$89,504 Awarded at ArtsAlive! BASH

“Keep Your ArtsAlive!” was the mantra of the summer. With such a steep decline in state and federal funding for arts and cultural organizations over the last few years, the Allegan County Community Foundation stepped in to organize ArtsAlive! to engage the community. Each vote for a favorite arts or cultural organization cost a dollar. One hundred percent of each dollar went back to the organizations Saturday night at the Keep Your ArtsAlive! BASH held at the Foundation. Each of the participating fifteen Allegan County non-profit organizations received a check equal to their votes. The five organizations with the most votes, however, also took home an additional $5,000 in prize money.

When the public and organizations last viewed the tally board, votes were at 21,539. Over the course of the remaining two weeks of the competition a voting frenzy began. By the time the event concluded at midnight on September 16th there were 64,504 votes!

Pictured here are the top five organizations and a listing of the total they received in voting dollars and prize money:

#5: Children’s Museum of Fennville: $9,270
#4: Allegan Area Arts Council: $9,744
#3: Mason Street Warehouse: $14,618
#2: Saugatuck Center for the Arts: $18,726
#1: Waterfront Film Festival: $21,655

Click on either image to see a larger version.	Identifying names for top 5 vote getters pictured: #1 - Dori DePree - Waterfront Film Festival #2 - Kristin Armstrong - Saugatuck Center for the Arts #3 - Ellen Engle - Mason Street Warehouse #4 - Linda Clark - Allegan Area Arts Council #5 - Mary Kasprzyk - Children's Museum of Fennville

As first place the Waterfront Film Festival also receives the ArtsAlive! traveling trophy to display until next year when the competition heats up again.

“The competition we have created for our arts and cultural organizations is twofold,” explained Allegan County Community Foundation CEO, Theresa Bray, “we don’t want to envision a community without theatre, art, music or local history. It is entirely possible to wake up one morning and learn of the closure of a local treasure. Keep Your ArtsAlive! is meant to stop that from happening by engaging all of our community members and tourists who enjoy what Allegan County has to offer. Over 650 people voted in ArtsAlive! this year. Those votes will keep many of our organizations afloat. All of those associated with ArtsAlive! share an immense sense of gratitude for those who sponsored and voted in ArtsAlive!”

The remaining organizations were awarded their voting dollars as well.
Plainwell Arts Council
Allegan Historical Society
Otsego District Library
Saugatuck-Douglas District Library
Mid-Lakes Chorus – Sweet Adelines
Otsego Historical Society
Allegan District Library
Allegan Community Players
Dorr Library Griswold Auditorium

For information on how to participate in or sponsor Keep Your ArtsAlive! in 2012, please contact the Foundation at: 269.673.8344.