Square Meal
Square Meal is a mini-grant opportunity for artists in music, dance, visual, theater, literary and film, arts organizations and other creative projects.
Arts Council of Kanawha Valley introduces a new opportunity for creative projects to get off the ground, Square Meal. The concept is taken from the international grassroots initiative called SundaySoup.org. The basic formula is that a group of people come together to share a meal at an affordable price. All or part of the income from that meal is given as a grant to support a creative project. Grant applications are accepted up until the deadline. Everyone who purchases the meal gets one vote to determine who receives the grant. The grants proposals meet 4 criteria and will be awarded at the discretion of the audience.
“We learned of this concept through CAFÉ Huntington and how it is impacting their community”, explains Naomi Bays, Chair of ACKV. “We decided to go forth and make this project our own and unique of the others on the Soup Network. So we developed Square Meal and wanted to include local restaurants and caterers to showcase their talents as well as the artists and the proposals.”
FestivALL was approached about becoming a partner for this project and establishing a base fund of $200 for each grant. Larry Groce, Executive Director of FestivALL stated, “This partnership allows FestivALL to continue encouraging artists and creative projects. It is a good fit and only more good events can happen in the area. We also may extend the opportunity to showcase some the winning projects during FestivALL 2012.”
Four grant proposals meeting the four criteria will be chosen by a panel of community members, representatives of each of the arts, and city officials. The selected presenters will have 4 -8 minutes to pitch their project to the audience. The winning grant will have 8 months to complete the present aspect of the project.
Tickets for the meal will be $16; $10 for the grant, $5 for the meal, $1 for ACKV. There will be limited seating and purchasing in advance is strongly encouraged. Tickets can be purchased online at http://artskv.org/support-ackv(online price is slightly higher) or mailed to ACKV 229 Capitol St. Charleston, WV 25301.