Pottstown Dance Theatre Wins Grant

A total of 19 arts organizations from across Montgomery County have been awarded grants totaling more than $19,000, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance announced recently.

The awards come from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Project Stream grants, which support artists and organizations working on "innovative, community-based arts projects."

Winners include concert organizaers, museum programmers, muralists, theatre companies, and more. Organizers hope the grant supports work that makes art more visible and more impactful in local communities. Projects include an art program for seniors with dementia, a series of operas performed by elementary school students, and a series of plays at a local theatre which explore the question of "belonging."

"The Cultural Alliance is proud to be the largest regional partner of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts," Maud Lyon, Cultural Alliance president, said in a statement. "Project Stream allows us to help local organizations and artists fund their creative projects and empowers them to have economic, cultural and social impact in their communities."

The 19 winners, according to the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, include:

• Pottstown Dance Theatre ($907): Funding will support performances of choreographer Michelle Jones Wurtz’s New World to elementary schools in the Pottstown School District.
• Friends of St. Paul's Elkins Park ($1,150): Funding will support the annual concert season in the historic sanctuary of St. Paul’s Elkins Park.
• ARTZ Philadelphia ($1,099): Funding will support the ARTZ on the Road and ARTZ @ The Museum programs to bring professionally facilitated conversations about museum-quality works of art into the lives of people with dementia and their care partners.
• Brush with the Law ($1,099): Funding will support Brush with the Law’s programming that connects artists with communities, youth aid panels, rehab centers, county jails and other nonprofit organizations.
• Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County ($1,099): Funding will support Art4ME, a free program for people in early stages of dementia and their caregivers designed to increase communication, quality of life and self-worth.
• Borough of Lansdale ($1,086): Funding will support the White’s Road Park Concert and Performing Arts Series, an annual event celebrating its 37th season in spring 2019.
• Pulley & Buttonhole Theatre Company ($1,061): Funding will support Pulley & Buttonhole Theatre Company’s 2018-19 season, featuring three plays from non-American authors with storylines that reflect upon the universal questions of belonging.
• Jenkintown School District ($1,023): Funding will support the art program at Jenkintown Middle School and High School to develop a variety of community-engaging public art projects.
• Lansdale Library Association ($1,023): Funding will support a engagements with the folk/world music duo Simple Gifts, featuring a community concert and outreach to three seniors' residences.
• Iron Age Theater ($1,010): Funding will support a production of The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan, featuring a sequence of nine one-act plays spanning six hours.
• Night Music ($1,010): Funding will support the production of Killer B’s: Music by Bach, Beethoven, Boccherini, and Brahms at Ardmore Presbyterian Church.
• Variant 6 ($997): Funding will support a program exploring the exchange of musical ideas across Europe in the seventeenth century and the influence of Italy’s musical style on France and Germany.
• Applied Mechanics ($971): Funding will support the production of We Are Bandits, a theatrical investigation of the troubled relationships between state and citizen, art and politics, women-aligned people and the public sphere.
• Valley Choral Society ($971): Funding will support Valley Choral Society’s choral for underserved audiences in Montgomery County.
• Opera North, Inc. ($959): Funding will support a series of mini operas produced and performed by students of Glenside Elementary School, led by composer Leslie Savoy Burrs.
• Susanna Gold ($946): Funding will support the designing and mounting of five exhibitions by curator Susanna Gold’s at the NºBA Artspaces in Bala Cynwyd.
• St. Augustine Academy ($934): Funding will support St. Augustine Academy’s tuition-free, arts-based, after-school program serving 2nd through 4th grade female students in Norristown.
• Carrie Biegler ($933): Funding will support artist Carrie Biegler’s photo exhibition The Strength Source Project on view at the Abington Art Center.
• Academy Community Concerts Association ($869): Funding will support a series of four classical music events presented to the public.

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