Judith Zaimont (left) talks to Anita McLeod at a MAC gallery event.

Arizona Commission on the Arts is awarding a community investment grant to Maricopa Arts Council (MAC) and a festival grant to Copa Shorts Film Fest for fiscal year 2018.

MAC was founded in 2013. This was the first year the directors applied for a coveted arts commission grant. A community investment grant (CIG) funds organizations “whose primary mission is to produce, present, teach or serve the arts.”

Categorized in the smallest tier, Maricopa Arts Council is Level 1, the most competitive level. It has a funding maximum of $3,000 and must be matched 1-to-1 by the organization.

Judith Zaimont, an Arts Council co-director with Ceylan Gentilella and John Janzen, said the CIG application process is “extremely complex.”

“We’re just very pleased to be receiving this,” Zaimont said.

Shelley Gillespie is executive director of Copa Shorts Film Fest, which debuted this year with independent films from around the country. She has been in grant-writing mode for months to find avenues that will allow the festival to grow. In the festival grant category, it is Level II and has a funding maximum of $3,000 from the arts commission.

Arizona Commission on the Arts distributes more than $1.5 million annually. Only about $10,000 of that ends up in Pinal County, primarily in eastern Pinal.

“With our county’s population growth, we are pleased to see that our arts organizations’ awards recognize the significant strides being made in cultural and arts projects in western Pinal County,” Gillespie said. “I do hope we can further our efforts to make Maricopa a community that really embraces the arts.”

Zaimont said the grants lend credence to the arts efforts in Maricopa and serve as “credentials” as they go about their fund-raising efforts.

Over the past year, Maricopa Arts Council produced a three-season arts expo, “Got Arts, Maricopa?,” and will be bringing back several of the of those events. They include studio crawls, poetry slams, silent reading parties and a student choreography showcase. Meanwhile, the next Copa Shorts Film Fest is set for Feb. 16-18. Submissions are being accepted through Oct. 13.

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