Press Release

 

Date: January 11, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Siskiyou County Arts Council to Receive $20,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Mount Shasta, CA—The Siskiyou County Arts Council is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive a Grants for Arts Projects award of $20,000. This grant will support the 2023 SCRAPS Art DROP Project. This grant is one of 1,251 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling nearly $28.8 million that were announced by the NEA as part of its first round of fiscal year 2023 grants.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “Projects such as this one with the Siskiyou County Arts Council strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy.”

Additionally, the Siskiyou County Arts Council has been awarded $2,500 from Community Arts Endowment of the Community Foundation of the North State to support the creation and placement of Art DROP boxes in communities across Siskiyou. Other funders supporting the Art DROP program include the Pacific Power Foundation as well as the California Arts Council. Nine different artists will be compensated as part of this program and additional funding will provide initial art supply caches for each Art DROP box.

“The Siskiyou County Arts Council is honored and grateful to have been selected as an NEA Grants for Arts Projects recipient. We do not see the arts as a luxury, we see the arts as fundamental to our lives; something we turn to in uncertain times to light the way forward, an innate way of communicating the complexity of our world, and a touchstone we return to as we prepare for the future. The Siskiyou County Arts Council will continue to make the arts a relevant and powerful social and economic force in Siskiyou to improve the lives of all in our community” said Arts Council Executive Director Patricia Lord.

Based on the ‘little free library’ model, Art DROP supply stations will provide a fun, free, and accessible space to share and discover art supplies and projects in communities that have significantly lower regular access to the tools of creative practice. Nine retired newspaper vending machines decorated by local artists and placed in communities throughout Siskiyou. The stations will serve as both public works of art and places to retrieve, deposit, and share art supplies.

Lead Artist and Program Manager Trinity Holsworth says “Art Drop is an empowering resource to rural communities, allowing people to directly impact the world around them through access to resources, tools, and supplies. Creative communities create community and the Siskiyou County Arts Council will facilitate that through this program.”

Carrying through organizational values in our programming, the DROP in Art DROP is an acronym for Discover, Re-source, Offer, and Practice and will help rebuild the deeply rural but waning practice of repurposing and resourcefulness.

SCRAPS video content, the digital counterpart to our SCRAPS Art Cart, will provide facilitated art programming to complement Art DROP supply caches. SCRAPS is an acronym for Social change, Creativity, Repurposing, Arts education, Public art, and Sustainability. Available freely through platforms such as YouTube, SCRAPS video instructables will increase regular access to eco-conscious, facilitated upcycling projects developed for a general audience.

For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Established in 2016, the mission of the Siskiyou County Arts Council is cultivating strong and creative communities in Siskiyou County. State-Local Partner to the California Arts Council, the Siskiyou County Arts Council ensures equitable access to the arts for our communities and supports a vibrant, resilient, and diverse creative economy in Siskiyou. Learn more about our programs at siskiyouarts.org/.

This activity is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency. Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov. The California Arts Council is a state agency with a mission of strengthening arts, culture, and creative expression as the tools to cultivate a better California for all. It supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, initiatives, and services. The California Arts Council envisions a California where all people flourish with universal access to and participation in the arts. More information on the California Arts Council’s support for the Art DROP program can be found at https://siskiyouarts.org/local-organizations-awarded-multiple-california-arts-council-grants/.

The Community Foundation of the North State is a nonprofit, public charity serving the people of Shasta, Siskiyou and Tehama counties, with a mission to impact the region through the power of giving. Learn more at https://cfnorthstate.org/. The Community Arts Endowment Fund of the Community Foundation of the North State was started by generous donors during the Shasta-Siskiyou ARTicipate campaign and supports public art in our region today and forever, thanks to continued contributions and the power of endowment. The Fund awards grants primarily for the creation and presentation of new public artwork by artists and arts organizations in Shasta and Siskiyou counties. More information is available at https://cfnorthstate.org/donations/community-arts-endowment-fund/.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.

The Pacific Power Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Pacific Power. Their mission, through our charitable investments, is to support the growth and vitality of communities. Learn more at https://www.pacificpower.net/community/foundation.html. More information on Pacific Power Foundation’s support of the Art DROP program can be found at https://siskiyouarts.org/press-release-siskiyou-county-arts-council-receives-grant-from-pacific-power-foundation/.