Savannah youth advocacy organization Deep Center has been honored by South Arts’ as one of their 2022 Southern Cultural Treasures.
“With the Deep Center, it’s reflective of the deep amazing work they do in the community,” said South Arts’ Director of Communications Ivan Schustak.
“Their literary programs, their creative place-making, the way that they have become, over the past 15-plus years, such a deeply vital part of the Savannah community. Working with the local youth, and connecting them with artists, and the literary work that they’re doing to capture these stories, it really showed a testament to the quality of their work and what they’re doing and the lives that they’re impacting.”
The Southern Cultural Treasures initiative comes with a $300,000 grant for general operating expenses for the Savannah non-profit, a portion of the $6 million dollars allocated to 17 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) arts organizations throughout the South.
Credit: Courtesy of Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center
Credit: Courtesy of Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center
“We saw the Ford Foundation doing their American Cultural Treasures program…which was a major investment in BIPOC-serving organizations across the country, and we realized that there was need for additional representation in the southeastern United States,” Schustak explained. “So we reached out to the Ford Foundation and proposed to do essentially an offshoot of this type of program…as a complement to what they’re doing on a national level.
“The program itself is designed to offer major capacity building and general operating support for these organizations that are just doing exceptional work that have been historically marginalized that have not had access to the same types of resources that other organizations have had access to.”
Money to continue promoting work with Savannah’s young people
Unlike some grants, the American Cultural Treasures initiative is specifically designed to help fund the organizations themselves, rather than any specific program.
For Deep Center, that means guaranteeing the continuation or successful and beloved activities like Block by Block and the Young Author Projects, as well as to better support their professional volunteers.
“Usually when we get big grants, people are like, ‘What are you gonna do next?!’” Noted Coco Papy, Deep Center’s Director of Public Policy and Communications. “But I think what we always want to be really transparent about, is that it takes a lot to sustain the amount of work that goes into our programs.
Credit: Courtesy of Deep Center
Credit: Courtesy of Deep Center
“To ensure that all of that can be a sustaining force that young people can continue to count on, and that the artists we work with can continue to count on, and that staff can continue to plug their energy into, the way that we make that happen is through operating grants like this. That doesn’t sound as sexy and fun as a brand new sparkly program, but it’s incredibly important in the life of a non-profit.”
Ariel Felton, Deep Center’s Director of Youth Programs, agreed.
“I hopeful that this grant will allow us to support our volunteers in a bigger way,” she said, adding that an initiative like the Young Authors Project, which has helped to publish hundreds of works by area students, requires professional guidance from established writers.
“Those workshops that those pieces of writing come from are always lead by volunteers in the community: Local journalists; local authors; a lot of times students,” she related. “And if we are asking folks to volunteer for this amazing program, it can be fun and inspiring and all of those things, but they also have to be at work to pay their own bills. We’ve always had a few part time positions available in the Young Authors Project, but I’m hoping maybe we can expand that.”
Connecting Deep with the rest of the Southeast
Beyond the grant itself, South Arts’ Southern Cultural Treasures initiative will also be collaborating with Deep Center to offer professional development and networking opportunities. For Papy, the opportunity to both connect with, and be connected to, other organizations in the region that are philosophically aligned with the Savannah institution is just as valuable as the financial award.
“What I don’t want to do, in any way, shape, or form, is downplay the significance of this grant,” she said.
“Yes, money: Great. Fantastic. The fact that this money isn’t necessarily attached to any one program; even better. But I think to be recognized as a southern treasure, as an organization in the Deep South that is doing work that is supporting and sustaining folks, that is specifically trying to lift up BIPOC youth and artists and staff members, is really important.
Credit: Courtesy of Hub City Press
Credit: Courtesy of Hub City Press
“[With] all of these different organizations in the Southeast, we are one of 17 that received this honor. So we’re really, really proud of that.”
Moreover, South Arts’ support of Deep Center will allow them to continue to positively impact Savannah’s youth, giving them a safe space to grow and develop as writers and as people.
“I think often adults have this feeling that kids should be seen and not heard,” noted Felton. “Our programs are meant to be a space for them to express themselves fully and freely and the power in their words and their art, no matter what they want to do that with that. So I think we’re making a lot of leaders here at Deep, and they’re going to change the world.”
Learn more about South Arts and Deep Center at southarts.org and deepcenter.org.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Here is how a new 'Southern treasure' grant will help elevate the work done by Deep Center
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