Chattanooga residents of all ages and backgrounds can experience the magic of music, art and theater thanks to grants from ArtsBuild.
In FY 2024, ArtsBuild awarded funds to 14 local projects, ranging from the Chattanooga Hip Hop Summit to Scenic City Shakespeare, from downtown Chattanooga to Soddy Daisy and Lookout Valley to Brainerd.
The Community Cultural Connections grants are intended to make arts and culture more accessible to under-served populations, inclusive of geographic area, ethnicity, age, and individuals with disabilities. In FY 2025, we are encouraging grants from Harrison and the Highway 58 Corridor all the way to Birchwood, Ooltewah and Soddy Daisy.
Since its inception in 2013, the program has awarded over 260 grants, distributing approximately half a million dollars in funding.
James McKissic, President of ArtsBuild, said, “The arts not only inspire us and bring us joy but also improve our well-being and help build stronger, healthier communities. These grants allow us to ensure people from all communities throughout Chattanooga - Hamilton County get to experience and engage in the arts.
“We are delighted with our 2024 Community Cultural Connections grants, which brought the arts to neighborhoods and underserved communities throughout the city and surrounding area. Last year there was an exceptionally strong field of applicants, and we were impressed by the diversity and creativity of the recipients.”
Applications for the FY 2025 Community Cultural Connections Grants are open now. Apply at artsbuild.com.
The full list of recipients is:
- Chattanooga Choral Society for the Preservation of African American Song to pay artist and hosting fees for an intergenerational music workshop in Brainerd.
- Courtenay Cholovich to pay artist fees for the facilitation of the INCUBATOR New Works residency.
- Chattanooga Hip-Hop Summit to pay for 150 “Dusko Goes to Space” books that were part of an author event.
- Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition, Inc. to pay for artist fees and supplies for an oral and pictorial history project elevating the voices of unhoused community members.
- KELCURT Foundation to host multi-media art workshops to support community members in creating bookmarks for the Soddy Daisy Community Library’s bookmark contest.
- Nicole Doran to pay artist fees for two chamber music concerts, one at Northgate Library and one at the Hixson Community Center.
- Red Bank Lions Charity to purchase supplies to host two art classes in Red Bank.
- Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center to cover costs associated with hosting a film screening of Un Nuevo Pasado (Someday Soon), a film created by local artist Pablo Mazariegos.
- Re-Wake to pay artist, supply and host fees for a series of art classes in East Chattanooga.
- Scenic City Shakespeare to pay artists fees associated with a Shakespeare Double Feature, consisting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Comedy of Errors.
- Sheryl Benford to support the facilitation of the Tob.Art Mannequin Art Walk project in partnership with Chattanooga community centers.
- Signal Centers-HART Gallery to support transportation costs associated with getting individuals with low vision or blindness and women in the recovery process to a series of art classes.
- Southern Adventist University to cover local artist fees associated with a conference focusing on the intersection of art, culture and faith.
- SPLASH to cover artist fees associated with weekly art classes for youth in juvenile detention.
ArtsBuild gratefully acknowledges the invaluable support of its sponsors, including the Beacon Foundation Charitable Trust, The City of Chattanooga, the National Endowment for the Arts, and numerous ArtsBuild donors, whose generosity make the Community Cultural Connections grants possible. The impact of such programs extends far beyond cultural enrichment; in Hamilton County alone, the arts sector contributes a substantial $191 million annually to the local economy and sustains over 3,000 jobs.