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Greater Columbus Arts Council Announces 2022 Thrive Program Grant Recipients

in Press Releases November 15, 2022 2 min read

Columbus Cultural Orchestra

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) announced today the three recipients of the 2022 Thrive grant awards—Black Women Rising Poetry Collective, Columbus Cultural Orchestra and Latino Arts for Humanity.

Launched in 2020, the three-year program addresses disparities in inequitable funding for arts and cultural organizations led by and serving BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) communities. The program acknowledges that organizations led by people of color historically have experienced barriers to capital and resources. In 2022, eligibility was expanded to include art collectives that do not currently have nonprofit status but have experience presenting public events. In addition to unrestricted funding, GCAC provides connection to resources, community experts and nonprofit education opportunities to help groups meet goals.

Latino Arts for Humanity

“A couple years into the program, and we’re proud to already see the results of our first two cohorts,” said Tom Katzenmeyer, president and CEO of GCAC. “We’re excited to see our next group of organizations grow through this unrestricted funding and resources. Our hope is that they’ll be able to follow in the footsteps of our 2020 and 2021 recipients and build their capacity to serve the community.”

Each of the three funded organizations works to increase access to the arts for the community and provide living wages for artists.

Black Women Rising Poetry Collective offers a safe and brave space for Black women writers to share their authentic hearts and souls by writing and performing their own stories of being a Black woman in today’s world. Their poetry embraces personal traumas and triumphs, fears and faith, and journeys and joy with the purpose of sparking encouragement, inspiration and hope. instagram.com/blackwomenrisepoetry

Black Women Rising Poetry Collective at the 2022 Columbus Arts Festival

Columbus Cultural Orchestra (CCO)’s mission is to advance a collective of multi-generational musicians of color by performing high-quality jazz, classical and hip-hop music. CCO’s programming is offered to instrumentalists ages 13-25 who play at least at the intermediate level. Established in 2020, the orchestra teaches developing musicians arrangements of jazz, hip-hop and classical favorites from Mozart to Miles Davis; Earth, Wind, and Fire to Drake. ccomusic.org

Latino Arts for Humanity (LAH) develops and preserves the arts and cultural heritage of the Latino community. Best known for producing the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration at Greenlawn Cemetery, LAH works throughout the year to support Latino artists and promote cultural awareness. latinoartsforhumanity.blogspot.com

Thrive provides an unrestricted $10,000 grant for each of the three years, an opportunity to work on a capacity-building effort with a consultant (paid for by GCAC, up to $5,000) in year two, and the chance to mentor incoming Thrive organizations and receive a $5,000 stipend for their time in year three.

The 2020 cohort – All People Arts, Maroon Arts Group and State of the Arts Productions – will be entering their final year of the Thrive grant, while the 2021 cohort of Thiossane Institute, Two Scoops National Performing Arts Center and Urban Strings Columbus starts their second year.

Mission of the Greater Columbus Arts Council: To support and advance the arts and cultural fabric of Columbus. www.gcac.org

The Greater Columbus Arts Council receives major financial support from the City of Columbus, Franklin County Commissioners and the Ohio Arts Council.

For translations of this release and other pages, please see the dropdown menu at the top right corner of gcac.org.

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CONTACT: Jami Goldstein
(614) 221-8492
jgoldstein@gcac.org