The Community Arts Association in Newton County has been named a recipient of an extra funding boost from the state of Georgia this year.

The Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) is a specialized program of The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) that awards numerous grants across the state each year. This year, over $1.3 million in grant money has been awarded across 49 Georgia counties. 

The Community Arts Association in Newton County was one recipient of the General Operating Support Grant, giving them an additional $10,000 to go towards whatever operating expenses the group sees fit.

“Grants, we apply for them and sometimes we get them, sometimes we don’t,” said Abigail Coggin, operations officer of the Community Arts Association in Newton County. “But this one we happened to get is for our general operating support, which is very few and far between.”

The Community Arts Association works day in and day out to fuel the spirit and heart of Newton County living. They do this through constant programming, which includes the community band, their concert series, summer camps, as well as weekly classes in dance, acting, musical theater and choral singing.

Coggin explained that, though the organization relishes in being able to offer so many opportunities to Newton County, these services can be costly to maintain. As a nonprofit, much of their funding comes from donors, but Coggin said that every little bit counts.

“We never turn a child away because of their economic ability to pay,” Coggin said. “So we’re excited about that. But again, it costs money to do all of these things. And we do have generous donors in the community, and we apply for grants, but those are few and far between.”

This grant is especially exciting because it is for general operating support, which means that the money does not have a designated purpose that it must go towards. 

Oftentimes, grants can be hyper-specific, where the allocated funds come with stipulations as to how they will be used. But having such free rein with this award will allow the Arts Association to distribute the funds as they deem necessary.

“So many grants nowadays are specific,” Coggin said. “You can only use it for financial assistance, or you can only use it for costuming or whatever it may be. And so I wish more people would have those open-ended so that you can use it for operations, whether it may go to the programs or it may go to staffing or it may go to buy office supplies. There’s so many things that your hands sort of get tied in that red tape, and so it’s nice to have these grants that are operations.”

Newton County’s Community Arts Association was one of 104 nonprofit recipients of the general operations grant. According to the news release from the GDEcD, the source of the funding includes appropriations from the state’s General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Coggin echoed that economic development and local arts organizations go hand-in-hand.

“You want to attract people, corporations, businesses, to your area, and you need to have these activities that they can have their children enrolled in classes,” Coggin said. “The family can go for a free concert on the weekend. And having these things and activities, it brings the community together, but it is those diverse factions, whether it be the rural versus the urban, or your socioeconomic level, people of different ethnicities…”