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Ky. women's foundation awards 32 arts grants

Herald-Leader Staff Report

The Kentucky Foundation for Women has awarded 32 Art Meets Activism grants totaling $100,000 to feminist artists and social change organizations across the state.

The Art Meets Activism program supports a wide variety of individual artists and organizations committed to using the power of art to create social change.

Recipients in Central and Eastern Kentucky are:

The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, $5,000 to continue the Young Women Writers Project, which provides opportunities for diverse and talented young female writers to explore writing and literary performance techniques.

The Chrysalis House in Lexington, $1,000 for women at the center to participate in the Clothesline Project, an annual event that involves making T-shirts to raise awareness about violence against women.

The Kentucky Women Writers Conference in Lexington, $4,800 to bring four featured presenters Elizabeth Alexander, Holly Goddard Jones, Gina McCauley and Rachel McKibbens to the annual conference.

The Media Working Group of Lexington, $4,000 to collaborate with the Gateway Regional Arts Council to present a series of writing and performance poetry workshops for 25 girls.

Wendy Fosterwelsh of Ashland, $3,700 to provide weekly mixed media art workshops for women at a domestic violence shelter.

The Appalachian Heritage Alliance in Campton, $6,000 for a series of writing retreats for women and teenage girls led by four Kentucky feminist authors.

Appalshop in Whitesburg, $4,300 to support a playwriting, radio and online project that engages incarcerated women in Eastern Kentucky in community-based theater.

The Jenkins Independent School, $3,000 for two Appalachian feminist artists to engage a group of middle and high school girls from southeastern Kentucky to participate in a series of story-sharing, songwriting and mixed media journaling workshops.

Vanessa Little-Hall of Virgie, $5,000 to build a network of support for women in the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky and encourage women to engage in a variety of art forms.

Judy Sizemore and Octavia Sexton of McKee and Orlando, $4,000 to collect oral histories from five Eastern Kentucky women who have been affected by mountaintop removal, and to create a performance from the women's stories.

Mona Powell of Union College's London Center, $3,000 to incorporate a feminist component into an existing arts-based program for recovering drug addicts.

Pat Banks of Richmond, $4,000 to present a workshop for feminist artists to learn about the Kentucky River watershed and create art about the river.

Denise Roberts McKinney of Berea, $1,000 to interview and compile a book of stories of "granny women" in Appalachia.

The foundation is accepting applications through Sept. 4 for the Artist Enrichment Grant Program. It supports professional development for feminist artists and arts organizations committed to positive social change. For more information visit www.kfw.org.