VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Thursday morning, the city of Virginia Beach announced they'd created a CARES Act Arts & Cultural Relief Grant Program to help those organizations recover from the financial impacts of the pandemic.
The program allocated almost $1 million to 19 organizations who had to cut back on business to follow COVID-19 capacity limits.
Emily Labows, the director of the Virginia Beach Cultural Affairs Department, said these nonprofits and cultural organizations faced "unprecedented hardships" during the pandemic.
“The arts are a source of inspiration, a bridge between communities and an economic engine for the City," she said. "This grant program reflects the City Council’s commitment to ensuring our local arts and cultural organizations survive through this period of adversity and remain strong well into the future.”
The city's release cited an Americans for the Arts study said Virginia Beach arts nonprofits and cultural centers bring in about $87.7 million in economic activity and 2,875 jobs every year.
That's not counting the hotel, restaurant or shopping revenue that comes from people visiting the area for those attractions.
These are the organizations who benefitted from the grant money:
- Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum
- Ballet Virginia
- Council of United Filipino Organizations of Tidewater
- Ferry Plantation House
- Little Theatre of Virginia Beach
- Military Aviation Museum
- Sandler Center Foundation
- Symphonicity
- United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
- Utopia Feni
- ViBe Creative District
- Virginia Beach Art Center
- Virginia Beach Chorale
- Virginia Beach Events Unlimited (Neptune Festival)
- Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum
- Virginia African American Cultural Center
- Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
- Virginia Musical Theatre
- Zeiders American Dream Theater
