By Brookelynn Roush and John Ostapowicz / The Jambar
The Butler Institute of American Art is one of 25 organizations supporting the arts to receive a grant from the Ohio Arts Council. The museum will receive $107,551 to support ongoing renovations.
The OAC board announced its approval July 25 of $22.7 million in grants to support Ohio artists, nonprofits, artistic and cultural organizations. The grants will also help students and educators, as well as public arts programs.
Susan Carfano, The Butler’s director’s executive assistant and the event manager, said the grant helps both students and organizations on campus.
“The Butler is grateful to Governor Mike Dewine and the Ohio General Assembly for awarding $200,000 from the new Ohio Capital Budget for renovations to Butler North,” Carfano said. “The Butler purchased the adjacent former First Christian Church in 2005 to display items in its Americana and Folk Art collections.”
The 935 approved grants constitute the OAC’s initial and major state fiscal year 2025 funding round.
The grants also stem from the state’s 2024-25 operating budget. This is a record-high state appropriation of nearly $51.1 million for the OAC budget over the two-year period.
Some of the other organizations receiving grants include Stambaugh Auditorium, Youngstown Playhouse, Lit Youngstown, John J. McDonough Museum of Art, Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership and Salem Chamber of Commerce.
The McDonough Museum is located across from The Butler and is a part of Youngstown State University’s Cliffe College of Creative Arts.
These grants are separated by program. Lit Youngstown, Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, McDonough Museum and Butler were listed as receiving a Sustainability Grant. Stambaugh Auditorium is listed under Arts Partnership, while Salem Chamber of Commerce is listed under ArtSMART.
Each grant program is designed to support a different need. Sustainability supports ongoing arts and cultural activities in all genres. Its funding supports a wide range of the state providers to make high-quality artistic experiences available to residents and visitors.
The Arts Partnership supports arts education projects that address the needs of individual learners and their communities.
ArtSMART provides funding to help organizations complete short-term projects addressing a wide variety of goals and perspectives.
Important resources for the funding included State Representative Lauren McNally and former state senator Michael Rulli. Other supporters of the bill included State Senator Al Cutrona, State Representative Monica Robb Blasdel and State Representative Nick Santucci.
Carfano said she was grateful for the amount of support and effort from local as well as regional supporters to help secure the funding.
“We extend our heartfelt gratitude to McNally and Rulli for their dedicated efforts in securing this funding,” Carfano said. “We also thank Cutrona, Blasdel, Santucci as well as the local House and Senate delegations, the leadership in both chambers and Governor DeWine for their support and for signing the bill into law.”
At this time, there is no further information about when or how long the renovations will take place.
