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Arts council awards funding for disaster recovery in western Kentucky

Arts council awards funding for disaster recovery in western Kentucky
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
May. 28, 2023 | WESTERN KENTUCKY
By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 28, 2023 | 12:24 PM | WESTERN KENTUCKY
The Kentucky Arts Council has awarded more than $170,000 to several schools, arts organizations and individual artists in as part of an effort to help in the recovery after the December 2021 tornadoes in western Kentucky and the July 2022 floods in eastern Kentucky.

The arts council received $115,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and $26,000 from regional partner South Arts.The council allocated $35,000 from its own budget to fund 50 grants.

The Kentucky Arts Council coordinated assistance to artists, arts organizations and other creative and cultural institutions following both the tornadoes and storms. These disasters were seven months apart and affected large numbers of artists and arts organizations in Kentucky.

The arts council ran three grant programs for disaster relief — programs for arts education, individual artists and nonprofit arts organizations.

To date, the arts council has awarded:

Arts Education Grants – 13 grants (current) totaling $12,388
Individual Artist Grants – 20 grants, $4,000 each, totaling $80,000
Nonprofit Arts Organization Grants – 17 grants, varying dollar amounts, totaling $74,922
A complete list of awardees is available on the arts council website.

Nanc Gunn, executive director of Ice House Gallery and the Mayfield Graves County Art Guild, said that after recovering as much artwork as they could from the rubble, collecting computers and other office supplies, her focus was on the future of the actual Ice House building.

"After all that it was, 'How are we going to exist without a building?'" Gunn said.

She said Craig Potts, executive director of the Kentucky Heritage Council, traveled to Mayfield to examine the building from a standpoint of historical restoration, and several engineers studied the building in an ultimately futile attempt to save it. On Good Friday — a little more than four months after the tornado hit Mayfield and surrounding areas — a crew bulldozed the Ice House.

"I found I'd lost my identity," Gunn said. "I always thought of myself as the Ice House Lady."

When Gunn found out the Mayfield Graves County Art Guild would be one of several organizations receiving $5,000 grants from the arts council to aid in disaster recovery, she was overwhelmed.

"The arts council has given a great gift to us," she said. "It's not only a monetary gift through grants to keep us up and operating, but also through friendship."

The guild started offering classes again, using the Graves County Cooperative Extension Center, which was undamaged in the tornado. It also partnered with Regions Bank to feature artwork and artists at work in the bank's public space.

"We did not think we'd be as far along as we are today," Gunn said. "After the tornado hit, we had nothing. So I was running the art guild out of my home. We have a public presence at the bank, though, and so many other facilities have opened their doors to us."

Among those places is Paducah City Hall, which is set up for art shows. The guild has 125 pieces of artwork on exhibit in city hall featuring the work of African American artists.

"If anything good came out of the tornado, it's all these new connections we made in the community and the new artists we've met by having to use other groups' facilities," Gunn said.

Also recieving funds was Fancy Farm Elementary($300), Graves County High School ($573), Sedalia Elementary School ($965), Benton Elementary ($350), Central Elementary ($500), and Northside Baptist Christian School ($1,000). 

For a full list of others recieving funds click here.
 
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