Town Awards $10,000 in Cultural Arts Grants

The Cultural Arts Grant Committee of the Town of Clayton has awarded $10,000 in Cultural Arts Grants to two local arts agencies.

The Clayton Youth Theatre was awarded a $6,000 grant to support its annual programming, which includes productions in the spring and summer and its summer program. Clayton Visual Arts was awarded $4,000 for its annual programming, which includes the monthly rotating art exhibit at The Clayton Center and the Clayton Art Faire competition.

Three organizations who submitted requests did not receive funding.

“There are several other organizations who do wonderful work and deserve funding from us, too,” said Mayor Jody McLeod, a committee member, "but the tight economy forced us to scale back this year. We certainly hope to increase our support of the arts in future years.”

Clayton Center Executive Director Heidi Stump, also a committee member, said the town’s new method of distributing grants funds, which divided $66,000 to several local arts organizations over the previous three years, "is doing a good job of spurring creativity, which is one of its goals."

Clayton has long supported the arts through special allocation funding, but decided to establish the Grant Committee three years ago in an effort to insure an efficient and effective division of its grant money. The Town wanted to strengthen its support of arts organizations and cultural programs, while also promoting diversity and encouraging creativity. Officials also want to generate more interest in arts programming and encourage residents to step forward to lead new cultural arts activities.

For more information, please contact Stump at 553-3152.