Allegheny, Westmoreland arts groups receive portion of $2.3 million pandemic grants

Hundreds of nonprofit arts organizations will receive $2.3 million in pandemic relief grants Gov. Tom Wolf announced this week .

Out of the 309 recipients, 36 organizations will receive $50,000 each from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and 273 organizations will receive $1,930 from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA).

Of the larger awards from the NEA, Johnstown’s Learning Lamp and Community Arts Center of Cambria County were the only recipients in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Receiving PCA grants locally are the Westmoreland Cultural Trust, the Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festival, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Stage Right!, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra and Seton Hill University.

Also receiving money from the PCA are nearly 40 organizations in Allegheny County, including the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as well as groups ranging from the Balmoral School of Highland Piping & Drumming to the Tamburitzans.

“We feel very fortunate,” Anne Kraybill, the Richard M. Scaife director and CEO of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, said about the $1,930 award they received from PCA. “This will be to support all of the general operations and all of front-line staff.”

Kraybill explained that with all of the support the museum has received locally, regionally and nationally, all employees have been kept on staff.

“During the covid-19 pandemic, we quickly pivoted and created digital offerings for summer camps, studio classes and cooking demonstrations,” Kraybill said. “We really leveraged tools like Zoom, and we were able to quickly create a lot of content.”

The arts and cultural sector in Pennsylvania contributed $25.8 billion to the state’s economy and employed 176,000 workers in 2017, the PCA said in a statement.

“Pre-pandemic, Pennsylvania’s creative economy was critical to the vitality and livability of our communities and to development of our commonwealth’s talent pipeline,” said Karl Blischke, PCA executive director. “Support for these organizations today helps to ensure that they are positioned to play a key role in the recovery of Pennsylvania’s cities and towns going forward.”

The Westmoreland Cultural Trust, which runs The Palace Theater in Greensburg, was another recipient.

“It’s a relatively modest grant, but every bit counts,” said Teresa Baughman, director of operations and programming at The Palace. “That money will go among a few acts to provide some programming in a safe way.”

The Palace, with no performances for the past four months, might consider moving back to its roots as a movie theater, Baughman said.

The Palace opened in 1926 as a vaudeville theater and has 47 years of movie-showing history.

“Some of the family favorites would be fun to see in a large theater,” Baughman said. “Our primary concern is making audiences feel comfortable about coming here for an experience.”

The $2.3 million is funded by the federal CARES Act and will support staff salaries, fees for artists or contractual personnel and facilities costs, according to a statement.