CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Aug. 27, 2020) – From a digital art trail and commissioned works along Charlotte’s Monroe Road corridor to an online international street food and music festival to connect the city’s immigrant communities to the broader community, Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents and visitors will have opportunities to experience more community-focused and innovative cultural programs thanks to ASC Cultural Vision Grants.

Cultural Vision Grants respond to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community’s interest in arts, science, history and heritage programming. The awards provide funds of up to $10,000 for Mecklenburg County-based creative individuals and nonprofit groups to pursue projects that do one of the following:

• Build community by:
  • connecting individuals across points of difference to increase understanding, acceptance and positive regard between communities; or
  • nurturing, celebrating and supporting the authentic cultures and creative expression of specific neighborhoods.
• Increase relevance and innovation by:
  • activating nontraditional performance or exhibition spaces close to where people live; or
  • providing groundbreaking and participatory experiences that reflect the changing communities in which we live.

Forty-five groups and individuals applied for this round of Cultural Vision Grants, with 24 recipients selected to receive a combined $148,700 in funding. All projects are anticipated to conclude by June 30, 2022.

Thirty-three percent of the grantees are first-time Cultural Vision Grant recipients and 50 percent of the projects are led by and/or serve communities that the philanthropic community has historically under resourced, including African, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA), LGBTQ and Disability communities. 

“Creative individuals and cultural organizations throughout Charlotte-Mecklenburg are finding innovative ways to engage residents while we aren’t able to gather in-person. They are also thinking creatively about the events that will bring us together when the time is right,” said ASC President Jeep Bryant. “We are grateful for the significant support of our public and private donors. Their investments allow ASC to fund meaningful work across our cultural community.”

Award recipients are:

• ArtWalks CLT – $2,500 to produce “Patchwork – An East Side Art Trail,” a digital art trail and commissioned works along the Monroe Road corridor
• Barre Belle – $6,000 to support the portable dance studio’s delivery of ballet classes and training to students in partnership with local community centers
• Bennu Gardens – $4,000 to support the “Seed to Cloth” project which artistically transforms flaxseed into linen cloth throughout the harvest season
• Cain Center for the Arts – $6,000 to support Tawba Walks Arts & Music Festivals
• Center for Prevention Services – $6,000 to support Photovoice, capturing stories of adversity and fortitude among Charlotte residents recovering from drug addiction through a photographer’s lens
• Charlotte Film Society – $4,500 to support the Charlotte Film Festival
• Charlotte Museum of History – $7,500 to support free family programming at the museum
• CineOdyssey Film Festival – $8,000 to support the CineOdyssey Film Festival, which celebrates and gives voice to filmmakers of color from the African, Caribbean, Latino, Asian and Native American diasporas as well as the U.S.
• Creating Exposure Through The Arts – $4,500 to support the exhibition of the student documentary film “Behind The Ink” and artist talk with photographer Chi Modu in West Charlotte, South End and University areas
• Digi-Bridge – $10,000 to support #STEAMSaturdays, a partnership between Digi-Bridge and Briarwood Academy
• E&A Productions, Inc. – $9,000 to support the 2020 Puerto Rican Festival
• Angela Haigler – $4,000 to support the publication of a literary quality anthology of personal essays with a performance component entitled, “Like Mother Like Daughter, Like Really? Black Women Dish about their Mamas”
• Inspire the Fire – $7,500 to support “The Xperience,” a summer camp offering artistic coaching and developing creative expression in students
• Vadim Kolpakov – $6,000 to support BAXTALES 2021, Charlotte’s Romani music and culture festival
• Eboné Lockett – $8,500 to support Art as Advocacy’s work in the Hidden Valley neighborhood through workshops and a culminating experience in honor of Earth Day at the MLK Field of Dreams Garden
• Music at St. Alban’s – $8,500 to support access to musical arts to residents of northern Mecklenburg County, with a focus on reaching minorities, lower-income populations, children and seniors
• North Mecklenburg Community Chorus – $5,000 to support the chorus in its production of a series of digital workshops and a spring concert
• Shawnna Pledger, $5,200 to support the Youth Exchange Project’s two-week summer intensive
• Promise Resource Network – $6,000 to support “The Art of Recovery,” an array of artistic workshops and experiences aimed at building a stronger recovery community
• SouthEnd ARTS – $7,500 to support a quarterly series of art exhibitions and social justice talks, online and at the Charlotte Trolley Powerhouse
• Bree Stallings – $5,500 to support community conversations around the intersections of sexuality, gender, socioeconomics and access through a series of workshops culminating in a large mural with the students of Time Out Youth
• True Lobster Charlotte – $5,000 to support the development and dissemination of an original performance which deconstructs power and privilege in the American South
• The Warehouse PAC – $4,500 to support the production of “Sweat,” the Pulitzer by Lynn Nottage
• Brandi Weaver – $7,500 to produce an online international street food and music festival to connect Charlotte’s immigrant communities to a wider audience to increase understanding and acceptance of cultural and creative expression

Mecklenburg County-based creative individuals and nonprofit organizations that want to apply for the next round of ASC Cultural Vision Grants must submit initial applications by noon on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. Funded projects must start between January 1, 2021-June 30, 2021 and conclude before June 30, 2022. Full application guidelines are available at ArtsAndScience.org.

Stay up to date on ASC news and happenings at ArtsAndScience.org and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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