Twelve local non-profit organizations have been awarded a total of $25,900 to fund high-quality artistic or cultural programs through the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs 2012 Regional Regranting Minigrant Program.The Arts Council of Greater Lansing is the regional administrator of this state-wide program, and oversees funding for arts and culture projects in the four-county area of Ingham, Eaton, Clinton and Shiawasee. 

The 2012 MCACA Minigrant regional recipients include:

Community Circle Players, Inc. – Awarded $2,000 to present 8 performances of “Smokey Joe’s Café” from February 16-26, 2012. 

Allen Neighborhood Center- Awarded $2,000 to co-host the 3rd annual 

World Day at Hunter Park – a festival celebrating World Refugee Day. This free, all-day event will feature approx. 10 performances by refugee groups in Lansing and a headlining performance by a professional refugee group, followed by a rehearsed drumming demonstration lead by local refugee youth. The festival will take place in Lansing’s 13-acre Hunter Park on June 9, 2012. 

LanSINGout– Awarded $1,500 to present two, 2-hour performances of “Shall We Dance?” Accompanying the chorus will be 4 musicians. The events will happen June 8 & 9, 2012 at Lansing Community College’s Dart Auditorium in Lansing. 

Holt Community Art Council – Awarded $2,000 to present “Music in the Garden” as a unique summertime concert series in Delhi Township. There will be a series of 4 free 90-minute concerts by professional musicians reflecting different musical genres in the Veterans Memorial Gardens Ampitheater on July 5, 12, 19 & 26. 

The American Shakespeare Collective (TASC)– Awarded $2,000 as a new theatre focusing on the classics with an emphasis on the works of William Shakespeare. The first production of TASC, “Othello,” will be presented throughout the month of July 2012 at a Lansing theatre employing Michigan and national professional artists. 

Lansing Area Peace Education Center– Awarded $3,500 for “Afterwards: The Impact of War,” a project that engages stories of war through art-making workshops at REACH Studio Art Center (geared toward youth participants) and the Center for Poetry at Michigan State University (open to participants from the public of all ages) led by professional artists from February-March 2012 and will culminate in an exhibit of professional and workshop-created art at (SCENE)Metrospace in East Lansing from April 27-July 8 2012. 

Steiner Chorale – Awarded $1,000 to present its second annual scholarship competition for high school vocalists, which will culminate in a gala concert with the chorale, local high school choirs, and finalists on March 17, 2012, at All Saints Episcopal Church in East Lansing. 

City of East Lansing Summer Solstice Jazz Festival – Awarded $3,500 to present more than 16 hours of live jazz music over a two-day event, including 7 main stage performances, 5 interlude performances, a new children’s stage and 2 afterglow performances on June 22 & 23, 2012 in downtown East Lansing. SSJF is free to the public and co-produced by the City of East Lansing, the Wharton Center for Performing Arts and the MSU College of Music. 

Lansing for Cesar E. Chavez– Awarded $1,000 to present a Tejano/Latino Music Fest showcasing local and state artists specializing in the Tejano sound. The event will take place on September 15, 2012 in the Cesar E. Chavez Plaza in Old Town Lansing and feature 7 bands, 2 singers and dancers as well as food vendors and art exhibitors. 

Lansing Concert Band Association – Awarded $3,000 to present two performances of its 2012 Young Person’s Guide to the Band. The performances are fast-paced one-hour events that will both be presented on March 20, 2012. One performance will take place in East Lansing and the other in Charlotte, MI. 

Meridian Community Band– Awarded $2,400 to present the 17th Annual Red Cedar Festival of Community Bands on February 25, 2012 at Okemos High School during which 12 bands perform a 30-minute concert followed by a 30-minute clinic with a highly acclaimed clinician. Master classes on selected instruments will also be offered. All performances are free and open to the public. 

Michigan State University Community Music School– Awarded $2,000 to take MSU Community Music School string instructors/musicians into six different fifth grade classrooms in the Lansing School District for 10-minute performance/demonstrations followed by hands-on learning with violins, violas or cellos from January 1-April 30, 2012. Children will learn to play a simple song and perform as an orchestra at the end of the 1-hour class period. Musicians will visit the classrooms a second time for follow-up where children may try a different instrument and learn a new song. 

The MCACA Minigrant Program provides financial assistance, on a matching basis, to non-profit organizations that address community need for arts and cultural programming and that require additional limited underwriting to meet that need. Decisions among submitted applications are made by a qualified peer review panel. 

The Arts Council of Greater Lansing has administered MCACA Minigrants regionally since the inception of the program in 1986.