.

Town Initiatives totaling $30,000 will be split evenly among six Mecklenburg County locales outside Charlotte. Cultural Festival grants amount to $39,000 and go to eight local fests. And 27 project grants adding up to $101,257 will support initiatives costing between $1,000 (to Mint Hill Arts, for summer arts and instructional activities) and $5,000 (grants given to Charlotte Folk Society, Cornelius Youth Orchestras and Martha Conerton/Kinetic Works dance troupe).

Bush noted the ASC made decisions independently of the Thrive Fund, which recently gave $3.15 million to eight cultural organizations that also belong to the ASC. Thrive gifts, Bush noted, can be used for short-term or long-term expenses; the ASC’s gifts go to day-to-day operations and were not adjusted based on expectations about Thrive’s generosity.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 2:00 AM with the headline "ASC disburses $6.6 million in first round of fiscal year 2016 grants."