HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (January 10, 2022) – The Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center has been named the recipient of a $60,000 grant from the Hays Foundation. The grant was awarded to support the MACC’s art education classes for children and adults, its exhibitions of local, national and international art, its art outreach programs to underserved families, and its newly expanded Healing Arts program for military veterans, teens and single mothers.
“We are extremely grateful to the Hays Foundation for its generosity,” says Cheryl Strichik, the MACC’s executive director and CEO. “We work hard at the MACC to make sure the arts are available to everyone, and this grant will help us achieve that objective.”
The grant from the Hays Foundation will help support the MACC’s art education programs, which served over 600 students last year. The organization’s Art After School program offers children and teens instruction in everything from basic drawing and painting to digital art and anime. Adult art courses are equally varied, with students exploring techniques in figurative drawing, oil painting, jewelry making and more.
The MACC’s various outreach programs to underserved youth and families have long been a top priority of the organization. Programs like Exhibition Connect: Community Outreach (EC:CO) provide free educational, historical, cultural, and art-making immersion experiences at facilities such as Gallatin’s Children are People and Nashville’s Cottage Cove.
A new, multi-modal healing arts program called “Between the Lines” engages military veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI in art-making activities at such locations as the local Hendersonville VFW Post 9851. The program also works with teens and single mothers overcoming depression, abuse, grief and loss.
The MACC has staged some of the most compelling and talked-about art exhibitions seen in Middle Tennessee in recent years. Exhibitions have included the recently concluded The Elegance of Royal Fashion featuring some of the most spectacular gowns of Princess Diana and other luminaries of the Royal Family. Other notable art exhibitions showcased the ceramic works of Pablo Picasso along with the pop art of the legendary Peter Max.
Programming at the MACC lends itself to the mission of the Marlene and Spencer Hays Foundation. Created in 2017 following the death of Spencer Hays, the Foundation was established to support efforts to improve peoples’ lives through the arts; research and innovations in health care; education and programs to help at-risk youth; and to promote enhanced economic achievement by encouraging discipline, ambition and commitment to goals and principles.
The arts always played a central role in the lives of Marlene Hays, who is one of the Foundation’s trustees, and to Spencer Hays. Over the course of their long marriage, the couple built a substantial collection of almost 600 paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Believing that art belongs to everyone, the couple chose the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to receive a substantial portion of their collection.
Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center is conveniently located off Gallatin Pike just three miles east of Rivergate Mall. The place serves as a haven for the arts, hosting major art exhibitions throughout the year. It also offers classes and summer camps on art and film for children and adults. Monthaven Mansion is available to rent for weddings, receptions, showers, corporate team-building classes, and private parties. For more information, visit www.monthavenartsandculturalcenter.com or call (615) 822-0789.