ArtsDollar$ Grant

The Gerald M. Brookhart Spring Arts in Education Celebration received a $2,000 grant. These dollars will allow them to maintain and increase District 150 participation in this non-competitive forum for students in PreK-12th grades to showcase bands, choruses, choirs, performances, dance, and jazz at the Peoria County Courthouse Plaza.

Nitsch Theater Arts’ Youth Shakespeare Experience and Festival received $2,500. This grant will allow them to expand the free Youth Shakespeare Weekend to summer/youth programs in traditionally underserved areas of Peoria.

Arc Light Production’s Summer Community Youth Theatre received $1,085. Local rural students will benefit from an expansion of hiring directors, choreographers, and coaches to make community theater accessible and fulfilling for kids and adults of all ages.

Artist Jessica Bingham received $415, and she  will use the grant to fund her “I Love You More Than You Do” solo exhibition at the Peoria Art Guild, featuring new paintings that are free and open to the public to view.

Wraith R. Muhammad’s “Annie Malone Music Video” received $1,000, which will help bring the song and story of American’s first Black woman millionaire to Manual High School students, as well as the message of positive hip hop to educate and inspire.

Filmmaker Allison Walsh’s project “Hay Dreams” received $1000. It is a film about, for, and made by an underserved population in Peoria to highlight the complicated and nuanced drag culture in the area by prioritizing working with creators who identify as LGBTQ+, people, of color, and women.

“Art Knows No Bounds,” a project by teacher Mary Keltner at the Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Education Center, received $2,500. “Art Knows No Bounds” is designed to build a bridge between the world of art and early childhood education by fostering a variety of inclusive art experiences that focus on the process of creating as opposed to the products created. A Zine highlighting the unique world of Valeska Hinton and its impact on the lives of young children for the last thirty years will also be created.

$1,000 was awarded to the Peoria Instrument Project for an Instrument Repair Workshop for Music Educators. This intensive music workshop will provide necessary skills for music educators (mainly in Title I schools) to perform basic, routine, and emergency instrument repairs, eliminating one of the largest expenses for band programs.