Seven Elgin groups to receive arts commission grants
Seven local organizations will receive grants from the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission after preliminary approval last week by the Elgin City Council.
The $32,403 in grant money will be disbursed for projects, such as visual art, live entertainment shows and children's theater performances.
The commission annually awards up to $50,000 in organizational grants to local arts organizations based on innovation, impact, opportunity and feasibility.
Fewer organizations applied this year. The remaining $17,597 in grant money will be used for individual artist grants and neighborhood public art grants dispersed throughout the year.
"We were able to award grants to all of the entities that applied this year," said Councilperson Tish Powell, who is a member of the commission.
Powell said each of the grantees was required to provide alternative options in their proposals in the event that in-person shows could not take place because of the pandemic.
"Obviously, this has been a challenging year for the cultural arts community, but we've seen a lot of success with going remote and actually gaining a whole lot of viewership outside the area, even internationally with some of our events we had last fall," she said.
The city council's committee of the whole voted 8-1 on Feb. 10 to approve the commission's recommendation, with the sole no vote coming from Councilperson Toby Shaw.
"In a year where we're continuing to make deep cuts in a number of areas, it feels like this, maybe from a timing perspective, is not the right time," Shaw said.
The final council vote will be during the Wednesday, Feb. 24 meeting. Funding for the grants comes from the Riverboat Fund budget.
The grant recipients are:
• Chamber Music on the Fox, "Lost Voices," $1,543
• Children's Theatre of Elgin, "Beauty and the Beast," $5,653
• Elgin Theatre Company, "A Doll House" Part 2, $3,150
• Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra, Finale concert "Heroes," $6,460
• Hamilton Wings, SCORE! II: Staying Connected Through the Arts, $7,098
• Independent Players, "Waiting for Godot," $1,232
• Side Street Studio Arts, Side Street Arts Mobile-Year 1, $7,268