West Side arts rely on CAC funding

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) is the public funder of arts and culture organizations in Cuyahoga County. Established by voters in 2007, CAC has awarded more than 300 cultural organizations over $125 million in grants helping make events like Parade the Circle, the lighting of Playhouse Square and Ingenuity Festival possible. In Bay Village and Westlake, it has been the largest funder of many organizations including BAYarts, Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, Clague Playhouse, Westlake Chinese School and Youth Challenge.

As has been witnessed across northeast Ohio, arts have been the seed to neighborhood revitalization and economic growth, providing jobs and a quality of life that had diminished or never existed. Like these neighborhoods, CAC funding has been the magic ingredient that has helped put the West Side on the map as a vibrant cultural destination that offers a diverse menu of choices. We no longer have to trek across the river to find life-enriching programming and events. It’s right here in our backyards.

You’ll be hearing a lot about CAC in the next few months as the tax will come up for renewal. Note: this is NOT an increase; merely a renewal of the 2007 tax. To learn more about Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and why it is such an important source of funding to the organizations listed above, visit their website at cacgrants.org or pick up literature in most of the funded organizations mentioned above.

– Nancy Heaton, BAYarts executive director

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Volume 7, Issue 14, Posted 9:26 AM, 07.21.2015