18 recipients receive grants to celebrate Lexington’s 250th anniversary

Mayor Linda Gorton on Thursday announced 18 local residents and organizations will receive a total of more than $300,000 in honor of Lexington’s 250th anniversary next year.

The cultural grants, awarded as part of an initiative called 250Lex, will fund projects that celebrate Lexington’s “past, present and future,” Gorton said at a news conference Thursday.

“We been working hard to build the connection, to build the sense of community, the sense of belonging, but also a sense of celebration,” said Elisha Mutayongwa, executive director of the Marafiki Center, one of the grant recipients. “This grant allows us to be in real-life celebration of who we are as Lexington: a unity of nations and culture and value in who we are deeply in our hearts.”

Recipients will receive between $5,000 and $20,000 grants with initial payments being disbursed by Sept. 1. In all, 88 people and organizations applied.

Awardees

1. Kentucky Humanities

2. Allegro Dance Project

3. Bluegrass Youth Ballet

4. Mary Todd Lincoln House

5. Keeneland Library Foundation

6. Christine Kuhn

7. Marafiki Center

8. Greenroom Exchange

9. Lexington Children’s Theater

10. Faulkner-Morgan Archive

11. Carnegie Center

12. Black Yarn

13. M’Power Rhythm

14. Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra

15. OperaLex

16. Casa de le Cultura

17. Jeff Hoagland

18. A Sense of Place