Foundation for Roanoke Valley Awards Major Grant from its Arts and Culture Initiative

Foundation for Roanoke Valley announced today it has awarded a $40,000 grant to the City of Roanoke under the Foundation's three-year, $300,000 Arts & Culture Initiative.  The grant will provide major underwriting for the City's "Parks and Arts" program for 2014.  This program, offering free arts events in underserved neighborhoods parks, provides venues for varied artists, musicians, dancers and arts organizations to showcase their talents while engaging the surrounding residents in the arts and promoting local neighborhoods' many cultural and historic resources.  National studies show that to build and diversify audiences the arts need to go where people live and congregate, and the City and the Foundation together are making that happen.

“Parks and Arts is a collaborative program designed to take the arts into the city's neighborhoods giving citizens up- close experiences in their own environment,” says Susan Jennings, Arts and Culture Coordinator for the City of Roanoke. “The grant from Foundation for Roanoke Valley will allow the Roanoke Arts Commission to build on the first year's success in strengthening our neighborhoods, rejuvenating our parks and developing new audiences for our artists and arts organizations."  

The Foundation's Arts & Culture Initiative, funded through its unrestricted Community Catalyst Funds, has two distinct focus areas.  "Arts at Work," through which this current grant is awarded, provides one major grant annually to a carefully selected Roanoke Valley arts and cultural project that has an important and identifiable economic development component, strongly contributes to the overall vibrancy of the community, and which otherwise might not be possible.  The production of public arts, the production of community-wide arts and cultural events and performances and bringing major arts and cultural exhibits to the Valley will be funded under this portion of its initiative.  "Educate. Inspire. Create." is designed to significantly enrich the arts and cultural experiences of preK-12 students of public and private schools within the Cities of Roanoke and Salem and the counties of Botetourt, Craig, Fanklin, and Roanoke.  It will award its next round of multiple grants in the Spring of 2014 with applications being online.  

Foundation for Roanoke Valley, the community foundation serving this region, has worked for 25 years to administer and make grants from hundreds of named endowment funds to benefit the community.  For information, visit Foundation for Roanoke Valley's website at www.foundationforroanokevalley.org or call 985-0204. 

 
The Roanoke Arts Commission pictured L to R: Sue Egbert, Scott Crawford, Margaret Hannapel, Lucy Lee, Greg Webster, Amy Moorefield, Tom McKeon, Susan Jennings, Rupert Cutler, Carly Oliver (FRV Associate Director), Michelle Eberly (FRV Program Officer), Charlene Graves, and Cari Gates.