The Arts Partnership is accepting applications for the Marianna Hofer Arts Endowment Fund, set up to provide Hancock County artists, the arts community, and arts educators the funds to pursue their crafts and vision of creating and teaching the arts.
Distributions from the fund will be for arts education — either education of the artist or artists(s) or for arts education programming. Grants must be used for new artistic skills to be learned or existing skills to be further developed by the artist(s) or provided to Hancock County youth and/or adults. The number and the amount of the grants awarded each year will be determined by a grant panel of visual, performing and literary arts professionals from the University of Findlay.
Hofer taught writing at the University of Findlay for 32 years, and was dedicated to her classroom and her students. She loved being in her art studio in the Jones Building, sharing space with other artists, and especially enjoyed the spring and fall Art Walk, where she could share her talents and promote local art and artists. Hofer was an avid photographer, preferring older cameras exclusively using black and white film, but her true passion was poetry.
Prior to her death in May 2017, she requested that an endowment fund be established to support the artists in our community. Individual visual, performing or literary artists and arts organizations residing in Hancock County may apply for grants from the fund.
For the purposes of the grant, an artist is defined as someone who makes a living as or whose avocation is visual, performing or literary arts. An arts organization is defined as a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission includes providing visual, performing or literary arts education.
Online applications are available at www.artspartnership.com and are due by 11:59 p.m. March 1. Grant awards will be announced April 15.