The Asheville Area Arts Council has awarded grants to support five innovative, arts-based ideas in the inaugural year of the Arts Build Community grant cycle. This program is sponsored by Buncombe County and Wicked Weed Brewing, and projects were chosen for inspiring diverse groups of participants to be more active, involved, and civically-engaged by creating together. The following projects were chosen for their high artistic merit, fiscal responsibility, and their connection within the community. 2018-19 Arts Build Community Grant Awards: $1,200, American Myth Center: Boxcar Theatre for shows that investigate realities of our home, history, and community. $1,200, Asheville Writers in the Schools and Community: 10-week residency working with educators, students, and their families to create personal and family narratives and poetry that draw on place, culture, and community. $1,000, Hola Community Arts: Hola Asheville festival brings the sights, sounds, music, pageantry, colorful costumes, and talent of Latin America to downtown Asheville. $1,000, Oakley Elementary: “The Leader in Me”, a collaborative mural project with local muralists and students to complete multiple murals in common areas of the school. $600, Poetry Pathways: Public Art project located on the 13 Bones Bridge intended to celebrate poetry and make it accessible to the public. The Asheville Area Arts Council (AAAC) believes that all people deserve art and culture in their lives. All people, their culture, and their art contribute to the meaning and understanding of our humanity and should be honored and celebrated. The AAAC plays a unique and essential role to ensure the arts contribute to the well-being and prosperity of all in Buncombe County. Arts and culture can be a vehicle to spark conversations, to spur social change and make our communities strong, healthy, and above all equitable. We acknowledge that there is no one perfect way to achieve equity, but we are willing to take risks because there is much work to do. A big thank you goes to the volunteer peer panelists who took time out from their busy schedules to meet in March to review all the applications. Panel members for the 2018-19 Arts Build Community grant review process included Cortina Caldwell of LEAF Community Arts, John Almaguer of Asheville Art Studio Tours, Alli Marshall of Mountain Xpress, Gael Perry Pearson community equity advocate, and Cherry Saenger AAAC board member. Panelists are artists, arts administrators, and respected community leaders. If you think you would like to be on one of the AAAC grant panels, please call Janelle at AAAC, 828.258.0710. The AAAC hopes to grow this fund to build opportunity for more projects in the future through the Arts Build Community donation campaign. Individual directed donations will be used to fund applications of the Arts Build Community Grant in FY 2019-20. Please contact Janelle Wienke or Stefanie Gerber Darr at the Asheville Area Arts Council for more information.