(Des Moines)– Several area organizations have been awarded funding through the Iowa Arts and Culture Recovery Program. Governor Kim Reynolds allocated $7 million in the state’s share of federal CARES funds to assist Iowa arts and cultural organizations, business and individual artists whose operations were impacted by the pandemic.
Locally, the Pearson Lakes Art Center was among those awarded funding through the program. Executive Director Bob Kirschbaum says they’ve been awarded $60,300…
“First of all we’re really excited about this opportunity to receive these funds and we want to thank the Governor and everybody else responsible for making that happen. Just to clarify really this is money to help reimburse the spending that occurred during the time of the pandemic. We had made some aggressive decisions when we were told we had to close the doors. We made the decision first of all we were going to keep all of our employees employed, that we weren’t going to lay people off. We made the decision that during the regular year that people are there for the Art Center. We felt that this was a time for us to be there for the community.”
Kirschbaum says it will help them recover atleast some of the revenue they lost through various events, classes and shows that they had to cancel…
“I think that’s basically half of what, maybe a little over half, of what we spent is reimbursed. But again we weren’t anticipating that we’d get any reimbursement, so we’re really grateful to get those funds.”
Other entities awarded funding through the program include Arts on Grand $5,300; $5,000 was awarded to Clay County Heritage; the Spencer Community Theatre $10,000; Historic Arnolds Park, Incorporated was awarded $41,300; the Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Music Association received $16,000 and the Emmetsburg Main Street Community Theatre was awarded $2,500.
