Main Street Toccoa Receives Launchpad Grant

Main Street Toccoa has received another grant, this time the Launchpad Grant from the South Arts organization in Atlanta.

Executive Director of the Main Street Program Christian Hamilton said this grant is meant to help launch an organization, in Toccoa’s case, the Ritz Theatre.

According to Hamilton, the Ritz was taken over by the city in 2014 and since then, has been pushing programming out of the city.

Hamilton said the funds from the Launchpad grant will have numerous uses.

“We’re hoping to use this Launchpad Grant to continue to boost programming at the Ritz Theatre,” said Hamilton. “The grant involves three aspects- One, it allows us to attend the Performing Arts Expo, which gets together a lot of theater managers, governments and artists. This will be helpful for us to establish networking opportunities. The second aspect, it lets us get a mentor together to learn from someone who has been in the field quite a long time and help to develop our programming. And the final aspect is an actual grant to book a performing arts expo juried showcase artist.”

Hamilton said eventually they hope to have more diverse programming at the Ritz.

“We would like to bring more musical artists, more plays, more theatrical performances, more movies,” said Hamilton. “Our eventual goal is to have a diverse and excellent selection of programming at the Ritz that will appeal to anyone and everyone in Toccoa.”

For more information about the Launchpad grant, contact Christian Hamilton at 706.898.5777.