In recent years the Kentucky Arts Council’s Arts Access Assistance grant has supported programs for senior citizens, Appalachian communities and Kentuckians with disabilities. For the 2017 fiscal year, the grant will focus on serving, through the arts, children with one or more parents who, for a variety of reasons, are separated from the family home for a long-term period.
Those reasons can include military deployment, long-term healthcare issues, incarceration or other institutionalization.
According to a September 2010 article published in American Psychologist, more than 2 million American children have had a military parent deployed at least once since 2001. A 2016 report issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that an estimated 135,000 children in Kentucky have had a parent incarcerated. These two different situations find common ground in children that are separated from one or more parents for an extended period of time.
“We identified this group of children as being especially vulnerable and in need of the creative outlet that art can provide,” said Lori Meadows, arts council executive director. “Children who are separated from a parent, for whatever reason, sometimes need a way to express how that makes them feel. We especially encourage the many support groups that exist for families affected by long-term separation to look at this grant and apply.”
Arts Access Assistance supports high-quality arts programming in environments where arts are not the primary emphasis, like libraries, cooperative extension offices, senior citizen centers, colleges and universities, state agencies and other similar organizations.
The deadline to apply for this round of Arts Access Assistance is 4:30 p.m. Jan. 17, 2017.
For more information or to find out if your organization is eligible to apply, contact Sarah Schmitt, arts council community arts and access director, at sarah.schmitt@ky.gov or 502-892-3116.
(story provided by the Kentucky Arts Council)
