ArtsWave gives $45,000 to five Place Matters neighborhoods

This year, ArtsWave will award grants to five of the Local Initiative Support Corporation’s (LISC) Place Matters neighborhoods—Avondale, Covington, Madisonville, Price Hill and Walnut Hills—totaling $45,000. The partnership, which began in January, will help support arts activities in the neighborhoods.
 
Each neighborhood will use the funds to contract arts organizations that are supported by ArtsWave, or to support activities that include community-building arts programs. Each grant project will also involve local community partners, such as the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, the Urban League of Cincinnati, Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs, schools, community councils and business associations.
 
Avondale’s Comprehensive Development Corporation will use the grant money to bring the “Kin Killing Kin Art Series” to the neighborhood as part of a strategy to promote alternatives to violence, and help residents connect to the African culture through cooking and performance programs from Bi-Okoto and the Cincinnati Black Theatre Company.
 
In Covington, the Center for Great Neighborhoods will help enhance the 2014 Art Off Pike with “ArtsWave Presents” appearances by Visionaries & Voices and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Covington will also celebrate its bicentennial next year with site-specific performances by groups like the Cincinnati Opera and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.
 
The Madisonville Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation will launch the Madisonville Jazz and BBQ Festival in the fall in the heart of the neighborhood’s business district, adjacent to the Madisonville Arts and Cultural Center.
 
The Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation will add arts programming to the We Are Walnut Hills Springfest and the second annual Cincinnati Street Food Festival, and to the community space in Five Points Alley.
 
Price Hill Will and Santa Maria Community Services plan to bring members of their community together to share performances by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and MYCincinnati in schools and community centers.
 
The initiative falls under ArtsWave’s ArtsWave Presents program, which is an effort to extend arts programming across the region. It follows a partnership with Interact for Health on “Join the Fun,” which launched in February.