P.I.C.K Program to benefits from initiative formed by RCAC, FAFA and PFL
The Rockingham County Arts Council has received $15,950 from Reidsville Area Foundation to support a strategic partnership between leading arts organizations across Rockingham County.
Funding will enable three organizations to keep their doors open through the end of the year, and another to continue a youth music program through the summer. Local arts organizations rely on fundraising events and fees from classes in order to stay open; however, the health crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic created a sharp drop in traditional revenue sources.
“Without rescue funding, we were looking at losing major pieces of our local arts infrastructure,” said Rockingham County Arts Council Executive Director Jenny Edwards. “We wanted to do more than merely save the organizations so we challenged ourselves to consider how the arts could come out of the pandemic stronger than ever.”
In addition to stabilizing four organizations financially, the project intends to build resiliency among six critical art nonprofits across Rockingham County through the creation of the new RoCo Art Alliance, an initiative started by Rockingham County Arts Council, Fine Arts Festival Association and Piedmont Folk Legacies.
RoCo Art Alliance’s first collaborative project is a series of artist/maker workshops to document life in Rockingham County during pandemic. The virtual programs are intended to connect participants, give voice to their experiences during the pandemic, and create a body of work to be publicly displayed when the health crisis is over.
The artist/maker workshops will be held online and will be free and open to the public. The project’s website is under development at www.rocoartalliance.org.
The founding partnership organizations of RoCo Art Alliance are Rockingham County Arts Council, Fine Arts Festival Association, Piedmont Folk Legacies, Mayodan Arts Center, Art in the Garden and Theatre Guild of Rockingham County.
Additional support for the project comes from Sheetz, Inc. through their support of Piedmont Folk Legacies P.I.C.K. program and North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.
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