Valley arts center receives $10,000Author(s): Adam Bendon Ther Herald Journal staff |
Lifelong Cache Valley residents know how robust the region's arts scene is. Now, thanks to a recently awarded state grant, boosters will be able to market them all under one roof.
That's after the Cache Valley Center For the Arts was given $10,000 from the Utah Arts Council Creative Communities Initiative to launch an arts district that will help officials promote and pitch the region's vast offerings like never before.
The funds were awarded Dec. 12 and made public Thursday.
"The thing about this grant that makes it unusual is that it does not benefit one organization. It's very community focused," said Wendi Hassan, CVCA's education and outreach coordinator.
The district likely won't be online until mid-summer, but Hassan said it will provide an outlet for artists and performing arts groups to market themselves in ways not possible in the past.
Hassan hopes to see tie-ins with local businesses that'll offer discounts or specials following performances and said organizers are looking for ways to draw patrons in town before shows begin and keep them here when the curtain draws.
"The level of cooperation between arts organizations and the level of appreciation of that benefit by the merchants to my mind is unprecedented," Hassan said. "We have to create partnerships with businesses any way that we can."
While the district's boundaries are not clear cut, it will encompass the Main Street corridor through Logan, Hassan said.
"It's incredible what we have, and so much of it happens in the center of downtown," she said. But artisans don't want to discount the creativity found off Cache Valley's main thoroughfare.
"You can connect the dots between the American West Heritage Center and what happens on campus" at Utah State University, she said.
The district will officially be unveiled in a few months, to help promote the return of SummerFest to the downtown sector, Hassan said.
The UAC's Creative Communities Initiative awarded funds to nine projects in 2007, chosen from a field of 26 applicants.
"We are delighted to see community groups collaborate using arts and culture as a centerpiece in their local planning efforts," said Margaret Hunt, director of the state's Division of Arts and Museums.
Communities on the receiving end of the more than $85,000 allocated by the UAC are required to provide matching funds for the projects. Hassan said local businesses and arts groups have already come up with the money.
Julie Hollist, director of the Cache Valley Visitors Bureau, said the district gives promoters a chance to sell the region's arts scene as a whole.
"The establishment of a district like this is ideal," she said. "These collaborative efforts have been under way for several years, but it has taken this amount of time for them to come to fruition with projects the public is beginning to see."
Logan Mayor Randy Watts also supports the district.
"More and more, there's communication among the arts. I think it's going to create a nice atmosphere," he said. "It sounds like they're going to be more visible going in this direction."
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