SWMO tallies $128K in Missouri Arts Council grants

The Missouri Arts Council will award 337 grants totaling $4.3 million for fiscal 2015 and roughly $128,000 is headed to southwest Missouri.

Sixteen art-related Springfield groups, as well as two in Branson and one in Stockton, secured$127,845 for projects ranging from community festivals to ballet dancing. Among the larger grants, the Springfield Regional Arts Council will receive $19,532 and the Branson At Council will receive $12,480 – both for community arts operating support.

The Missouri Arts Council’s total fiscal 2015 budget of $6.04 million supports the grants, with funding from a new appropriation of $4.8 million from the state’s budget, $694,400 from the National Endowment for the Arts and funds from the existing balance in the Missouri Arts Council Trust Fund, according to a news release.

The following organizations and projects in southwest Missouri received funding:

• Branson Arts Council, community arts operating support, $12,480
• Downtown Branson Betterment Association, folk arts, $5,038
• City of Springfield for the Springfield Art Museum, visual arts, $10,531
• Downtown Springfield Community Cinema for the Moxie Cinema, electronic media arts, $5,621
• Drury University for the Springfield-Drury Civic Orchestra, music instrumental, $2,528
• Drury, theater, $2,000
• Men's Chorus of the Ozarks, music vocal and music presenters, $2,000
• Messiah Project, music vocal and music presenters, $2,265
• Mid-America Performing Arts Foundation for the Springfield Mid-America Singers, music vocal and music presenters, $3,200
• Missouri State University for the Ozarks Studies Institute, folk arts, $3,078
• MSU for Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts, multidiscipline, $9,070
• Springfield Ballet, dance, $8,574
• Springfield Little Theatre, midsize arts organizations, $11,232
• Springfield Regional Arts Council, arts education, $7,569
• Springfield Regional Arts Council for the Summer Institute for Arts Integration, arts education, $7,683
• Springfield Regional Arts Council, community arts operating support, $19,532
• Springfield Regional Opera, music vocal and music presenters, $2,000
• Springfield Symphony Association, midsize arts organizations, $11,444
• Stockton Area Chamber of Commerce, festivals, $2,000

“These grants are crucial to helping move Missouri’s economy forward and fortifying the cultural welfare of Missouri communities,” MAC Executive Director Beverly Strohmeyer said in the release. “The arts in Missouri create thousands of jobs, play a significant role in attracting and retaining businesses, attract tourists, enhance education and catalyze community revitalization.”

According to the 2008 Arts & Economic Prosperity III study, Missouri nonprofit arts and culture organizations, and the audiences who participate in their events annually, generate $1.1 billion in economic activity, create 33,617 full-time equivalent jobs for Missouri residents and $742.9 million in household income. Revenue for Missouri’s state and local governments total $110.6 million annually.

In fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, Missouri Arts Council’s annual and monthly grants supported arts organizations and programs in 128 communities. The 588 funded organizations produced 16,026 arts events and hired more than 54,770 individual artists, according to the release.