Council announces state arts grants

STROUDSBURG - The Pocono Arts Council has announced the 2006 PA Partners in the Arts (PPA) Grants. The Partners program is a partnership initiative between local arts organizations and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), a state agency. In Pike, grants went to the American Reader’s Theatre; Black Bear Film Festival; Pocono Environmental Education Center; Pike County Area Agency on Aging; Pike County Arts & Crafts; and US Forest Service at Grey Towers National Historic Site. Partners is administered in the northeastern Pennsylvania region by the Pocono Arts Council and available to organizations conducting arts programming in Monroe, Pike and Wayne. Since beginning the program in 1997, over $403,600 has been granted in the region. This year 24 project applications received grants totaling $24,793. Eleven additional organizations were granted on-going support in the amount of $16,338 through the PPA Program Stream. Awards will be presented at a ceremony held at the Eastern Monroe Public Library on Friday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m.