Black Belt Community Foundation to Award $62,050 on Saturday, May 21 During Arts Grants Award Ceremony

Thirty community-based art programs across the Black Belt will gather for a moment of celebration on May 21st, 2022 at 10AM Central Time. The award ceremony will be a virtual event, held via Zoom. The public is welcome to attend, using Meeting ID: 872 2707 0384, Passcode: 658085. (Direct Link: https://bit.ly/2022BBCFAwardsArts) In total, $52,050 will be awarded to support and strengthen youth organizations, theatrical performances, and arts exposure experiences. $10,000 will be awarded to the two longest running festivals in the Black Belt.

Even through challenging times, BBCF is happy to have been able to continue supporting in-school, after-school, community-based groups, and summer arts education programs and aid the presentation of and/or production of arts programming and attendance at professional development conferences. 2022 marks the sixteenth year of such arts funding by BBCF. This will be BBCF’s first in-person Arts Grants Award Ceremony since the 2020 start of the COVID Pandemic.

BBCF was established in 2004 to support community efforts in the Black Belt that contribute to the strength, innovation, and success of all the region’s people and communities. A partnership formed in 2006 with BBCF, the Youth & Cultural Committee of the Black Belt Action Commission, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA), established the Black Belt Arts Initiative. The goals of this project are: to work in partnership with local community based organizations, to forge collaborations with local schools to advance arts education, to document and promote artistic assets, to assist arts organizations in becoming more efficient and effective and to provide opportunities for citizens of the Black Belt region to be exposed to and participate in arts.

For more information on the Black Belt Arts Initiative, contact Mynecia Steele or Salaam Green at msteele@blackbeltfound.org or sgreen@blackbeltfound.org , or visit www.blackbeltfound.org .