Cafe Huntington

Project Description:
Huntington LIVE! Comedy Club & Speakeasy will be a NEW multifaceted live entertainment venue and nightclub focused on delivering the best in local and nationally-recognized comedy and musical acts to downtown Huntington. Specializing in live stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy; jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, bebop, doo-wop, hip hop, funk, and soul music, Huntington LIVE! will strive to deliver the highest quality entertainment experience possible, while supplying local performing artists ample stage time to develop and expand their craft. Huntington LIVE! will draw upon the charm and ambiance of the Art Deco movement and the “Roaring 20s” to capture the spirit of an upscale nightclub, or “speakeasy” from that era. Patrons will feel as though they have been carried back in time as they enter the club, reminiscent of the golden age of live theatre entertainment in downtown Huntington. Like the prohibition-era venues of old, Huntington LIVE! will showcase the best quality
of entertainment, sometimes featuring several different types of acts in one night for one ticket price. Huntington LIVE! will focus on diverse entertainment emphasizing the Prohibition/1920s theme, including big band nights and dance lessons for dances from the period including “the Charleston,” “the Foxtrot,” and “the Lindy Hop.” A house band called “the Hep Cats” comprised of local musicians will supply the musical accompaniment on dance nights. Other entertainment options include: silent film nights, gangster/flapper costume nights, and non-profit “casino” nights in which patrons can gamble for charity.

Project Importance:
Huntington LIVE! will foster strong relationships with the community, while nurturing the next generations of local comedy and music talent in Huntington. We will accomplish this by offering a superb environment specifically designed for performing arts, as well as supplying ample stage-time for the local artists to expand and develop their craft. These future generations of local artists will help the venue grow deep roots into the city, but more importantly, it help further establish Huntington, WV as a center of art and culture in the region. Huntington LIVE! does not wish to further the arts in our club, but rather create a starting point where artists can gather before taking their talent, skills, and confidence on to the rest of the region or beyond.

How Money Will Be Used:
If we receive any grant money, we will use it to book and promote some fundraiser shows over the summer to build momentum for the fall opening of the permanent club. We will be doing a series of local shows at small clubs around downtown building to a big show at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center or the Stephenson Auditorium inside City Hall. The grant money will go toward advertising, promotion, and venue rental.

3 Month Goal:
The next 3 months will be the most critical for the success of Huntington LIVE! Comedy Club Speakeasy. We are hoping for a Grand Opening sometime in September or October at the latest. As mentioned earlier, we plan to use it to book and promote comedy and music shows over the summer to build momentum for the fall opening of the permanent club. We want to do a series of shows with local performers at small clubs around downtown building to a big show with a well-known touring comedian at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center or the Stephenson Auditorium inside City Hall. These shows will be designed to give stage time to local artists over the summer, help raise startup capital, and advertise and promote the new club’s fall opening. The small venue shows may be able to go off on a modest budget. Although the large show(s) will require a budget of $2,000-$3,000. $300-$500 would be a great start..

Huntington Live! Brochure

Project Description:
Mil-Ton Farms is a family farm located in Ona, WV. We offer locally grown meat, eggs, and produce. We are also active in the community sharing our farm and experience with those interested in local foods, and in raising their own meat and produce. Our latest community project has involved chicken processing. This year there have already been three workshops. During these workshops participants are taught the process of butchering a chicken. People come for different reasons. Some own their own backyard flocks, but need to learn how to harvest the meat from those flocks. Others bring their families for an educational experience. They want to know where their meat really comes from. We also give the kids a quick science lesson showing them the organs, and sometimes even the eggs in process. A few people just come to be part of the process to get fresh humanely raised meat for themselves. We offer these workshops free to those who bring their own chickens or who only want to wat
ch. Plucking chickens is a time consuming and messy task. We would like to purchase a Chicken Plucker to make the process more efficient. The plucker would be used for the workshops, and also be offered for rent to other local farmers.

Project Importance:
This project helps connect people with their food. Developing and promoting local foods is important for health, sustainability and for the economy. Participants learn where their food really comes from, and what is involved to get that food from the farm to their refrigerator. It also helps connect a wide variety of people. It may sound like an unlikely social event, but most workshops involve a group of strangers, pushing past their comfort zone, working together toward a goal. We always have a good time. The chicken plucker will help provide these opportunities for more people. It will help develop sources for local meat, and education to the community.

How Money Will Be Used:
We have already received a partial grant for the purchase of the plucker. We need about $200 to complete the funding for this project. Any remaining money will be used towards a new pump for our rain collection system. This system allows us to use rain water for the chickens and other livestock, and to water our vegetables.

3 Month Goal:
Summer is prime time for raising and processing chickens. The broilers we raise are ready for processing in about eight weeks. If we receive this money for the plucker, we will order more chickens to use for workshops, and for sale through the farm. Thus providing more education and local meat to the community.

Project Description:
I want to start a progressive visually artistic newspaper. Specifically the newspaper would consist of one side of one piece of handmade paper or premium art printing paper. The articles would be strictly pieces of visual art laid out in a newspaper format. The fundamental idea is that art is a form of communication, and a “newspaper” is the perfect venue to showcase this form of communication, especially if one considers the nature of print media today and the shifting of those seemingly ancient processes to artists. The paper will be printed in limited edition for its subscribers.

Project Importance:
This project is important on several different levels. First, artistically speaking, using the newspaper as a concept to create a piece of art is progressive and speaks to the state of printed media in our current society. It is also an appropriate communication to future generations in reference to the venue for which fine art can be shown. Secondly, as a student and up and coming printmaker this project can be a long term source of income for me. Having already recruited a few potential subscribers I am excited to take this step, which includes obtaining a business license. Until now I have yet to sell enough art to justify such a thing. I believe this can also be a source of pride for our community as the subscriptions potentially reach people from all over the world.

How Money Will Be Used:
This idea is currently on the ground floor. The money will be used to buy paper, acetone, and other materials. I would also use the money to pay for my business license. This is a big step for myself as an artist and printmaker as well as an obligation to my subscribers.

3 Month Goal:
This grant money will establish Joe Public as a press operation. From inventory to shipping costs this money will create a foundation for myself as a printmaker and provide a venue for myself and other artists to display their art and communicate in a fashion we find satisfactory. I believe that this money, if used efficiently, will allow me to get to the point of production within three months.