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The Rose Center serves five East Tennessee counties as a Designated Agency of the Tennessee Arts Commission, overseeing the Arts Build Communities (ABC) grant program. For fiscal year 2022, nine organizations in Cocke, Jefferson, Claiborne and Hamblen counties received grants totaling $13,695 through The Rose Center.

“These organizations have found creative ways to continue their arts programming and are dedicated to serving their communities,” said Beccy Hamm, Executive Director of The Rose Center.

CWEET (Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee) will present their Art & Gardening Festival in April of 2022. The festival, which will happen near the Pigeon River, features art and gardening workshops as well as local musicians and food.

Cumberland Gap Artists Cooperative hosted their Harvest Moon Fall Festival in September of 2021. The festival showcased traditional Appalachian culture with art, crafts, music, dance and storytelling.

ETHRA (East Tennessee Human Resource Agency) will have art from local college students printed onto banners that will be displayed at bus stops for this new bus system.

Encore Theatrical Company will produce “Children of Eden,” the 2022 show for their Young Stars Series. Young people ages 5-18 will rehearse and execute six performances in late spring of 2022.

Girls, Inc. will work with artist Jim Hodge to create a Mixed Media Mural to be installed on an exterior wall of their facility in early summer 2022. Alumni, board members, community volunteers and girls in the after-school program will work together on the project.

Highlander Center received support for their Virtual 2021 Homecoming event in September. The funds were used for professional fees and honoraria for artistic programming for their 89^th Homecoming.

Lincoln Memorial University presented their Mountain Fiesta in October 2021. Funds were used for professional fees for the “headline” band for this festival, which highlights the intersection of Appalachian and Latin American music, food and art.

Morristown High School East will present the Young Artists Workshop, headed by Carol Rouse, a free after school art program for children in grades K-6, scheduled for the spring of 2022. This year it will be a virtual program.

Mossy Creek Foundation will present Hometown Christmas: Light the Night. Local artwork and photographs from historic local Christmases past will be projected on a large screen, and will include a laser light show.

Eighty percent (80%) of the funds for these grants come from the sale of Tennessee Specialty License Plates. Forty percent (40%) of the extra fee for any of these plates and 90% of the fees for the ARTS plates goes to the Tennessee Arts Commission.

ABC grants are available to nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies (schools and libraries, for example) in all 95 Tennessee counties.The ABC grant program is designed to provide support for arts projects that broaden access to arts experiences, address community quality of life issues through the arts or enhance the sustainability of asset-based cultural enterprises.

The Rose Center, located at 442 W 2^nd North Street in Morristown, is a United Way Agency and a Designated Agency of the Tennessee Arts Commission. The nonprofit arts organization hosts classes, concerts, a professional art gallery, a local artists shop and business and party rentals.

For more information, log onto: www.rosecenter.org.