ARTPLACE AWARDS $1.5 MILLION IN GRANTS TO NEW ORLEANS ARTS ORGANIZATIONS

Doug MacCash notes in the Times-Picayune that the organization ArtPlace, which supports neighborhood revitalization projects driven by arts and cultural initiatives, has given $1.5 million dollars in a recent round of grants. The St. Claude Main Street and Civic Center has received $275,000 in order to “develop unused warehouse spaces into studio homes for artists,” as well as funding projects that bring together artists and local residents and to promote area galleries. Meanwhile, $250,000 has been directed to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, which will use the funding to renovate a nineteenth-century building in Treme into a center for indigenous arts. Finally, the nonprofit developer Artspace received $1 million to convert an unused school campus into a site for education and the arts. The new building will include seventy-three units of live-work space for low-income artist families.