NEA grant helps to shine light on the importance of the 49507 Project

In an interview last year, the Diatribe Executive Director Marcel “Fable” Price and teaching artist Foster “AutoPilot” to discuss 49507 Project initiative. (WKTV)

By Sheila McGrath
WKTV Contributing Writer

The Diatribe relies on funding of all kinds to do its work.

But a recent $75,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts will give the nonprofit Grand Rapids arts organization more than just a financial boost.

“The reason this is such a huge deal is historically, NEA grants have gone to pretty large, prestigious organizations in the city of Grand Rapids,” said Marcel Price, founder and executive director of The Diatribe. “The NEA opening funding like this to organizations that are our size really gives us capacity, and allows us to show national as well as local funders alike how well we can be responsible stewards of federal dollars.”

“Enjoying the Roots of Our Positive Struggle,” by E’lla Webber, is located at 40 Acres Consulting, 703 Eastern Ave. SE. (Photo by Leda Theres for The 49507 Project.)

The funds will go to The Diatribe’s 49507 Project, which is in its second summer of bringing beauty and neighborhood pride to an underserved side of Grand Rapids. Last year, Black and Brown artists with the project created seven large-scale murals on buildings around south Grand Rapids. In addition to the murals, the 49507 Project features programming for young people, community listening sessions, and a youth-organized community art unveiling.

The Diatribe was one of 51 organizations across the country to get an Our Town grant from the NEA. The funding is designated for projects that integrate arts, culture, and design activities into efforts that strengthen communities by advancing local economic, physical, or social outcomes.

“The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson. “The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.”

An NEA grant requires a higher level of bookkeeping and tracking than other types of funding, so The Diatribe’s success with this NEA grant will help them secure additional grants from large donors in the future, Price said.

“A lot of people in Grand Rapids, when it comes to art, they believe there’s only one view of what art can be or where it can be,” he said.

This year, the group is bringing eight more murals to the 49507 zip code. Price met with city officials on June 20 to get approval for the design of the murals.

A key component to the 49507 Project is community engagement. (Supplied)

“All of the buildings have been primed and are ready. All of the artists have been selected and all the paint has been ordered for their murals, so this is the last step and then they’re off and running,” he said.

The murals will tell the stories of the area’s people, neighborhoods and businesses at a time when tensions continue to exist there, particularly with the April shooting death of Patrick Lyoya at the hands of former Grand Rapids Police officer Christopher Schuur. Price said that this a great year to show that residents of the 49507 zip code have the capacity to build the kind of neighborhood they would like to see.

“People in our listening sessions have been saying, ‘My kids seeing artists who look like them painting in our neighborhoods is inspiring beyond words,’” Price said.

The participating artists and locations of this year’s murals are: