Area group, SEMO get $19,000 in state grants

The Southeast Missouri Arts Council and Southeast Missouri State University are recipients of $19,397 in grants from the Missouri Arts Council.

The grants are part of the first phase of grants the state arts council will award to state not-for-profit organizations for fiscal year 2005. So far, the council has awarded 248 grants totaling $2 million to support various arts programs.

Although the local arts council applies for and receives state grants every year, this year's $16,769 award is an improvement from the $5,600 it received last year.

"We're really happy with this amount," said arts council director Becky Fulgham. "It will be a tremendous help."

Fulgham said more paperwork will have to be filled out before the money is allocated, but the money will likely go toward paying for monthly exhibits, administration costs, ArtsCape and Coyote Tails, a new children's theater that will open in April.

The university received $1,000 for the English department's "The Cape Rock" poetry and photography journal, which is published twice a year.

Editor Harvey Hecht said the journal would probably not survive without the Missouri Arts Council grant, which the journal receives every year. Last year, however, was an exception, because the grant application request was lost in the mail.

As a result of not receiving the grant last year, only one issue of "The Cape Rock" was produced.

The University Museum received $1,628 for an exhibit by artist Kay WalkingStick on Oct. 8.

"Kay is a major contemporary artist," said museum director Dr. Stanley Grand. He said the university is interested in bringing nationally known artists to Cape Girardeau and grants such as the Missouri Arts Council's allows them to do that.

The state arts council is a division of the of the Missouri Department of Economic Development and is the state's grant-making agency for the arts. It receives grant and operating expenses money from the Missouri Cultural Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts and an appropriation from the Missouri Legislature.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

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