On June 11, regional arts organization South Arts announced its latest round of $530,000 in grants to 103 recipients across the south — 12 of which are in Georgia.
The funding is part of South Arts’ ongoing work to make the arts accessible and sustainable across the region, especially when states like Georgia come dead last in per capita arts funding. The organization awarded three types of funding: Traditional Arts Touring Grants, Presentation Grants and Jazz Road Tours.
“All of our grants are focused on bringing arts to communities, especially those communities that have a deep connection to arts and culture through various organizations and artists,” Vice President of Programs Joy Young, Ph. D. said.
The Traditional Arts Touring Grants, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 support in person or live virtual multi-day residencies by Southern traditional artists in their communities. In Georgia, the Supporting Lucky 7 Brass Band from Memphis, TN received a grant to perform at the Savannah Music Festival.
Young said the seven recipients all showcase cultural and traditional arts bearers that represent the south.
“What all of that really represents is a commitment to arts that come out of specific cultures and communities,” Young said.
Jazz Road Tour Grants directly fund jazz artists’ touring the country, with $5,000 to $15,000 grants supported by the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. The money will cover expenses and salaries, as well as costs for things like childcare and tour managers.
Young said South Arts wanted to support the 10 artists touring because “jazz is an art form nurtured in the south,” and improving the quality of life for people on tour is critical to the program. The roster of artists includes New Orleans-based Derrick Hodge and the Color of Noize and New York-based Ghost-Note.
She said it’s a “holistic” approach to supporting jazz — ”not just for the grantees, but for the program and field at large.” She pointed out that often, jazz artists don’t earn high enough wages to support themselves.
Five Atlanta organizations received Presentation Grants, which award up to $9,500 to Southern artists that showcase a public performance and educational or community engagement component.
Young said the grants represent “regional, national and international presentations of work, and they speak to the various communities they serve.”
One recipient is Out Front Theatre Company, an LGBTQ+ theater founded in 2016 by Paul Conroy. The founder, who is also the producing artistic director, founded the theater because of a “hole in the market.”
“I was looking at other major metro areas, and honestly, smaller metro areas across the country and many of them had queer theaters,” Conroy said. “I didn’t understand why Atlanta being the capital of the South did not have a queer theater.”
The theater hosts a series of drag shows, movie screenings, karaoke nights and performances all focused on creating a safe space for LGBTQ+ people. But Conroy said arts funding is hard to come by, especially for queer theaters that have little to no national funders.
To help with income, the theater “diversifies their assets.” But when Conroy learned about the South Arts grants, he jumped at the chance to pursue educational programming.
“We were just brainstorming ways to bring more education to younger people because that’s something that I feel like is lacking even more,” Conroy said.
As an all-ages venue, the theater has tried to do youth-focused educational programs before. But none took off until the company applied for a grant to help younger people be a part of the art form.
Out Front Theatre Company officially received a grant from South Arts for a “drag workshop,” originally presented by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant and internationally-known drag queen Ginger Minj. Due to scheduling conflicts, Ginger Minj won’t be able to host the program, but Conroy said the structure would remain the same.
“The idea is that there will be a group of younger people that are interested in drag as an art form, and then they’ll go through the preparation, performance, etc., of what it means to do drag in whatever form that they want to do,” Conroy said.
It has been a long term goal for Conroy, and with grant funding his vision will be realized in a matter of months. He compared it to “getting what you want on your birthday.”
“I think I’ll be even more excited once we see whatever the finished product is, or whatever the conclusion of it is, getting these young people involved,” Conroy said. “I’m just really thankful that it was funded, that someone saw worth in this or people saw worth in it.”
As Vice President of Programs, Young is excited to continue being of service to individual artists and organizations across the region. She also believes that the grants will be “economic generators” that produce more dollars for each community. But she stressed that South Arts is still an organization with limited funding.
“It does require generous donations and grants to South Arts to continue this work,” Young said. “So we welcome collaborating with anyone who wants to donate to ensure that the arts are in communities across the region and across the country.”
