FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Nadia Villagrán
nvillagran@lisc.org
(760) 641-3307
September 24, 2019 (Washington, D.C.) —Rural LISC continues its commitment to community-based organizations that serve rural communities all across the nation by providing $245,000 in grants to 19 community-based organizations that are working to strengthen and celebrate the unique character and identity of their communities through artistic and cultural activities. “Engaging with communities in this way stimulates economic growth, creates jobs and inspires residents to take pride and ownership over their communities,” says Suzanne Anarde, LISC Vice President and Rural LISC Director.
The grants represent outstanding projects and programs that strive to improve a community’s sense of identity and pride by creating cultural programming such as festivals and musical performances, often in reclaimed public spaces; and enhancing communities’ visual appeal with murals, eye-catching storefronts and sculptures. Some of the projects funded include:
The Delta Hot Tamale Festival – Greenville, MS
A free admission festival occurring on the third Saturday in October on Stein Mart Square in historic downtown Greenville. Last year’s event attracted well over 18,000 patrons, along with more than 170 food and arts and crafts vendors. Further, it received national publicity in media outlets including The New Yorker, Fox News and The Commercial Appeal. The Delta Hot Tamale Festival was also awarded the Delta Democrat Times Readers’ Choice Award for Festival of the Year in 2016 and 2017. It has been recently mentioned in The New York Times bestseller, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die,” and in the April/May edition of Garden and Gun Magazine in an article entitled “Celebrate the South: Fifty great things Southerners should see, do, cook, read, and drink—at least once.”
The Anahola Marketplace Identity Development – Kauai, HI
While the local community in Kauai knows that the Anahola Marketplace is an impressive, lively local arts district, visitors and tourists often do not. Because the tourism industry is such a large part of Kauai’s economic base, a top priority for this grant is to create more traffic to the Marketplace through improved curb appeal in the form of new signage, lighting and color accents. Attracting tourists and new foot traffic is an essential part of not only the Marketplace’s growth and stability, but also the expansion of the vendors into a global platform.
The Tamaqua “Choose Happiness” Mural – Tamaqua, PA
This project will kick off an event for a unique, yearlong comprehensive sustainable community planning process called “Tamaqua Choose Happiness.” This mural project is a key Creative Placemaking project and community engagement initiative that is part of a broader effort to develop a community plan centered on personal and community purpose, fulfillment, mental and physical health, financial health and connections – i.e., HAPPINESS!
The full list of grant award winners is as follows:
ABOUT RURAL LISC
Launched in 1995, Rural LISC is the rural component of the largest community development support organization in the country, called LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation). For 24 years, Rural LISC has listened to and partnered with rural communities, helping to forge innovative solutions that lead to prosperity and opportunity. Rural LISC provides a wide range of services, including financial support, training, technical assistance and information to help rural community developers address the problems rural communities face. This assistance comes in the form of loans and grants, national policy support and technical and management assistance. To date, Rural LISC’s investments in rural America have totaled $1.25 billion in grants, equity and low-cost loan funds. Rural LISC has leveraged this investment resulting in close to $3.3 billion from public and private sources, to produce 35,000 affordable homes and apartments, create four million square feet of commercial and community space, assist 700 businesses, create 12,000 jobs and support 20 early childhood centers. By generating resources and investing in the grassroots efforts of its 86 partner community-based organizations, Rural LISC is committed to making rural communities good places to live, work, do business and raise children. Learn more at www.lisc.org/rural.