RedLine is a proud partner and administrator of the Arts in Society grant. This collaborative program provides grants to both individuals and organizations that use art as a vehicle to promote social justice and community welfare.
We love highlighting our Arts in Society (AiS) grant recipients and all the unique and impactful projects made possible by their grant.
We’re excited continue this series with the 2024 AiS Grantee: Tri Towns Arts!
Learn more about Tri Towns Arts and how they bring art experiences to youth on the plains to deepen connections within rural communities.
Tell us about your organization
While only 100 miles from Denver, Lincoln County is a rural community that lacks many of the assets of an urban area...particularly access to cultural and arts programming.
This lack is particularly acute for children, since schools on the Eastern Plains have had to cut back on arts education and activities.
To help fill those gaps, in 2021, arts advocates founded Tri-Town Arts, a partnership between the Lincoln County communities of Limon, Hugo and Genoa.
The goal was to bring art experiences to youth on the Plains, allowing them to experiment with making art themselves in summer camps. At the same time, Tri-Town connected parents with the potential for expanded options for their children.
Mural Painting Camp, July 15-18, 2024, Garage Workspace, Hugo, CO
“Art brings people together...particularly on the sparsely populated plains, where people can be separated by actual physical distances as well as a lack of cultural connections.”
Tell us about your first project that will utilize your Arts in Society Grant
During these camps, Tri-Town leaders have experienced many eye-opening moments of people connecting through creativity. One unexpected benefit of the camps is that home-schooled families have been participating in order to fulfill state educational requirements.
This past summer, Tri-Town hosted three one-week summer camps. In Genoa, artist Tim Flynn offered instruction in wire sculpture. In Limon, Denver artist Emily Moyer held a workshop in digital stop-motion animation. And at the Garage in Hugo, Audrey Sayles taught mural painting.
Sayles is with the Hugo-based Some Girls and a Mural, a bright spot on the rural arts scene that was recently featured on Colorado Public Radio Work from all of these classes was showcased at the Lincoln County Fair, the Hub City Car Show and the Pie Social at the World's Wonder View Tower in Genoa.
At one camp this summer, two kids were talking to each other and discovered that they lived on the same block in Limon—a town of just 2,000—but had never met because one was home-schooled. After a week working together on an arts team, they were not only colleagues, but friends.
Wire Sculpture Camp, July 8-11, 2024, Sentinel Building, Genoa, CO
What’s next in the pipeline for your organization? What other projects are you dreaming up for next year, and how will your Arts in Society grant help to support these efforts?
Art brings people together...particularly on the sparsely populated plains, where people can be separated by actual physical distances as well as a lack of cultural connections. Tri-Town addresses that, and the need continues to be acute.
Since the organization started, Hugo has lost its only arts teacher. Because of the continuing need and given the success of the first two years of workshops, Tri-Town Arts applied for funding to continue our programs and expand our concept to include adult participation beyond simply watching children participate.
We envision talented local adults learning new skills and techniques, so that they can help foster arts programming in their communities.
Mural Painting Camp, July 15-18, 2024, Garage Workspace, Hugo, CO
What was your experience like when applying for an Arts in Society grant? What tips would you share with artists looking to apply?
The application process was very simple for our organization. We appreciated the "Letter of Intent" step in the process—it was a good way to ensure a good fit for the Arts in Society grant before investing too much time and energy with a full grant application.
Once we were approved, it was a straightforward process of articulating our vision, sharing our budget projections, and including supporting materials.
Arts in Society 2024 Grantee Highlight: The Word
Learn all about their Arts in Society project [margins.] Literary Conference and Book Festival, and how The Word explores and builds collective, equitable models for writing, publishing, and bookselling.
Administered by RedLine, Arts in Society (AiS) is a grant program supporting cross-sector work through the arts across Colorado.
