In Tuesday’s (6/12) Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), Jon W. Sparks writes, “The neighborhood around the Stax Museum of American Soul Music will receive an arts-based revitalization through a $678,000 grant that will be awarded today. The grant comes from ArtPlace, a Chicago-based collaboration of foundations, banks and federal agencies that works to improve communities around the country with strategic investments in the arts. Former Memphian Carol Coletta is executive director of ArtPlace. The revitalization plan will be carried out by local partners Community LIFT, an economic and community development organization, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, which has been mentoring students at Soulsville Charter School since 2007. … The grant provides funding for the MSO to do a year of programming in the neighborhood, including concerts aimed at children and adults, and leadership training. … Rhonda Causie, director of grants and innovation at the MSO, was instrumental in crafting the grant proposal. She noted that the symphony had a history with Stax Records, having provided string players to the recording studio in its heyday. Now, the MSO is committed to community outreach. ‘To be sustainable, we really have to be very much about relevance and service in the community, so we’ve transformed ourselves. What we’ll be doing is very deep work in the Soulsville community, like an artist residency.’ ”
Posted June 13, 2012
