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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Kyle Huneycutt
(706) 970-0685,
[email protected]

Young Harris College’s Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival Awarded $12,000 Grant through the National Endowment for the Arts

YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. — Young Harris College’s Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival (GMSF) was recently awarded a $12,000 grant through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

The NEA awarded a total of $82,357,050 in grants to fund 1,148 projects in the second major grant announcement of its 50th anniversary year. Grants were awarded in 13 artistic disciplines or fields plus arts research, along with partnership agreements to U.S. states, jurisdictions and regions.

The $12,000 Art Works grant will support the 2017 Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival, held on the YHC campus. The two-day festival offers storytelling and musical performances celebrating the cultural heritage of the Southern Appalachians. Along with the performances, the festival contains storytelling workshops and exhibits on traditional crafts and agricultural techniques.

“The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Supporting projects like the Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”

The NEA’s flagship grant category, Art Works, funds projects designed to achieve one of four outcomes; creation of art, public engagement with art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

To learn more about the GMSF, visit yhc.edu/storytelling.

About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. For more information, visit arts.gov.

About Young Harris College
Young Harris College is a private, baccalaureate degree-granting college located in the beautiful mountains of North Georgia. Founded in 1886 and historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church, Young Harris College educates, inspires and empowers students through the highest quality liberal arts education. The College currently has more than 1,200 students across five divisions—Education, Fine Arts, Humanities, Mathematics and Science, and Social and Behavioral Sciences. The historic campus in Young Harris, Ga., is currently undergoing major campus improvements to accommodate the College’s growth. Recent LEED-certified campus improvements include the 121,000-square-foot Rollins Campus Center, new residence facilities, and a 57,000-square-foot recreation and fitness center. In 2014, the College was granted active membership in NCAA Division II and is a fierce competitor in the prestigious Peach Belt Conference. YHC is among fewer than 300 colleges and universities nationwide named to the 2015-2016 list of Colleges of Distinction. For more information, visit yhc.edu.

GMSF

Young Harris College’s Georgia Mountain Storytelling Festival was recently awarded a $12,000 grant through the National Endowment for the Arts.

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