Quad City Arts Awards Over $84,000 to Local Creators
Quad City Arts is providing over $84,000 in funding for 25 area organizations, arts-centered programs, and individual artists in 2021.
Kaleigh Trammell and Kevin Maynard of Quad City Arts congratulate Arts Dollars grant recipients in a new video on the nonprofit’s website.
The goal of the Arts Dollars Project and Education Grants is to provide funding for a variety of organizations and projects that have strong community impact and feature unique and interesting artistic ideas and to ensure that artists are being paid in the process.
“Arts Dollars is unique – it’s a re-granting program designed to funnel funds deeper into the community, for smaller, more targeted grants,” Kaleigh Trammell of Quad City Arts, who administers the grant program, said in a short video on quadcityarts.com. Since 1990, Arts Dollars has awarded $1.4 million.
Arts Dollars funds are generously provided by the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency.
“To our recipients, we are so proud to support your projects,” said Kevin Maynard, Quad City Arts executive director. “We would have loved to present each of you your check in person, but we thought we would do the next best thing – sending it to you via the magic of the Internet.
The Project of the Quad Cities is using art therapy for their clients living with HIV/AIDS.
We are pleased to support the work you are doing in the community and we can’t wait to see what you accomplish.”
2021 grant awards were recommended by a panel of community members who sifted through the nearly $140,000 in requests from across the region and approved by the Quad City Arts Board of Directors.
Among recipients is The Project of the Quad Cities, which recognizes the benefits of art therapy. “Quad City Arts is proud to fund projects like this one because of the profound and deep effect this project will have on our community,” according to the Quad City Arts site.
The Project of the Quad Cities will provide art therapy sessions to their clients living with HIV/AIDS which furthers their mission and fits squarely within the mission of Arts Dollars to impact the community through the arts.
Another grant is for Joshua Graves (of the Davenport-based Underground Economy), who is leading a project called “QC Collabs” that brings together hip-hop artists from around the Quad-Cities to create and produce an album dropping this summer.
Davenport audio and video engineer Joshua Graves is creating “QC Collabs” for area hip-hop artists to collaborate on recording a new album this summer.
Not only will their voices be amplified, but Graves is also using this platform to provide industry-specific education and tips. This project features more than 15 artists, all of whom are being compensated for their work.
The complete list of Arts Dollars recipients follows —
Capacity Building Grants
- Bix Beiderbecke Museum and World Archives – to hire third-party assistance to increase the museum’s reach in the community through search engine optimization, website development, and virtual outreach.
- German American Heritage Center – to create a new strategic plan for the years 2021-2026 with the assistance of a professional consultant
- Living Proof Exhibit – to help develop strategies and action steps to make the public more aware of Living Proof Exhibit and its therapeutic arts programs and to increase their accessibility.
- Quad City Music Guild – to address one of their three strategic planning initiatives: recruitment, retainment, and development of diverse constituencies of current and future volunteers.
- STEAM on Wheels – to fund laser engraver machine for participants to use as part of programming.
Education Grants
- Cambridge CUSD 227– to fund the “School of Rock,” bringing performing artists to Cambridge Schools to share their craft.
- Glenview Middle School – to create murals or other art installations in the school hallways, incorporating community workdays in which parents, students, and community members can contribute to the project.
- Muscatine Art Center - to fund summer programming for school-aged children through Visiting Artist Workshops.
- QCCF/Love Girls Magazine - to host a media arts camp, creating media that will be shared with the community in the form of a hard copy magazine, and a recorded podcast.
Quad City Arts has granted $1.4 million in Arts Dollars since 1990.
Project Grants
- Azubuike African American Council for the Arts – to fund “Azubuike Presents,” presenting Black voices in the arts, culture, and music, from the community, and for the community.
- Epilepsy Advocacy Network of Illinois & Iowa – to reinstate the Studio E Program throughout the Quad-Cities area.
- Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre – to create Drive-In Puppet Shows to provide live theater during the pandemic when large audience gatherings are dangerous.
- Freight House Farmers Market – to fund Music at the Market, a program designed to utilize local performers during regular market days as well as special events.
- Geneseo Public Library– to fund free art classes at the library.
- LULAC 5285 Council – to fund local musical groups as part of the LULAC 5285 parade.
- NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Initiative – to help fund girlpARTs.
- Playcrafters Barn Theatre – To present a high-quality production of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.”
- Quad Cities Ballet Folklorico – to fund outdoor folkloric dance performance highlighting 3-5 states of Mexico complete with music, costumes, and props.
- River Action, Inc– to fund The Arts Along the River program, to actively engage citizens while maintaining a socially distant and safe environment.
- Scott Community College — to expand the visual art experience into the main library stacks and study spaces to reaffirm books and literature as artistic expression.
- The Black Box Theatre/Fourth Wall Films – to fund a portion of the creative work by actors and filmmakers for the fourth film in the Hero Street Film Series, “An Infantryman From Hero Street.”
- The Project of the Quad Cities – to fund art therapy for clients.
- YouthHope – to fund the Creative Arts Enrichment Program, using art, creativity, and storytelling in combination with new skills and experiences to empower self-expression, enrich student’s lives, provide a storyline of hope, and impact their futures.
- Gabi Torres - to fund The Painting Pathways Towards Understanding classes, which will focus on abstract art, will be the first important step in achieving a vision: developing community-based art initiatives that promote engagement and dialogue and work towards creating a culturally rich, diverse, inclusive, and equitable community.
- Joshua Graves – to create a collaborative hip hop/top 40 album supported by videography and photography elements, featuring over a dozen of the area’s top artists and producers.
Quad City Arts is dedicated to enriching the quality of life in the region through the arts. Quad City Arts programs are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Additional funding comes from the Quad Cities Cultural Trust, and Quad City Arts’ Partners.
