AIC Receives City Cultural Arts Funding

[Miggy]

Hello everyone,
A couple of months ago the AIC submitted its first application for Cultural Arts Division funding from the City of Austin. First year funding for our category is limited to a maximum of $5000 and we are being awarded $4300! The effect this will have on the minimal budget of the AIC can't be emphasized enough. This is also an especially strong showing given that it was our first application and that in a tight budget year, all grants have the potential of getting pro-rated down based on the city's formula.

I had the privelege of assembling the document we submitted and had the chance to see letters of endorsement come in from the operators of Out of Bounds Improv Festival (Shannon McCormick), Salvage Vanguard Theater/Gnap (Shana Merlin), ColdTowne Theater (Chris Trew), Institution Theater (Tom Booker) FTM Children's Theatre (Jessica Arjet) and The Hideout (Andy Crouch). Matt Pollock and Gene Joe also wrote letters of support. Thank you to each of those recommenders! While sometimes beign focused on working out operational details, it filled me with a lot of pride and hope to see how The Austin Improv Collective can exist and help the community at large. It's also inspiring to see how much we currently do with so little and to also now receive backing from our city that establishes confidence in Improv as an artform.

The details of how the money will be spent are not yet set. We sent in a proposed budget that will now have to be revised based on the amount and a couple of other issues on the ground, but we'll report that back to the group either through these boards or at AIC general meetings. Successful execution to that contract will also help our case in applying next year (when the allowable amount bumps up to $10k).

As a final note, this would not have been possible with out the special help of AIC board members, Asaf Ronen who worked tirelessly on our organization narrative, and Roy Janik who assembled past press clippings and other media documentation. Thank you so much for your help guys!

All the best,
Michael McGill
Treasurer, Austin Improv Collective

P.S. - this program is paid for by the local hotel occupancy tax, and it was only possible by being a sponsored project of the Austin Circle of Theaters (ACoT). So special consideration should be given to them as well.

[Roy Janik]

And of course, NONE of this would have started, been followed through on, or been completed with a high degree of thoroughness or quality without Michael McGill.

This is fantastic.

[andrea]

congratulations! i know how much work applying for grants can be. everyone in the aic should take mike mcgill out for a drink. seriously.

[bradisntclever]

Another reason why Mike McGill is a total badass.

[acrouch]

Fantastic. GD Fantastic.

[Matt]

Hells yes. Hopefully this will break the cycle of 'we can't afford to advertise because nobody buys tickets because nobody knows about our shows.'

Exciting!

[Asaf]

Mike McGill put in an all-nighter the night before everything was due to make sure we had all the papers together, to make sure that all our I's were dotted and T's were crossed, to make sure that all the numbers in our budget report added up and made sense.

We owe a lot to Mike and what he does for the AIC on a regular basis.

[kaci_beeler]

Oh wow! How wonderfully excellent!

[Jastroch]

Woot!

[arthursimone]

nice work, bubba!

[Jon Bolden]

Wow! Awesome. I can't wait to see the great effect this endowment will have. Great job, grants are so hard to get, woot!

[Jessica]

I am frequently amazed by Mike. Way to go!

[shando]

All right!

I am interested to see what the money is going to be spent on!

[smerlin]

YEASH!!

This is great.

[jose]

That is awesome - congratulations!