CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More grant funding from the state is going out to fairs and festivals across West Virginia.
Gov. Jim Justice announced on Tuesday the award of 64 additional grants, worth $1,144,010 from the Governor’s Contingency Fund, to help various organizations that host fairs, festivals, or similar events.
Justice said this is to bridge the gap in a year where such events were forced to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was reported to me that many of our fairs and festivals were on the ropes,” Justice said in a release. “The people that are putting on our fairs and festivals are doing this because of their love for our state and our communities. But they’re not flush with extra dollars and, at the end of the day, when something happens like what happened, where we had to stop our fairs and festivals, it put us in jeopardy of losing many of them altogether.
“To me, that’s just not acceptable. I’m a real believer that these events are a part of our identity, part of the fabric of who we are. We have to be able to help preserve our fairs and festivals and keep them going and I’m really proud to be able to do this.”
This was the second grant funding announcement for fairs and festivals in as many weeks. Justice awarded more than $1.5 million last week to 330 fairs and festivals across the state.
Fairs, festivals and organizations receiving the funding as part of Tuesday’s announcement includes more than $60,000 for the Charles T ‘Chuck’ Mathena II Foundation in Mercer County, around $59,000 for the Ohio WV YLA in Tucker County, $46,899 to the Carnegie Hall Inc in Greenbrier County, and $120,000 to the West Virginia Public Theater in Monongalia County.
VIEW: Full list of fairs, festivals and organizations funded
According to Justice’s office, 52 grants, worth a combined amount of $451,790, were awarded to organizations that normally receive funding for their fairs and festivals through Preservation WV Grants. Ten grants, worth a combined amount of $688,220, were awarded to individual arts line items that were included in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget. And two grants, worth a combined amount of $4,000, were awarded to a pair of additional festivals in Bluefield.
“Governor, today we come together again to celebrate your recognition of the importance of the arts and how they contribute to our communities throughout the state, especially our fairs and festivals,” West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History Curator Randall Reid-Smith said in a release.
“The arts, as creative enterprises, make significant contributions to our state and local economies, defining who we are and promoting the diversity and uniqueness of who we are as a people, and the heart of the creativity in our state is our fairs and festivals.”