Kentuck gets $10,000 grant for Boxes of Joy program

By WVUA 23 News Reporter Valarie Bracken

The Kentuck Art Center is more than doubling the size of its Boxes of Joy program and will soon serve as many as 100 children in Northport.

Kentuck can expand the program thanks to a $10,000 Challenge America grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Children in the West Circle community, along with two additional communities in Northport will participate in the program, which is happening in partnership with the Northport Housing Authority.

Each month, children will receive a Box of Joy that includes art activities and necessary supplies.

At the end of the year, these children will have a full chest of art supplies so they can continue creating new things.

Kentuck Art Center Executive Director Amy Echols said this grant ensures children have access to art education.

“It really gets projects of art and education to where they are,” Echols said. “But it also opens the door and invites them here so we can engage them in the community. The children are so excited. They’re like, ‘What? Another box? This is great,’ ” Echols said.

The grant also enables Kentuck to send professional artists into these communities, where they can offer in-person instruction, Echols said.

Kentuck will also be hosting an event at the center later this year for the children in the program, called Day of Joy.