Call for proposals now open to activate plan for more competitive, educated and creative region
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (August 29, 2017) – Today, Mayor Greg Fischer along with community leaders announced a half million dollars in funding to support Imagine Greater Louisville 2020: An Arts and Cultural Vision to Transform the Region. Launched in April 2017, the plan provides a shared vision for the role arts, culture, and creativity can play in helping the region grow while addressing vital community issues. Louisville Metro Council and Metro Louisville’s investment of $250,000 with an additional $250,000 from the Jennifer Lawrence Arts Fund at the Fund for the Arts will help implement the vision and priorities laid out in the Imagine 2020 plan. A call for proposals is now underway to activate the strategies and actions via http://imaginegreaterlou.org/proposals. Deadline to submit is September 25, 2017.
“This is a tremendous example of a public-private partnership that will help catapult our city forward,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “Louisville can be a model for the nation by solving some of our most pressing and complex community issues through unique, varied approaches. This is a big step in that direction. Through Imagine Greater Louisville 2020, our arts and culture sector can be a driver to enact systemic change.”
In late June 2017, Louisville Metro Council allocated $250,000 to support the Imagine Greater Louisville plan. With significant support from Mayor Greg Fisher and Metro Council leadership, the council agreed to increase public funding by fifty percent for arts and culture from just the previous year. Imagine Greater Louisville 2020 is providing a competitive call for proposal process, made possible by Metro Louisville and the Louisville Metro Council, to implement the vision and priorities laid out in the Imagine 2020 plan. This process will distribute $250,000 in grants with a portion of these dollars allocated to fund small grants (less than $5,000) and the remaining funds supporting larger projects. Fund for the Arts will administer the grant process.
“We are so grateful to Mayor Fischer, Metro Council, and the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation for spurring this collaborative initiative forward,” said Christen Boone, President and CEO of Fund for the Arts. “Since the spring, we have already seen aspects of the Imagine plan take hold with new initiatives like the Community Foundation’s “Hadley Creatives” that supports working artists in Greater Louisville and Louisville Downtown Partnership’s “Alley Gallery”. There is absolutely no limit to the impact we can create through executing this inclusive and dynamic plan.”
Individuals, groups, organizations, and partnerships are encouraged to submit creative proposals addressing how arts and culture can help the region grow, compete, thrive, and solve community problems. Proposals should be ready to begin by January 2018; provide services within Jefferson County, contain methods to track success; address at least one strategy and action outlined in the Imagine Greater Louisville 2020 plan.
Informational sessions for potential applications will be held on Wednesday, September 6 at 6 p.m. at the California Community Center (1600 West Saint Catherine Street) and Thursday, September 7 at 9:30 a.m. at the Southwest Regional Library (9725 Dixie Highway).
“We are committed to bringing the priorities and action items to life in order to positively impact everyone in our region,” said Roger Cude and Penny Peavler, Co-chairs of the Imagine 2020 Steering Committee. “This type of investment allows us to launch and help support projects that tackle our community’s greatest challenges while capitalizing on our creative resources.”
The Jennifer Lawrence Arts Fund at the Fund for the Arts matched the city’s funding with an additional $250,000 for the plan. Since its inception in 2016, the Jennifer Lawrence Arts Fund has raised over $1 million to promote and support arts access, education, and excellence. This summer, Jennifer Lawrence’s sister-in-law, Meredith Lawrence, joined the Fund for the Arts team as the director of the Jennifer Lawrence Arts Fund to leverage local and national opportunities, grow the arts funds resources and help to administer the investments by the JLAF in arts access, excellence and education. .
“We are thrilled to support Imagine Greater Louisville 2020,” said Meredith Lawrence, Director of the Jennifer Lawrence Arts Fund. “Jennifer is proud to help propel her hometown forward through our vibrant, thriving arts and cultural community.”
About the Fund for the Arts
Fund for the Arts is a regional nonprofit with the mission to maximize the arts to drive economic development, education, and quality of life in our community. The Fund conducts one of the oldest united arts campaigns in the country and supports world-class institutions, community organizations, and arts in education. Fund for the Arts leads collective action across the arts and cultural sector to deliver greater impact in our community. For more information, visit www.fundforthearts.org
About Imagine Greater Louisville 2020
Imagine Greater Louisville 2020 is a call to action to leverage the region’s creative resources to realize the full potential of its creative, prosperous future together. The community-based plan was created under the leadership of a cross-sector, 28-person steering committee that engaged 5,000+ community members through public meetings, interviews, surveys and more. Their collective voices identified five priorities, fifteen strategies, and fifty-six recommended actions. For more information, visit www.imaginegreaterlou.org.
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