Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Announces Grant Recipients
Date Posted: 1/4/2006
For further info contact:
Penn Dameron, 828-687-7234
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The Board of Directors of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area today announced 20 grants totaling more than $330,000 in funding designed to preserve and promote Western North Carolina’s heritage.
After announcing its grants program in September, 2005, the Heritage Area received a total of 92 applications. The large number and high quality of the applications meant this grant cycle was highly competitive, said Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Executive Director Penn Dameron. “There is so much interest in our cultural heritage here in Western North Carolina,” Dameron noted. “The Board selected the projects which showed the most promise to both preserve that heritage and stimulate increased economic opportunity in the region.”
Awards were made in three general categories: Living Traditions, Marketing, and Product Development. Grants announced include:
$10,000 for post-production and marketing of the film Rank Strangers: The Story of Mrs. Hyatt’s OpraHouse by 6;14 Films;
$19,166 to Appalachian State University, for a web-based museum exhibit featuring Western North Carolina traditional songs from 1825 to 1945;
$5,000 to Blue Ridge Food Ventures, for development of a website and online scheduling;
$29,900 to Cherokee County, for developing the Konehete Trails Network (contingent upon successful review by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History);
$5,200 to City Seeds, Inc., for an outdoor exhibit documenting the contributions of Asheville’s Jewish business owners to downtown development;
$20,000 to the Cradle of Forestry, for a new documentary film about the Biltmore Forest School;
$15,313 to The Crossnore School, for development of its Weaving Room museum;
$14, 400 to the Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes, for development of a regional tour linking locations of Benjamin F. Long frescoes;
$30,000 to the Grove Arcade Public Market Foundation, for marketing of its Maps in Motion Exhibition on the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area region;
$38,000 to HandMade in America, for development of the Appalachian Quilt Trails Project;
$8,550 to Henderson County Travel & Tourism, to develop an Internet inventory of natural, cultural and heritage-based assets;
$10,000 to John C. Campbell Folk School, to produce a compact disc of traditional music of the mountains of southwestern North Carolina;
$15,000 to the Mitchell County Development Foundation, to help market the county as The Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree;
$11,000 to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, to enhance heritage tourism in Cherokee;
$6,000 to One Dozen Who Care, Inc., to help preserve on film, on tape, and in writing, the African American musical tradition in Far Western North Carolina;
$34,400 to the Partnership for the Future of Bryson City/Swain County to develop a Cultural Heritage Trail and Outdoor Museum;
$20,000 to the Penland School of Crafts, for expansion of its visitor lobby and gallery space;
$10,000 to the Surry Arts Council, to develop a multimedia educational drama celebrating radio station WPAQ’s live “Merry-Go-Round” broadcast;
$19,000 to the Town of Forest City to develop an interactive, multi-media exhibit featuring oral histories of mill workers at the Florence Cotton Mill heritage center;
$8,800 to Wilkes Community College for planning and preproduction work on its “MerleFest at 20” project
Funded by the federal dollars the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area receives, the grant awards will help support diverse initiatives across the North Carolina mountains, ranging from Cherokee and African-American folkways and traditions to craft, music, natural heritage, and the region’s legacy in agriculture and manufacturing.
Established by Congress in 2003, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area recognizes and celebrates the natural abundance and richly varied cultural history of the North Carolina mountains. The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area is comprised of the counties of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, McDowell, Macon, Madison, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, and Yancey as well as the Qualla Boundary. The Heritage Area board and staff foster close working relationships with, and assist, all levels of government, the private sector, and local communities in managing, preserving, protecting, and interpreting the cultural, historical, and natural resources of the North Carolina mountains while helping to develop economic opportunities. The Heritage Area’s Board of Directors is appointed by HandMade in America, AdvantageWest, the Education and Research Consortium of WNC, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Governor.
For more information, contact:
Penn Dameron
Executive Director
Blue Ridge National Heritage Area
3 General Aviation Drive
Fletcher, NC 28732
Office: 828-687-7234, extension 115
Mobile: 828-329-1561
pdameron@awnc.org
www.blueridgeheritage.com
The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government.
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"As a life-long resident of western North Carolina I can’t imagine a more beautiful or diverse place to live and work."
D. Samuel Neill
Attorney-At-Law & AdvantageWest Board Member
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