Arts Huntsville awards $280,000 in grants to area arts organizations
Several area arts organizations received a needed boost tonight. Arts Huntsville named the 2023 Huntsville Arts & Cultural Grant program recipients. Now in its eleventh year, the program presented grants to 21 regional arts organizations to support their community programming.
The Huntsville City Council awarded $280,000 in pass-through grant funding as part of the City’s FY23 budget, and eligible Huntsville-based nonprofit arts organizations completed detailed grant applications in the fall of 2022. A citizen-grant panel with experience in varied artistic disciplines and representative of each of Huntsville’s five city council districts reviewed the applications.
“Behind every thriving city is a dynamic creative arts community. This year, as Huntsville celebrates its number one ranking as the best place to live in the US, we’re proud to honor our vibrant arts community that contributes so much to our quality of life,” said Allison Dillon-Jauken, Arts Huntsville executive director. “From dance to theatre, music and visual arts, these grant-funded programs serve more than 180,000 area residents and visitors with vital arts experiences and educational opportunities that enrich our community every day.”
This year, the following 21 local nonprofit arts organizations received grant awards:
| Organization Name | Award | Grant Project |
| Alabama Youth Ballet Theatre, Inc. | $11,757 | AYBT’s 17th program year of performances, dance education, and education-based outreach |
| Ars Nova, Inc. | $18,510 | Ars Nova’s 2022-23 Season: A Study in Contrasts |
| Brass Band of Huntsville | $14,252 | Brass Band of Huntsville’s Youth Brass Academy |
| Broadway Theatre League of Huntsville | $17,638 | BTL’s Student Outreach Program presenting professional touring family shows |
| Dance All Productions, Inc | $16,548 | Girls Like Us Youth Enrichment Program and Creative Natives Young Choreographers Project |
| Fantasy Playhouse Children’s Theater | $19,600 | Performances and Educational Activities for Fantasy Playhouse’s 62nd Season |
| Huntsville Chamber Music Guild (HCMG) | $12,248 | HCMG’s 2022-23 Season of 8 concerts by artists from Russia, Asia, Ukraine, Korea, and the US |
| Huntsville Community Chorus Association | $13,510 | Expansion of HCCA Administrative Staff and Treble/Chorale Music Library |
| Huntsville Community Drumline | $15,567 | Funding to Provide Free Percussion Lessons to the Community |
| Huntsville Literary Association | $1,262 | Huntsville Literary Association’s 55th Annual Young Writers Contest |
| Huntsville Master Chorale | $12,861 | Huntsville Master Chorale’s 2023 Season & Community Choral Festival II |
| Huntsville Traditional Music Association | $2,475 | Support for the Association’s 2023 Programming |
| Huntsville Youth Orchestra | $13,496 | Support for HYO’s Music of the Americas Project |
| Independent Musical Productions, Inc. | $16,657 | Support for IMP’s 2022 – 2023 Season and 30th year Celebration |
| Inside Out Studio Inc. | $16,112 | Funding for Inside Out’s Studio Manager Position |
| Maitland Arts Initiative | $12,166 | 2023 Urban Orchestra Feeder Strings Program Support |
| Merrimack Hall Performing Arts Center | $14,259 | Support for the Happy HeARTS Program |
| Opera Huntsville | $19,600 | Support for Opera Huntsville’s 2023 Season |
| Southern Fried Film Festival | $7,675 | Support for 2023 Southern Fried Film Festival |
| Tennessee Valley Jazz Society | $7,477 | Support for TVJS “Music of the Civil Rights Movement” Project |
| Theatre Huntsville | $16,330 | Theatre Huntsville 2022-2023 Season Support |
The State of the Arts celebration featured Keynote speaker Todd May, Senior Vice President, Science & Space Business Unit at KBR, Inc., on the “Art of Engineering” with special remarks from Huntsville City Mayor Tommy Battle.
The Huntsville Arts & Cultural Grant Program was launched in 2013 by Mayor Battle. The program is designed to nurture artistic excellence, encourage public access to arts and cultural programming, expand arts education opportunities, and develop the organizational capacity of Huntsville’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. In 2013 the initial award for this program was $100,000 in city-funded grants for numerous area arts organizations. This year, the fund’s award amount increased to $280,000 from $250,000 in 2022.
For more information about Arts Huntsville, visit www.artshuntsville.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @artshuntsville.
