Dear Friend of the Arts,
We hope this finds you well. We will tell you up front that we are asking for money to keep the Arts alive in Mississippi County. We hope you will take a few minutes while we explain some significant changes impacting your Arts Council—The Arts Council of Mississippi County.
The City of Blytheville re-established a Ritz Commission in January, 2019. That group is charged with restoring the Ritz, as well as have full authority over the day-to-day operation of the Ritz. They receive funding we had received for over 30 years from the City to operate the facility. In order to achieve their goals, they will have rentals, pursue grants, historic restoration funds and conduct their own fundraising activities and drives. All of this is to care for the building, and provides no support for the Arts. This will create confusion for many, so we ask you to make every effort to separate The Arts Council of Mississippi County (TAC) from your thinking about the Ritz Commission and Civic Center.
The Ritz Commission has decided that TAC should rent the facilities to present all of TAC’s events. This would create a significant financial burden on us as we plan for next year, and would divert many dollars to rental fees instead of programming. We ask Sponsors to contribute to TAC to provide enriching cultural programs for the entire community at fair and reasonable prices, and to offer programs to area schools throughout the year at absolutely NO COST for the students to attend, as we have for several years.
The Arts Council plans to continue presenting professional live cultural opportunities. We have entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Arkansas Northeastern College. ANC is welcoming TAC to present programming as a partner of the college. We are privileged the have the fine Adams/Vines Recital Hall available as our new performance stage. TAC will be working at the same time to support and augment the college’s existing efforts in theater, music and visual arts.
TAC will schedule programs which provide quality, professional cultural enrichment and still give our area school children free opportunities to experience the arts in a theater setting. In 2018-2019 TAC presented school day programs reaching over 3,200 students.
For the Ritz Commission to move forward, and for The Arts Council to continue, we will both be seeking support. The Ritz Commission is an arm of the City of Blytheville serving the building. The Arts Council of Mississippi County is an independent 501C3 non-profit serving you, the people of Mississippi County. Please understand that we both represent worthy goals, but we serve completely different functions.
We ask that you help us move forward by becoming a Sponsor for the 2019-2020 Series. You might consider an increase to your level of support in previous years. An enrollment form is included which explains the benefits of the various levels of support as a Sponsor.
We know that together—YOU, The Arts Council of Mississippi County and Arkansas Northeastern College—we can continue to keep the arts alive in Mississippi County.
Sincerely, The Arts Council of Mississippi County
JD Harris, President
Candie Groves, Vice President
Sarah Jackson, Secretary
Tonya Harris, Treasurer
David Lyttle, Program Coordinator
We hope this finds you well. We will tell you up front that we are asking for money to keep the Arts alive in Mississippi County. We hope you will take a few minutes while we explain some significant changes impacting your Arts Council—The Arts Council of Mississippi County.
The City of Blytheville re-established a Ritz Commission in January, 2019. That group is charged with restoring the Ritz, as well as have full authority over the day-to-day operation of the Ritz. They receive funding we had received for over 30 years from the City to operate the facility. In order to achieve their goals, they will have rentals, pursue grants, historic restoration funds and conduct their own fundraising activities and drives. All of this is to care for the building, and provides no support for the Arts. This will create confusion for many, so we ask you to make every effort to separate The Arts Council of Mississippi County (TAC) from your thinking about the Ritz Commission and Civic Center.
The Ritz Commission has decided that TAC should rent the facilities to present all of TAC’s events. This would create a significant financial burden on us as we plan for next year, and would divert many dollars to rental fees instead of programming. We ask Sponsors to contribute to TAC to provide enriching cultural programs for the entire community at fair and reasonable prices, and to offer programs to area schools throughout the year at absolutely NO COST for the students to attend, as we have for several years.
The Arts Council plans to continue presenting professional live cultural opportunities. We have entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Arkansas Northeastern College. ANC is welcoming TAC to present programming as a partner of the college. We are privileged the have the fine Adams/Vines Recital Hall available as our new performance stage. TAC will be working at the same time to support and augment the college’s existing efforts in theater, music and visual arts.
TAC will schedule programs which provide quality, professional cultural enrichment and still give our area school children free opportunities to experience the arts in a theater setting. In 2018-2019 TAC presented school day programs reaching over 3,200 students.
For the Ritz Commission to move forward, and for The Arts Council to continue, we will both be seeking support. The Ritz Commission is an arm of the City of Blytheville serving the building. The Arts Council of Mississippi County is an independent 501C3 non-profit serving you, the people of Mississippi County. Please understand that we both represent worthy goals, but we serve completely different functions.
We ask that you help us move forward by becoming a Sponsor for the 2019-2020 Series. You might consider an increase to your level of support in previous years. An enrollment form is included which explains the benefits of the various levels of support as a Sponsor.
We know that together—YOU, The Arts Council of Mississippi County and Arkansas Northeastern College—we can continue to keep the arts alive in Mississippi County.
Sincerely, The Arts Council of Mississippi County
JD Harris, President
Candie Groves, Vice President
Sarah Jackson, Secretary
Tonya Harris, Treasurer
David Lyttle, Program Coordinator
