The Almanor Recreation and Park District announced that it has received a $15,000 grant award from the Upstate California Creative Corps. The funds will be used to create two public murals by local artist and Chester High School art teacher Hillary Edwards.
The grant will fund all supplies and a stipend for the lead artist. Edwards is coordinating a team of high school art students and representatives from the Maidu community, who will help design and create two public murals on existing Connex containers measuring 9.5 by 20 feet each.
The containers are adjacent to the new community garden at Almanor Park in Chester. ARPD reports that one mural faces the garden and will be an integral part of that experience, showcasing the importance of a healthy lifestyle through outdoor activity, healthy eating, and social interaction through community gardening. The second mural, facing the street and ball parks, will celebrate the history and culture of the community.
With input from members of the Maidu Summit community, according to ARPD, Edwards will develop interpretive themes relevant to the natural and cultural features of the region and the role of the Maidu in the development of the area. She will also incorporate themes that tell the story of the importance of the timber industry in the Almanor Basin.
County arts agencies across California’s upstate region, led by Nevada County Arts Council, announced $3.38 million in grant awards to 27 partner agencies and 54 lead creative partners, with a total of 1,010 artists and culture bearers supporting initiatives serving California’s least represented peoples, and most vulnerable communities and environments.
The California Arts Council has stated that it views the Upstate California Creative Corps program as a job creation and human infrastructure development opportunity. Region by region, the program is focused on increasing the ways in which artists are engaged in public work, so that they can continue build upon intersectional public interest goals beyond the program’s pilot funding timeline.
Katrina Schneider, a core member of the Upstate California Creative Corps team, said, “A unique factor in the way we designed our program has been about building capacity for our smallest agencies, who successfully applied alongside much larger, more established entities, with or without the support of a grant writer, as well as a slew of individual artists and culture bearers, working solo and in tandem as serious change makers without previous access to funds and resources.”
For more information about ARPD, visit https://www.yourarpd.org or call (530) 258-2562.
Information submitted by Almanor Recreation and Park District
