Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood — Three local organizations have received close to $100,000 in grant funding from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
The Historic Ironwood Theatre, Downtown Art Place and the Friends of the Porcupine Mountains combined to receive $97,110 in grants.
In Gogebic County, the theater was awarded a pair of grants, as was the DAP — although neither received the full amounts requested.
The theater received $18,750 of the $25,000 requested in one application and $18,072 of the $36,145 in the other. The DAP received $22,288 of the $44,576 requested in one application and $12,500 of the requested $25,000 in another.
Both of the $25,000 grants were for operational support grants to help with day-to-day costs of the organizations.
“(It can be used to) subsidize art education, it can be used in any way the board decides to subsidize the operations of the Downtown Art Place — including marketing, even building costs,” DAP treasurer Annette Burchell explained.
The $25,000 request was the largest amount an organization their size could apply for, according to theater operations manager Bruce Greenhill.
He said the theater not only scored high enough that it was awarded 75% of its request, it also qualified to receive operational funds for three years without having to reapply.
“To get the three-year (guarantee), that’s just great. It means we can devote our energies to looking for other grants and applying for grants from other sources, because we know we’ve got that (funding in place),” Greenhill said.
He said the theater’s annual budget is in the ballpark of $200,000 and comes through a combination of grants, donations and operational revenue.
The other two grants are for capital improvement purposes and designed to help fund specific projects at both the theater and the DAP respectively.
Greenhill said the theater — which has used capital improvement grants in the past two years to help fund work on its boilers and roof — will use the $18,072 towards a $72,000 upgrade to its sound system. He credited the hard work of the theater’s grant team for the high quality of the theater’s grant applications.
Even though the theater only received half of its request, Greenhill said it is awaiting news for another grant application that is also going toward the sound improvements.
Even without that news, the successful grant and a variety of donations have given the theater board enough confidence Greenhill said it is proceeding with the improvements.
Once installed, Greenhill said the improvements will make the theater’s system “second to none” and allow for a fuller spectrum of sound without needing to raise the volume. This will also increase the possibility of the theater attracting larger acts.
Burchell said the DAP’s $22,288 capital improvement grant is intended for a project to improve the building’s wiring.
“It was applied for electrical upgrades to the building, primarily to the second floor where our art studios are,” she said, adding the DAP’s first floor had previously been rewired.
“We’re quite thrilled to have gotten support for needed improvements to our historic building,” Burchell continued.
Although the capital improvement grant won’t cover the entire cost of the project, Burchell said the DAP’s board will meet and decide whether to focus on a portion of the project or work to combine the grant funds with other income sources to complete the entire project.
The groups have until September 2020 to use the funds in both grants, Burchell said.
The Ironwood Historical Society’s application for $31,750 wasn’t awarded funding.
In Ontonagon County, the Friends of the Porkies received $25,500 of the $30,000 requested. The funding will go toward the annual Porcupine Mountains Music Festival.
Cheryl Sundberg, the festival director and a lifetime member of the Friends of the Porcupine Mountains, said the group applies for the grant each year to help fund the music festival.
“Because we are a culturally underserved area, we do apply for that and we’re very grateful to get it,” she said.
Sundberg said although the reviewers were tough, the group received its best ever score and was one of the select few organizations that scored high enough to be awarded 85% funding.
“It’s very exciting. We’re a grassroots festival, we are put on with volunteer power — we have about 150 volunteers involved with the project — and it’s just a really good thing for our area,” Sundberg said, adding the festival draws performers that would never perform in the Ontonagon region without the festival.
Planning is underway for the music festival’s 16th year.
The $97,7110 in grant funding for Gogebic and Ontonagon counties — along with grants in six other counties — resulted in a total of $678,360 being awarded to the Upper Peninsula.
