From Staff Reports
The Corsicana Visitors Bureau recently awarded the Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency a $10,780 grant to create video content, blending artist and writer residents’ work while in Corsicana with their experiences here. The videos will feature the city as a destination for arts and literature in Texas.
The organization is an international residency providing artists, writers and performers the space, tools, and community support to advance their contemporary practices within the historic Texas setting of Corsicana. The residency was founded in 2012 originally under the name of 100 West, by a collective of artists and writers based in Dallas who found Corsicana ideal to establish peaceful, productive, and stimulating studio space. The name was changed to include Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency to ensure simultaneous promotion of the city.
Since 2017, more than 1,000 people throughout the world have applied to live, work and create in Corsicana. The program has hosted more than 100 artists and writers from Texas as well as art centers of New York, Miami, Los Angeles in the United States, and internationally from Iceland, France, South Korea and Brazil.
The residency expanded beyond the decommissioned Odd Fellows Lodge at 100 W. Third Avenue to include Storefront last May, a bookstore and public programming venue at 203 N. Commerce, the Anteroom exhibition space at 411 N. Beaton Street, and a new studio at the former P. Samuels building on Beaton. A writers house in the Carriage District is currently under renovation and set to open next spring.
The funds awarded will be used to create videos promoting resident works and how they engaged with Corsicana while in residence – frequenting a favorite business, historic site, Downtown event or meeting new friends. Videos will be used by both the Residency and Corsicana’s Tourism Department, and shared with the Residency’s 1,400 digital subscribers, 4,700 Instagram followers, and shared on Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo.
Tourism Director Amy Tidwell commented on the grant:
“The CVB’s mission is to promote, support, and maximize hotel/motel occupancy within Corsicana and promote the area as a unique tourist destination. Supporting the arts has always been a vital part of encouraging tourism in our community and the board was very happy to award this grant to the Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency. In the past year, the Residency has gained major attention in several publications in Texas and beyond. In turn, this level of exposure helps to promote Corsicana as a travel destination. We look forward to continuing our partnership.”
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