Grants
Grassroots Art Center projects are underway after the announcement of local grant awards. The organization has received a grant award from the Russell Area Community Foundation for new exhibit displays within the Kathy Ruth Neal Gallery to be open Spring of 2024. In addition, Dane G Hansen Foundation has awarded the art center grant funding for two projects. The first award was announced on August 19th, 2022, for a video project with People Place Productions, and the second on February 17th, 2023, to redesign the art center’s front desk and gift area.
The Grassroots Art Center will be sharing the above video project via social media throughout the summer. The GAC History video was played at the retirement party of previous executive director Rosslyn Schultz on September 24th, 2023. A shortened version of this video was posted to social media on December 14th, 2022. The first artist video was shared on the art center’s social media of artist Carlos Espinosa of Salina KS on May 3rd, 2023. Rewatch these videos to prepare for the upcoming summer of videos! The artists to be featured during this series will be Bob Mix of Great Bend, KS (June) Marlynne Snare of Garden City, KS (July), Mri Pilar of Lindsborg, KS (August), Kathy Ruth Neal of Kansas City, MO (September). These videos were sponsored by Humanities KS in 2022 (Carlos Espinosa & Bob Mix) and Dane G Hansen in 2022/2023 (GAC History, Marlynne Snare, Mri Pilar, and Kathy Ruth Neal).
The Grassroots Art Center was also able to have the grand opening of the new and improved Gift Area on April 1st, 2023 at Lucas Annual April Fools-A-Palooza, where we had almost 300 visitors in town to experience the open studios, German meal, workshops, demonstrations and more!
Internships
In addition to these projects, the art center will be hosting two
summer interns, one through Nex Generation (On-Site Intern) and one through Ogallala Commons (Remote/Hybrid Intern).
The Nex Generation Intern will be Brooklyn Gosvener, a 2023-2024 Senior at Lucas-Sylvan High School. Brooklyn is returning for her second summer as the Nex Gen Grassroots Art Center intern and will spend her summer greeting guests, giving tours of the art center, selling gift items, and assisting with administrative duties within the art center’s daily activities.
The Ogallala Commons intern will be Marley Kendall, an undergraduate student from the University of Kansas, studying Art History. Her project will be focused on creating an interactive QR tour guide with videos, text, photos, and voiceover for the art center galleries, using an upcoming program called Logly, to learn more about Logly visit https://www.logly.world/ This internship is sponsored by Ogallala Commons, Russell Area Community Foundation, and the Russell County Economic Development. Visit the Grassroots Art Center Logly at https://www.logly.world/grassroots-art-center
