Forward-thinking
Group hopes to boost Uniontown revitalization with new arts center A group of Fayette County residents is hoping that their forward-thinking, positive attitudes will help revitalize downtown Uniontown and give children ever-expanding opportunities to learn about the arts – but they need the community’s help to do it.
Uniontown Arts Fellowship Inc. is applying for a $250,000 grant through the Pepsi Refresh Project that will help purchase and revitalize a building downtown, and open the Phoenix Arts Center.
The center would initially offer many different mediums of art to underserved young people in the area, but the group hopes to expand the center and believe it has limitless possibilities.
“I really don’t see an end to the possibilities of where it could go, because you can find art in anything,” said the group’s treasurer, Carry Brown Attaway. “I get goose bumps when I think of the infinity of it.”
With one vote, once a day, members of the community can help the Phoenix rise, and start offering programs on music, theater, art, photography – and a bevy of others that are yet to come once the program takes off.
The concept of the Pepsi Refresh Project is simple: devise a plan that will help serve the community, and present it. The most popular two options by the time voting closes on Sept. 30 get the grant to put their program in place. A direct link to the site is published below.
Brenda Girod, co-chairwoman of the fellowship, said that the dream of opening an arts center has been one that many in the group have shared for years. But it wasn’t until recently they all came together, after group member Rebecca Gartley’s mother introduced some of the members to one another.
From there, things took off, Girod said.
“It was fate that we had this idea to do this and we all came together,” Girod said.
“We found fate guiding us, like there was something bigger propelling us that we should all work on this together,” Attaway said.
Danielle Lancaster, corresponding secretary, said that the members of the fellowship got together in October 2009 and started putting together a plan.
She said members of the nonprofit fellowship are forward-thinking people who believe that they can make the dream of an arts center a reality.
“All of us have gone into this envisioning that it’s going to happen, and believing in it. We’re totally focused on the idea that it’s going to be in Uniontown,” Lancaster said.
“In tough economic times, theater, the arts, dance – things like that really connect us to the people around,” Attaway said.
“In a time like this, when we need inspiration, this will provide it. The entire community benefits.”
The group members heard about the Pepsi Refresh Grant through television and radio commercials, and decided to apply. It took a few months for them to get accepted as one of the applicants in the category they wanted. The first- and second-place vote-getters in their category will each receive $250,000 grants.
Currently, the Phoenix program is in the middle of the pack in terms of applicants. The women all said that they have found businesses and schools willing to pass out fliers to encourage additional voting, and hope to reach as many people as they possibly can.
Girod said that the key to winning the grant is repeated voting.
“What’s going to win this is the people on there every day voting. It’s power in numbers,” she said.
Attaway said representatives from the fellowship have been forming relationships with representatives from other organizations, hoping that a cooperative effort will make the center move forward even quicker.
Everyone they’ve talked to it about has been excited about the prospect, Girod said.
“When we first started, we wanted to make sure we are on the right track. Now it’s out there for everyone to know about, and everyone thinks it’s a good idea,” she said.
While the initial plan is to offer programs to the youth of the area, Girod said that eventually, the hope is to expand the program so that it also serves adults, and to perhaps open up the center for programs like art therapy.
The group would also like to offer programs like horticulture, open a gift shop and have an art gallery.
“We want it to be a place where people can see that Uniontown is a great place. We want people to realize that they’re important and they can have some sort of purpose. We’re hoping this will help people realize there is something important in their lives, and something important they can give. Hopefully, that will bring a change,” Girod said.
The name of the center, the Phoenix, came from the mythical creature that dies and rises out of the ashes and has new life, Lancaster said.
“We really wanted to bring a different idea of what Uniontown is to our community, to give it new life,” she said.
Girod said that repurposing an old building for the center also fits in with that theme.
Attaway said she is hopeful that local art and music teachers, and guidance counselors will get on board the program and use it as a resource.
Lancaster said that the Phoenix will not be out there to compete with other agencies and entities that offer art programs, but will be there to enhance it.
For additional information on the Phoenix or the Uniontown Arts Fellowship Inc., contact Attaway at 724-880-1502 or carrie@thephoenixartscenter.org.
The direct link to vote is www.refresheverything.com/uafphoenixartcenter and votes also can be made by texting 102598 to Pepsi (73774).