For Immediate Release
May 10, 2007

Contact:
Lauren Norton, 404.588.3182, lnorton@atlcf.org
Lisa Cremin, 404.588.3200, lcremin@atlcf.org

Metro Arts Organizations Get Stabilization Grants
Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund awards $500,000

Seven metro area arts organizations were center stage today when they received a total of a half million dollars given by the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund at its annual awards luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, downtown. The sold out event, popular with arts leaders and business leaders alike, drew more than 650 guests. The arts groups will use the grants, ranging from $20,000 to $110,000, to create much needed staff positions, increase facility improvements and support management consulting.

This year’s recipients are:

• Art Papers - $110,000
• Conyers Rockdale Council for the Arts - $75,000
• Northeast Atlanta Ballet Ensemble - $75,000
• PushPush Theater - $68,000
• Several Dancers Core - $50,000
• Spruill Center for the Arts - $20,000
• Theatrical Outfit- $75,000
• Arts Stabilization Toolbox - $27,000

Full description of each grant availble at www.MetroAtlantaArtsFund.org.

The Arts Fund, a partnership of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, provides grants exclusively to small and mid-sized arts organizations with budgets of less than $1.5 million.

One of the organizations, Spruill Center for the Arts, will receive an additional $50,000 from the Fidelity Investments through the Fidelity Foundation in a co-funding relationship with the Arts Fund. The Arts Fund also was instrumental in getting four of the grant recipients free airtime packages awarded by WPBA television and WABE radio to complement marketing efforts.

“This year our average grant size is 26% larger than our grants last year. We believe that larger grants, often funded over several years are the most effective at achieving our stabilization mission,” said Lisa Cremin, Arts Fund Director.

The Arts Fund also announced Arts Stabilization Toolbox Awards that were given to 12 arts organizations over the course of the year.

The luncheon featured data filled testimonials from more than 30 Atlanta area arts organizations, reporting on the impact of grants received from the Arts Fund in the past 15 years.

Arts Fund History:

In 1992 The Community Foundation and the Metro Atlanta Chamber came together with a common interest in building and sustaining the arts in Atlanta. This nationally unique partnership between a foundation and a business membership organization was formed to address a gap in Atlanta’s arts funding. The Coca-Cola Company issued a $500,000 challenge grant that was then matched by corporate, foundation, public and private individuals, and the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund was created. As a longtime trusted grantmaker, The Community Foundation was asked to be the steward of the endowment. Through the Arts Fund, donors found a way to add to the stability of metro Atlanta’s hundreds of small and mid-sized arts organizations. Grants in the amount of $150,000 were awarded to arts organization in 1993, the first year of grantmaking.

For more information about the Arts Fund, go to www.MetroAtlantaArtsFund.org or contact Lisa Cremin, Director, at 404-688-5525 or lcremin@atlcf.org.

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