Morgantown, W.Va. — Mark Ramsey, a Mylan Laboratories representative, presented the initial gift for the Arts Fund to Ashley Hardesty, the Campaign Chair, at the Arts Fund Debut. Blaine Turner Advertising followed up with an additional gift to encourage the support of the arts by our business community. Hardesty applauded Mylan Laboratories and Blaine Turner Advertising for their investment in the arts, and expressed her personal commitment to supporting local arts organizations.

The Arts Fund is a collaboration between Community Visions Foundation, Greater Morgantown Community Trust and Arts Monongahela to raise operational monies for community arts organizations.  Similar fundraising models exist in over 80 cities across the country. The Morgantown Arts Fund will be the second of its kind in the state of West Virginia.

Hardesty, an attorney at the Morgantown office of Bowles, Rice, McDavid, Graff and Love LLP and an organizer of Generation Morgantown, encouraged business and community support of the Arts Fund by citing the many benefits of a strong arts community.

Jack Thompson, the Executive Director of Arts Monongahela, introduced Brenda Walker from the Community Visions Foundation, who will manage the fundraising effort and Paula Martinelli from the Greater Morgantown Community Trust, where the actual fund will reside.  Arts Monongahela, a service organization for the arts in the Morgantown area, is the lead organization in the collaboration of the Arts Fund.
   
The Arts Fund Debut was hosted at Arts Monongahela’s new location at 201 High Street.  Representatives from the ten Arts Partners were in attendance along with many business and community leaders and arts supporters.

Additional information about the Arts Fund is available by calling Jack Thompson at Arts Monongahela at 291-6720 or Brenda Walker at the Community Visions Foundation at 292-3311.