ANOTHER GRANT AWARD FOR TCA MUSIC PARK!

​The Elizabeth Ruthruff Wilson Foundation recently awarded Tecumseh Center for the Arts (TCA) with a second grant award of $20,000; for a total of $40,000 for the creation and installation of the TCA Music Park in 2023.    
 
During the summer of 2022, the Elizabeth Ruthruff Wilson Foundation (ERWF) awarded Tecumseh Center for the Arts $20,000 for the new TCA Music Park, after the theater received a $10,000 grant award from the Maurice and Dorothy Stubnitz Foundation. The ERWF recommended that Tecumseh Center for the Arts contact their Foundation again in January 2023, about a possible second award.  
 
In January Director Kelly Jo Gilmore submitted a second grant request to the Elizabeth Ruthruff Wilson Foundation with updated financials, timelines, and project status; and requesting an additional $20,000 bringing the Foundation’s total contribution to $40,000. On February 5, Tecumseh Center for the Arts was notified that the Foundation’s board had unanimously approved the second grant award.  

"The City of Tecumseh and Tecumseh Center for the Arts are incredibly grateful to have local foundations that are committed to supporting quality-of-life programming for its residents and musical opportunities for our youth,” stated Gilmore. “The TCA Music Park is a dream come true for many people and organizations, including the theater and the Elizabeth Ruthruff Wilson Foundation.” 
 
To date, the TCA Music Park has raised over $70,000 from local foundations, individual donors, and funding through the City of Tecumseh’s Park and Recreation Department. The project officially started last fall with excavation. Over the next couple of months, the community will see more progress as landscaping begins, concrete is poured, and the first sound sculptures arrive. A ribbon cutting is planned for the beginning of June.  
 
“The Elizabeth Wilson Foundation is proud to grant a second round of funding to the TCA to implement a unique music project, the TCA Music Park,” stated Elizabeth Ruthruff Wilson Foundation Board Member Sheri Powers. “Making this collaboration even more special is the fact that Elizabeth herself was on the original board for the TCA and remained an active member until her death. Knowing that this project is accessible to community members of all ages to gather and play music together, the board of the Wilson Foundation is confident that supporting this musical installation to the TCA park aligns with our mission to perpetuate a lifelong love of music.” 

Confident that music and the performing arts positively enhance people’s lives, the Elizabeth Ruthruff Wilson Foundation seeks to enrich the Lenawee County region’s cultural life through its support of, education in, performance of and appreciation for the performing arts. The foundation’s primary focus is on music and performing arts programs that benefit the Lenawee County community and/or students in the County’s primary and secondary education programs (including post-secondary scholarships in music and performing arts). ​