An Athens Nonprofit is among the agencies receiving an award from more than $25 million in grant funds. The National Endowment for the Arts is announcing its first major funding declaration for fiscal year 2018.
AthFest Educates is receiving a $10,000 grant from the organization for this year’s festival. Jill Helme is the Executive Director of AthFest Educates.
"It's one of those things. There have been so many things that the AthFest planning committee has been wanting to do for years to help improve the festival. But there just haven't been the extra resources to make those happen," said Helmes. "So this is the money that's going to be able to help us implement some of those changes we've been wanting to make."
Helme says the money must be used on the festival and cannot be used for AthFest Educates grants.
"This is the 22nd year now of the Festival. So you know there's a long history of knowing what needs to happen and the vision for what we want the festival to be, but being able to have the resources available to do that has always been a challenge. So it's wonderful to be able to have this gift from the NEA," said Helmes.
But she says AthFest will still benefit.
"By supporting the festival we are supporting AthFest Educates. So we're hoping the pieces that we're able to implement will help increase the profitability of the festival which will in turn help us to reward more grants through the AthFest Educates piece," said Helmes.
This is the second time AthFest Educates has applied for the grant and the first time the organization has received it.