The Urbana Public Arts Program awards grant money every year to local artists and organizations who will be making art to experience in Urbana.
The 2017 recipients have been announced on the Urbana Arts website, but will be officially celebrated this Friday from 5-7 p.m. at Pizza M.
The event is free and open to the public, and will give community members a chance to meet the people who will be bringing projects to fruition in the year to come!
The organizers are asking for email RSVPs as a way to gauge the crowd, but there is also a facebook event where you can click “going.”
The grants are awarded in four categories: Individual, Group, Nonprofit, and Festival. There are a lot of incredible names on this list (below), but here are a few about which I’m particularly excited:
- Latrelle Bright’s The Water Project
- Speak Life Project by Tasleem Jamila
- One People’s Summer Arts Camp art exhibition at the IMC
- Author Maggie Stiefvater visiting the Urbana Free Library
- Pens to Lens
- ISYM Hip-Hop
- Heartland Maker Fest
- Urbana First Fridays
But that’s just me… which of these are you most eagerly anticipating?