CreateHere Awards Over $300,000 in MakeWork Grants

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CreateHere will award MakeWork grants totaling $301,226 this year—almost twice the initially publicized amount due to increased funding from the Benwood and Lyndhurst Foundations.

34 Chattanooga artists have been selected for MakeWork grants for the 2009-2010 grant cycle. Grant winners are being notified this week, and a complete list of recipients will be released next week.

Review the MakeWork finalists.

Read the press release after the jump.

CreateHere Awards over $300,000 in MakeWork Grants

Support for the Arts Flourishes in Economic Hard Times

CreateHere is pleased to announce that we’ve awarded MakeWork grants to 34 Chattanooga creatives. Grant monies come in at $301,226—nearly double the initially planned total—thanks to the strength and promise of this year’s applicants, in addition to generous support from the Benwood and Lyndhurst foundations.

In economic hard times, conventional wisdom tells us that creative individuals and enterprises take the deepest cuts; that creative work is, in fact, a dispensable luxury. But CreateHere couldn’t disagree more. We believe the arts are essential to developing and maintaining healthy local economies.

Case in point: In 2008, CreateHere awarded a MakeWork grant to Nick DuPey, a local graphic designer, to help in the opening of Young Monster. This screen-printing shop and design think-tank provides printing and consultation for local musicians, and already the economic impact has been multi-tiered, with musicians and designers making a real income off hand-made, locally produced goods.

Stories like Nick’s inspire us. We went into MakeWork 2009 promising $150,000 to local creatives, confident that this year’s applications would carry the same weight and promise as last year’s. When we received $1.3 million in requests—each application uniquely Chattanoogan, with potentially enormous economic implications—we recognized that local creatives were more productive than even we thought possible.

Where there is a need, there is certainly a way. Support from local foundations, plus the addition of $4,575 in application fees to the grant purse, made CreateHere’s vision to build Chattanooga’s cultural economy a reality through MakeWork. Our economic stimulus package gives local creatives the ability to pursue projects and advance their careers, and make real waves in Chattanooga’s economy.