Georgia Council for the Arts awards more than $600,000 for arts programs and arts buildings in 65 counties
The state arts agency named 80 grants on Nov. 6 in its second round for fiscal 2027. Seventy-two pay for programs in counties its first round did not reach; eight help repair or equip arts buildings.
Atlanta. The Georgia Council for the Arts announced on Nov. 6 that 80 grants worth more than $600,000 will go to recipients in 65 of the state's counties through its Vibrant Communities and Cultural Facilities programs for the 2027 fiscal year. The council is part of the Georgia Department of Economic Development; the money is appropriated by the General Assembly.
It is the council's second round for the year. In July it announced 179 General Operating Support, Project and Arts Education grants worth $1.3 million in 37 counties, and said the two smaller programs would follow in the fall. A year earlier, on Oct. 30, 2025, the same two programs gave $600,000 to 62 recipients in 48 counties.
Programs where the first round did not reach
Vibrant Communities grants pay for a single arts program, such as a mural, performances by artists in schools, a community theater production or a festival. They went only to counties where no organization had already received a council grant for fiscal 2027, the council said. Nonprofits, libraries, schools, colleges and local governments could request $1,000 to $5,000, with a match of half the request, for work between Oct. 15, 2026, and June 1, 2027.
The council's list names 72 of these grants. The Telfair Center for the Arts will hold a bluegrass concert, "Headin' Home," in McRae-Helena, and the Walker County Board of Education will run after-school visual arts workshops.
Eight arts buildings
Cultural Facilities grants pay for repairs, construction and equipment for arts buildings. Under the council's guidelines, only Georgia arts nonprofits with their own 501(c)(3) status and at least three years of arts programming, and local governments that own and run an arts facility, could apply; schools, libraries and colleges could not. Requests ran from $10,000 to $50,000. An applicant with operating expenses under $500,000 needed a cash match of half its request, a larger one a match equal to it, and the project must be finished by June 30, 2027.
President Theatre Inc. in Meriwether County will replace deteriorated windows and repair brickwork on a historic building that is to become the Manchester Arts Center, with a gallery, a classroom and a small performance space. The Creative Arts Guild in Dalton will build restrooms that meet the Americans with Disabilities Act. The other six are the City of Cedartown; Friends of Calhoun's GEM Theatre, which also received a Vibrant Communities grant; the Lowndes/Valdosta Arts Commission; the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon; the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta; and the Thomasville Cultural Center.
A Cultural Facilities recipient must wait two years before applying for the grant again. The council's list does not give the amount of each award. Details of the next cycle are due in December.
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