From Brian Zachary, secretary, Creston: Arts
Creston
I want to thank the city of Creston for giving Creston: Arts $5,000 from the hotel/motel tax fund. This money will allow us to meet all of our tourism related programming goals. That $5,000 will pay for new carpet and expenses for the Depot Gallery, Chalk the Town, Creston: Arts Uptown, the public piano project and maintenance on our web page and social media. These are all programs that Creston: Arts has created to bring people to Creston and get them into businesses.
In addition, Creston: Arts has raised over $7,000 to cover the costs of programs like summer art camp, open mic nights, social canvas events and a series of screen printing workshops for next year. These are all programs Creston: Arts has designed to enrich the cultural lives of the people in this community. But that is not the big give. The real value is that in addition to giving our money, Creston: Arts has given up 2,312 hours of volunteer time. At $10 an hour, that is $23,000 worth of labor that we give to provide programs that enhance and enrich this community.
The historical mural on Elm Street was not funded by the city council because they do not think it is safe to have a mural there. There are other places for murals around town. Creston: Arts is here to assist the city with volunteer labor and facilitation for any public art project they wish to undertake in the future.