Rappahannock artists get $400K boost from Claudia Mitchell Fund

Seven years ago a dream came true for Kevin “KC” Bosch, a craftsman who has lived in Rappahannock County for 28 years.

Poetry flowed out of him — enough to fill a book. But it wasn’t until one of Bosch’s clients told him about grant money available through the nonprofit Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC) that he thought publishing a book of his poems might be possible.

The Claudia Mitchell Arts Fund is named for the former president of RAAC who died from cancer in 2012. A dedicated supporter of the arts, Mitchell set aside $10,000 from her estate to initiate the grant program, challenging RAAC to use it as a starting point to grow the community investment over time.

Since then, more than $400,000 in grant money has been awarded to scores of area artists, infusing a quiet but widespread boost to the county’s art scene.

“When I applied for the grant the first time, I had no idea what to expect,” Bosch said in a recent interview. After submitting what he thought it would cost to publish the book in his grant application, Bosch said he was skeptical of the nonprofit’s reaction.

Picking up his mail a month or two later, Bosch saw RAAC’s response to his grant application had arrived. But he couldn’t open it – he was so nervous.

“I just sat there, eating my lunch, looking at the envelope,” Bosch said. “Finally when I did open it, I thought I’d won the Academy Awards! They gave me everything I asked for.”

The poet was given a Claudia Mitchell grant of $2,000 for the publication of his book, illustrated by his own photographs.

Bosch said he was astonished that somebody thought enough of his writing that they paid for him to publish it. When he told friends about the grant, they couldn’t believe it. 

“People don’t do that,” Bosch said his friends would say. “What community does that?”

“Rappahannock does,” he told them. “What a great community organization it is.” 

Art creating quality of life

Matthew and Barbara Black, volunteers with RAAC for more than two decades, said the grants are designed to reward and encourage individual artists and groups working to foster the arts in Rappahannock. Matthew is RAAC’s board president and Barbara co-chairs the Mitchell Fund with Lynn Dolnick.

The Blacks said Mitchell’s original bequest of $10,000 has increased by 35 times through net proceeds from RAAC programs — especially its Fall Art Tour — combined with contributions from donors.

“We usually get about 20 to 25 applications,” Barbara Black said. “We generally fund between 14 and 17 of them.”

More than 65 artists and organizations in the county have received Mitchell Fund grants in amounts ranging from $600 to $7,000. Grants are awarded to emerging and established artists, arts organizations, arts programs within community-based organizations, collaborative projects and programs with a community focus in the areas of visual arts, music, writing, theater, dance, film, video and multimedia projects.

Some examples of arts programs that have received grants include Rappahannock County Public Schools, community performances, artists’ residencies, workshops and continuing education, music and video productions, and dance scholarships.

“It’s a virtuous cycle, since residents contribute toward a vibrant local arts community, which in turn gives back and increases the quality of life for all who live here,” Matthew Black said of the fund.

Injecting support for the arts

Barbara Black, who oversees the fund, said a committee of five people follows a system the nonprofit has established for inviting applications, reviewing those applications, notifying the winners and managing and monitoring the money coming in and going out. The RAAC Board gives a final verdict for each recommended grant.

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“These are not necessarily needs-based grants,” Barbara said. “We try to provide a way for people to do things they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Making a living through the arts is really tough — anything you can do to inject help is going to be a support.” 

She said the committee tends to give weight to programs that will benefit children, or contribute to the future of the arts in the region. 

A larger worldwide experience

One example of how the funds foster the next generation are grants the nonprofit has awarded Rappahannock County’s Child Care & Learning Center over the years. 

“They’ve given us a grant every year since I started here four years ago, but we’re going on seven or eight years, maybe even 10, of grants from the fund,” said Executive Director Lisa Paine-Wells. “This has given us the opportunity to invite very high-quality shows and performers in [to the school].”

Paine-Wells said the center has 165 children from newborn to age 13, primarily from Rappahannock County, many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds. More than 60% of children at the school are on state or private donor scholarships, she said.

“A big part of our responsibility is to nurture both child and family, to provide a bigger world experience,” Paine-Wells said. “What is wonderful about the arts is that it helps children see the world through other people’s eyes, see how other people make a living and participate in those activities.”

Family members of the students and anyone in the community are invited to the performances at the center, Paine-Wells said. Some examples of shows have included musical and theater performances; puppeteers; interactive poetry writing; extravagant, multi-colored bubbles creation; and song and dance of every kind.

“The arts have been shown to help children express themselves, and gives them tools to make more sense of the world,” Paine-Wells said. “It can contribute to academic achievement and brain development.”

Exposing children to a variety of music helps them develop an interest in new genres and challenge themselves, she said; to learn to try new things and explore areas they wouldn’t otherwise.

With the help of these invited groups of artists, “Kids themselves create, get up on the stage and speak, sing or perform for their peers,” she said. “Experiencing art at their own developmental level makes it meaningful. The earlier you start that, the more likely they will appreciate and value it.”

‘A tremendous asset’

Cheryl and Paul Reisler operate Kid Pan Alley, a professional performing group for children with origins in Rappahannock County. It’s among the groups to perform for CCLC. They are well-known across the Mid-Atlantic region and annually spend a month in Hawaii, where friends host the group while they perform in elementary schools on the island of Oahu.

Cheryl Reisler is a former public school administrator who recently started exploring her talents as a textile or fiber artist — with the help of a grant from the Claudia Mitchell Arts Fund. The money helped Reisler buy supplies and take classes in her field of interest.

“So many of my friends have gotten their start in the arts through RAAC,” Reisler said. “Many have received funds — it’s a wonderful resource for those who need help getting projects started, to further develop their skills set or complete exhibits for galleries. It is a tremendous asset in our community.”

Reisler said she put her artwork on display during RAAC’s Fall Art Tour the past two years, boosting sales and getting her name and efforts exposed to a wider audience. 

“It is because of RAAC that we have such a wealth of the arts in our area and the amazing number of artists here,” she said. “Many have been supported by the fund at various times through their history.”

Any artist, any age, year round

Reisler said one thing she admires about the fund is that it doesn’t limit those who can benefit from the support.

“Any artist, any age, novice to professional, someone new to the arts or those who have done it for a long time — anyone can seek this help,” she said. “A lot of art funding, it’s hard to find, especially for ideas that are just being born.”

Most of the time the grants follow an annual schedule, with a March 15 deadline for applications, followed by the announcement of winners in May and a gathering in June to make the awards. 

“But we do occasionally work outside of that and consider grants for artists that don’t fit into that schedule,” Barbara Black said. “We can operate quickly, if needed. We have a good, strong board and are willing to partner with other organizations to meet needs within the community.

Artists helping artists

Bosch said after the initial grant from RAAC in 2015 helped him publish his book of poetry, he looked at what he could do to help other struggling writers.

“That first grant opened a lot of doors for me,” Bosch said, explaining it connected him with many RAAC members. “I’m pretty blue-collar. It connected me with a whole part of the county that I didn’t know before.”

Bosch wanted to share his success with others by hosting a writers’ retreat, which he has done four times, with the help of four more Claudia Mitchell grants. After halting them during the pandemic, Bosch hopes to start the retreats again this fall. 

Each workshop was held over a three-day weekend with six to nine participants. Bosch has found friends to help run the class, professional educators, editors or publishers.

“Some attendees were closet writers who had never shared their work with anybody,” Bosch said. “We focused on poetry, creative writing — a couple people were writing their own memoir.”

The registration fee was $40, which included three days of class time, snacks and lunch.

“That’s the nice thing about the grant, it makes it so we can make the cost reasonable,” Bosch said. “I’ve never made a dime on it.”

Stealing Days

By KC Bosch

when we arrive the calm dark is

rudely broken by generator and lamps

a million details to tend to

set the plates, fasten the sills

take the measure

run adhesive and sheet the deck

build the walls and stand in place

bring in the rafters

tip them up and nail them down

an ancient story of feet and inches

thirty-eight and seven-sixteenths skinny

short to short, three times

cripples and dead-men and bents

valleys and peaks and studs

stopping for lunch almost

while plotting …

sandwich in one hand

plans in the other

all afternoon more of the same

but different …

ok shut it down, tie it down,

pack it up

out to the truck

racing to Manny’s

pork rinds and beer

down 997 toward home

hat stuck to my head

sweat stain tie-dyed shirt

wearing enough sawdust and dirt

to … be … arrested … for … theft.