Arts & Entertainment Atlanta (A&E Atlanta) is pleased to announce the recipients of its first-ever grant program. Grants ranging from $5,000-10,000 have been awarded to seven artists and arts organizations. 

A&E Atlanta grant recipients in this inaugural cycle are: C4 Atlanta, Cat Eye Creative, Dance Canvas, Murmur Media, Ebony Blanding, Kris Pilcher, and Sara Santamaria. More information about the grant recipients can be found on A&E Atlanta’s newly launched website, AEAtlanta.com, as well as in this fact sheet. 

“2020 has been a challenge, especially for our creative community, and we are especially excited to announce our inaugural group of A&E Atlanta grant awardees,” said Fredalyn M. Frasier, Project Director of Planning and Urban Design at Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (CAP/ADID), who oversees the Arts & Entertainment Atlanta effort. “We look forward to experiencing what these artists and arts organizations have in store for Downtown in 2021. Equally exciting will be our next grant cycle in Spring 2021, during which we will have a larger allocation of funds to support the Atlanta arts community.” 

A&E Atlanta is a neighborhood activation and economic development project for Downtown Atlanta. The program fuses new outdoor media, local art, and advertising and funds cultural and public space programming in the city’s core. The effort is managed by the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID) and self-funds its management and programming through revenue-sharing agreements with media companies within the district. 

In 2020, its inaugural year, A&E Atlanta has been able to:

• Present outdoor, digital exhibits like In Light, curated in partnership with Dashboard and MINT;

• Utilize its digital signs to feature COVID-19 community PSAs and uplifting messages created by local artists and curated by Dashboard, Orange Barrel Media, Living Walls Atlanta, and the United Way of Greater Atlanta;

• Sponsor arts activations like The Juneteenth Takeover, curated by Power Haus Creative; and

• Support the ATL1000 mural celebration and the Atlanta Design Festival with digital displays.

A&E Atlanta will play a key role in PRISM: Winter Lights—returning to Woodruff Park for its second year on December 5—by piloting a projection mapping effort that will showcase animated paintings of local artist on the park’s International Peace Fountain water wall. 

For more information about Arts & Entertainment Atlanta, visit AEAtlanta.com.