Asheville Creative Arts performance of SHELL with artist Olympea photo by Stephan Pruitt - Asheville Creative Arts

FY25 Arts Build Community Grant recipient Asheville Creative Arts

ArtsAVL Announces Twenty Arts Build Community Grant Awardees

Local Organizations Will Use Funding to Support Arts-Based Community Projects

September 3, 2024 | ArtsAVL is pleased to share that twenty Buncombe County organizations have been awarded Arts Build Community (ABC) grants. The 2024-25 grants range from $1,000 to $2,500 and will support community-based arts programs in a wide range of disciplines.

Now in its seventh year, the ABC grant inspires civic engagement, involvement, local pride, and a sense of ownership and connection. “Community-based arts projects are powerful vehicles for civic engagement and for bringing neighborhoods together in the transformative act of creativity and collaboration,” shared Rebecca Lynch, ArtsAVL’s Development and Grants Director. “ArtsAVL is excited to support projects that fulfill our mission to keep art at the heart of our community.”

One of this year’s awardees is using art to connect a neighborhood quite literally – with a parade moving from the Burton Street Peace Gardens to Blue Note Junction. “The Burton Street neighborhood in West Asheville has experienced multiple economic, social, and environmental challenges over the last 100 years,” shared Jennifer Murphy, Executive Director of the Asheville Puppetry Alliance (AKA Street Creature Puppet Collective). The parade will celebrate the historically Black neighborhood to “help generate joyful community art experiences, open to all…We are bringing visual and musical energy directly to the streets of the community, highlighting the powerful work of the Burton Street Peace Gardens.”

Another 2024-25 grantee, Youth Artists Empowered, will use their funding to support their Community Art Lab Fall Gathering at Dr. Wesley Grant Sr Center, allowing participants to create multimedia art alongside teaching artists. “We have worked to support and lift the youth and families of the South Side neighborhoods through arts and nature-based education for many years. The ongoing support from ArtsAVL has been instrumental in providing resources and opportunities for youth,” shared Youth Artists Empowered’s Cynde Allen and Cleaster Cotton. “We are excited to continue building on the foundations we have in place and to offer a multigenerational community arts experience in the newly created outdoor garden space at the Dr Wesley Grant Sr Center. This grant provides the opportunity to continue to increase public art access and beautify public spaces by creating collaborative murals in the community garden.”

Each of the awarded projects highlight the importance of the arts for building and maintaining strong connections and for empowering community members, with priority given to projects based in low-income neighborhoods and/or communities in need. We are thrilled to announce the following recipients for 2024-25:

  • All Together Art will provide a safe space for veterans to explore various artistic mediums, socialize with peers, and find calm and comfort in creating.
  • Arts 2 People will utilize grant funds to support the Surreal Sirkus Arts Festival, a free annual event intended to promote local art and community across all demographic lines in Asheville.
  • Asheville Art Museum’s funding will allow the organization to offer a free Community Day and arts engagement activities in conjunction with the upcoming American Made exhibition.
  • Asheville Community Theatre is partnering with Different Strokes to present The Narrative – a series of staged readings of plays written by BIPOC playwrights.
  • Asheville Creative Arts will use grant funding to support a youth oral history project based in the Burton Street Neighborhood.
  • Asheville Museum of History will host a Community Day event, free to the public, as the official opening of a new exhibit displaying the photography of Andrea Clark.
  • Asheville Puppetry Alliance’s grant will fund a 2nd Line style parade with brass band and giant puppets, celebrating the community and culture of the Burton Street neighborhood.
  • Black Wall Street AVL will utilize funding to add a vibrant mural on the front of their building, celebrating diversity and enriching the cultural landscape of the River Arts District.
  • Asheville FM will produce a free album release concert showcasing the diverse local bands included on their new Real People Great Radio Volume 3 album.
  • Happy Chaos hosts Makerspace and Mini-Makers are community arts events for autistic children to create, play, belong, and celebrate neurodiversity. Their grant will fund three free pop-up community arts events.
  • Hood Huggers Foundation will utilize grant funding to remount a youth art show featuring the work of participants of Under Instruction, to feature photography, sculpture, fiber arts and digital media.
  • NAMI Western North Carolina is hosting immersive art workshops for peers (those living with significant mental health challenges) with a public gallery show in October.
  • Open Hearts Art Center will utilize their grant to support the logistics and implementation of artist residencies and the multimedia gallery exhibition: Community Connections through Art: Fostering Collaboration and Creativity.
  • OpenDoors Asheville’s funds will create arts access for low-income students of color by paying for afterschool and summer arts enrichments.
  • RiverLink’s after school program provides free outdoor enrichments in which low-income students in Buncombe County create art in nature.
  • Shiloh Community Association will promote community through the completion of the ancestral mural series and installation through their Building on the Legacy Project.
  • Story Parlor will reconvene its “Story/Arts Residency” for its fourth installment with local storyteller Carolina Quiroga presenting a three-part series entitled “Beyond the Myth: Re-imagining the Stories that Shape Us.”
  • The Montford Moppets Youth Shakespeare Company will use grant funding to hire certified interpreters to provide four ASL-interpreted productions between fall 2024 and summer 2025.
  • Wortham Center for the Performing Arts will expand accessibility to Rennie Harris Puremovement, the first and longest-touring hip-hop dance company in American history, through free tickets to performances, master classes, and pre-show discussions.
  • Youth Artists Empowered’s funding will support their Community Art Lab Fall Gathering at Dr. Wesley Grant Sr Center, allowing participants to create multimedia art alongside teaching artists to uplift and support students, families, and Center staff of the Southside/Livingston/Walton neighborhoods.

For more information about the Arts Build Community grant program, please visit artsavl.org/abc.

Thanks to the following grant sponsors, who help make ArtsAVL’s work possible: Buncombe County with additional support provided by Pete & Cindy Perez.