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City approves $200,000 ARPA grant to Art League of Lincoln and Community Foundation to expand public art and education
Summary
The council approved a $200,000 allocation from remaining ARPA funds for public art, youth and adult arts education, and reactivation of the Feats of Clay festival; funds will be administered through the Lincoln Community Foundation.
The City Council approved a $200,000 allocation on Jan. 28 to the Art League of Lincoln, with fiscal administration by the Lincoln Community Foundation, to fund public art, youth and adult arts programming and to help restart the Feats of Clay regional arts festival.
City staff and Art League representatives framed the spending as a one‑time investment of leftover ARPA funds intended to create cultural amenities and long‑term program capacity. City manager Sean Scully told the council the funds are part of a broader ARPA spending plan and that the allocation was intended for projects “we generally otherwise couldn’t afford with our current means.”
The funding request was organized into four program buckets totaling $200,000: a public‑art commissioning pool, expanded youth classes, expanded adult classes, and seed funding to relaunch Feats of Clay — a regional ceramics event with ties to local industry. Art League fundraising chair Janet Phoenix and volunteer operations manager Gia McNutt described plans to pair city dollars with sponsorships, grants and foundation support to build sustainable programming.
“The organization is reflective of that,” Janet Phoenix said, noting recent successful grant applications to state and local foundations and an emphasis on building long‑term fundraising capacity. Gia McNutt said the league has grown class offerings and performed a Feats of Clay event in the last year after a long pause. The Lincoln Community Foundation agreed to serve as fiscal agent and hold the funds until the Art League requests disbursements.
Council members praised the proposal and the Art League’s fundraising plan. The council voted unanimously to authorize the city manager to execute any agreements needed to carry out the spending plan and to allocate the $200,000 from the city’s ARPA funds to the Lincoln Community Foundation for administration.
