Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tourism Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Marietta tourism groups ask council for grants totaling multiple requests as committee hears pitches for festivals, museums and performances
Summary
More than a dozen arts, heritage and tourism organizations presented to the Parks, Recreation & Tourism Committee seeking FY27 tourism funding — requests ranged from modest rent support for Visit Marietta to larger asks from performing-arts groups and festivals; the committee did not take funding votes at the session.
At a special Parks, Recreation & Tourism Committee meeting, representatives from more than a dozen local arts and tourism organizations made FY27 grant requests and summarized prior-year results aimed at showing visitor impact.
Brittany Grama, executive director of Visit Marietta, opened with the destination marketing organization’s brand work and digital updates and asked the committee to consider $22,137.80 in tourism funds for welcome-center rent and maintenance for FY27. Grama said Visit Marietta is leveraging the city’s 250th anniversary and FIFA activity as marketing opportunities but did not expect a FIFA-related hotel-tax bump to fall within the FY27 budget window.
Several performing-arts groups requested funding to sustain shows and audience development. The Georgia Symphony Orchestra asked for $65,000 to underwrite at least eight city-located performances, venue rental and marketing; the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art requested $145,000 to support exhibitions, education programs and Chalktoberfest; the Georgia Ballet, Marietta Theatre Company and Marietta Theatre Company- affiliated groups described audience growth and asked for continued support for orchestration, guest artists, licensing, production and marketing.
Smaller cultural and historical organizations also presented funding uses tied to visitor experience and preservation: the Alley Stage Foundation requested $35,000 for artist compensation; the Gone With the Wind Museum (Brumby Hall) described rising visitation (from 3,999 in 2024 to 5,588 in 2025) and requested last-year funding levels be continued; Old Zion Heritage Museum, Cobb Landmarks (Root House), the Marietta History Center and the Fire Museum described programming and proposed capital or exhibit upgrades to improve the visitor experience.
Event-driven and special-interest requests included support for Lemon Street Classic (annual basketball tournament and scholarships), Trailfest, Taste of Marietta, Juneteenth programming (Cobb County NAACP), holiday attractions (winter Santa experiences), and city-managed events where staff overtime and logistical costs were cited.
Committee members asked about measurement and marketing line items (for example, the branding project’s $3,000 marketing line and Placer.ai subscription costs), organizational structures (one presenter was asked about a 501(c)(4) status change) and visitation metrics. Staff and presenters frequently referenced the economic impact of arts and festivals: numbers cited included $2.5 billion county tourism impact (presented by Visit Marietta for Cobb County in 2024), $5.8 million economic impact attributed to The Strand, and attendance spikes at festivals such as Chalktoberfest. Where presenters offered attendance figures, counts were sometimes derived from ticket sales, guest books or cell-based foot-traffic estimates.
No formal votes or grant awards were taken at the meeting; committee members thanked presenters and indicated the applications and staff recommendations will be considered in the formal grant process and at later committee or council meetings.
