Four Knox County arts organizations were among 213 central Ohio organizations to receive shares of a historic $11.8 million award, a recent announcement at the Ohio Arts Council website said.

"Ohio's arts and culture sector is poised for a strong future as we continue to work together for a full recovery of in-person arts programming, an expansion of arts education to combat pandemic-related learning loss, and restoration and growth of career opportunities for arts professionals," Donna S. Collins, Executive Director of the Ohio Arts Council, said in the news release.

The announcement said the Knox County recipients are: in Gambier, the Graham Gund Gallery, $30,827 and the Kenyon Review, $50,289; and in Mount Vernon, MTVarts Inc., $6,000; and the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, $4,546.

The four local recipients received funds from the sustainability category, which supports ongoing arts and cultural activities in all genres as well as the cultural ecosystem while marketing the state as a creative center.

The Ohio Arts Council (OAC) board approved $21,814,824 in grants to support Ohio artists, arts and cultural organizations, students, educators, and public arts programming at its July 19 meeting, the announcement said, the largest amount of grant dollars distributed to constituents applying to OAC funding programs in the agency’s history.

The 907 statewide grants approved at the meeting constitute the initial and major state fiscal year 2024 funding round for the OAC. This step in the funding cycle marks significant progress in the OAC’s ongoing commitment to directly fund arts programming in all 88 Ohio counties—something it has been able to do for the last eight fiscal years. These grants follow the recent passage of the state’s 2024-2025 operating budget, which included a record-setting, nearly $51.1 million state appropriation for the OAC over the next two years, the announcement said.