Allentown, PA, October 1, 2021—The Lehigh Valley Community Foundation (LVCF) was recently named as a regional partner agency of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA). Through the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts program, LVCF will work with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to distribute grant awards for projects or programs involving artists throughout Region 5, which includes: Carbon, Monroe, Lehigh and Northampton counties.
This program enables the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to reach a wider audience by increasing access to funds for organizations and artists across the state, thereby increasing statewide audience exposure to arts activities.
“The Lehigh Valley is home to a vibrant and growing creative sector, making the region a great place for residents and visitors alike,” said Karl Blischke, Executive Director of the PCA. “We are pleased to work with LVCF, through our PA Partners in the Arts re-granting program, to further strengthen quality of life in the Lehigh Valley through grant opportunities to the region’s many engaging arts organizations and programs,”
“Lehigh Valley Community Foundation is pleased to be selected as this region’s PCA partner. We look forward to assisting in achieving the PCA’s goal to promote equitable access for all Pennsylvanians to participate fully in a creative life and in the diverse forms of arts and culture in the commonwealth,“ said Megan Briggs, Director of Community Investments, Lehigh Valley Community Foundation.
Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts grants are divided into three categories: 1) Program Stream, 2) Entry to Program Stream, and 3) the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (see below)
Program Stream is an invitation-only grant opportunity which offers ongoing support to arts organizations and arts programs with an established history of funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA). Once admitted to this funding stream, organizations receive consistent general operating support for arts programming. The following organizations received grants in the 2020-2021 cycle:
- Appalachian Fiddle and Bluegrass Association
- Arts Community of Easton
- Bach and Handel Chorale
- Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission
- Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center
- Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem
- Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts, Inc.
- East Stroudsburg University Art Department
- Godfrey Daniels
- Lehigh Valley Community Broadcasters Association, Inc.
- Lehigh Valley Dance Exchange (Fractured Atlas, Fiscal Sponsor)
- Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild
- Mikayla’s Voice
- Moravian College Music Institute
- Pocono Bluegrass & Folk Society
- Pocono Concert Chorale
- Pocono Youth Orchestra
- Repertory Dance Theatre
- Ronald K. De Long Gallery at Penn State Lehigh Valley
- SATORI, Ltd.
- SouthSide Film festival
- The Allentown Band, Inc.
- The Camerata Singers
- The Shawnee Institute (The Shawnee Playhouse’s Worthington Players)
- Totts Gap Arts Institute
- Young People’s Philharmonic of the Lehigh Valley
Entry to Program Stream is a new funding opportunity that aims to provide valuable access to funding for small arts organizations and programs across the commonwealth. Entry to Program Stream will offer a new pathway for small arts organizations and programs across the commonwealth to receive ongoing, unrestricted general operating funds. Application guidelines will become available in November 2021.
The Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program is designed to pair access to existing small business consulting services with financial resources for creative entrepreneurs who aspire to start their own for-profit business or who operate an existing for-profit micro business. The Program’s purpose is to help creative entrepreneurs to grow their business, audience, and revenue. The opportunity to apply for the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program will be launched in Winter 2021. The funding process will operate on a rolling basis until funds are expended.
About the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA) Funding
This project was supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, through the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), its regional arts funding Partnership (Lehigh Valley Community Foundation – Region 5). State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in Region 5 by the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation.
Visit Council on the Arts PPA programs at the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation for more information.