A Few Words from Debbie

Grant deadlines, guidelines and more deadlines

With a number of grant deadlines fast approaching, the Arts Council has been a beehive of activity phone conversations, in-person meetings, e-mails sent and received.  It has been non-stop for the past four weeks – and we love it!  Why?  Because this is our work  to help build the foundation by which our artists and arts administrators take all their creative energies and produce activities and events that make our community such an artful place to live, work and visit.

For the past few weeks, our days have been filled with productive and inspiring meetings as we provide one-on-one technical assistance in grant writing and informational group sessions on reviewing guidelines and understanding the process we go through in grant review.  Over the past few years, our board and staff have tweaked our application processes, revised our guidelines, removed barriers to apply and hopefully made it easier to apply for these very competitive grants.

So many of you have already reached out, but to those who haven’t, this is your wake-up call if you are looking for our feedback.  And before I forget  the bulk of this work falls on one staff members shoulders, so a huge thank you is in order to our program manager, Josh Holliday. Josh is to be commended for his outstanding work to connect with everyone that needs help.  He can answer every imaginable question there is about the process, about the review, and most importantly about the projects you are proposing. (Don’t tell him, but I sometimes ease drop on the conversations he has with our members and I am always impressed with his advice and his insight into their challenges.)

So don’t forget… Coming due on July 15 – Chris Clark Fellowships; on August 1 – Young Creatives Scholarships; on August 3 – MCACA Mini-grants.  Check out our website for more information on each of these very unique grant programs and call us if you need anything.

Deborah E. Mikula

Executive Director