Lakeview Local School District will receive a $42,000 grant from the Ohio Arts Council to fund the addition of a dance program to the high school’s curriculum.
It was one of five grants awarded to Trumbull County in the state’s 2027 fiscal year budget, and one of 28 grants totaling $390,230 awarded to the Trumbull/Mahoning/Columbiana region.
Lakeview High School Principal Lawrence Herrholtz said Stephanie Mas, a parent who lives in the school district, approached him with the idea of adding a dance program. He liked the idea, but there was one major obstacle — the cost.
“It has to be cost-free to the taxpayers,” Herrholtz said. “There was this cost barrier, and today is a day of celebration, because it appears we’re able to hurdle the cost barrier.”
Mas, whose family relocated to the area last year and whose children attend Lakeview schools, ran a similar dance program in the Fort Myers, Florida, area for five years.
“I think coming from my experience and my background, I’ve seen so much growth that can happen through a whole year of coursework,” Mas said. “We’re really trying to put on a full year’s dance program at the school, where the students get to really delve into, not just all the different genres and curriculums of dance, but also working with the physicality, how to strengthen their bodies to walk through the world stronger and more confident.”
The grant will cover the cost for Mas’s salary and supplies for the program that will run through the 2026-27 school year.
“In (early) July, when we didn’t hear anything, we didn’t believe we received the grant,” Herrholtz said. “But this morning (Thursday) when I opened my email, I was ecstatic that we were able to get this grant money and be able to offer dance instruction for our kids here at Lakeview.”
ArtSTART grants like the one Lakeview received provide money for a specific program. OAC sustainability grants provide general operating support, and TeachArtsOhio grants that cover the cost for short-term artist residencies in the schools.
Another first-time Trumbull recipient is Millennial Theatre Company, which is based in Girard but has staged shows throughout the Mahoning Valley. It will receive a $3,429 ArtSTART grant.
MTC’s founder Joe Asente said the grant will enable the theater to hire musicians for its larger musical productions.
“It is clear that Youngstown audiences desire the use of live musicians, and with the help of this grant, we will continue to elevate our productions with live musicians whenever possible,” Asente said. We are thankful to the Ohio Arts Council for seeing the value in this project and for supporting our mission through this grant.”
Trumbull received a total of $54,160 in funding. Other Trumbull awardees are: Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County, $3,862 (ArtSTART); Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, $1,278 (sustainability); and Warren Symphony Society/Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, $3,591 (ArtSTART).
Mahoning County received $314,687 in grants, about $20,000 more than last year. Nineteen
Mahoning organizations received funding, although seven of those grants went to different locations in the Youngstown City School District. Harding, Martin Luther King Jr., Paul C. Bunn, Taft and Volney Rogers elementary schools and East and Rayen Early College middle schools each received TeachArtsOhio grants between $4,200 and $8,400.
Other grants went to: Ballet Western Reserve, $15,783; Butler Institute of American Art, $104,540; Etruscan Press, $4,464; Henry H. Stambaugh Auditorium Association, $42,869; Lit Youngstown, $6,849; Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, $6,458; McDonough Museum of Art, $12,418; Opera Western Reserve, $9,619; Stambaugh Chorus, $6,046; Students Motivated by the Arts-SMARTS, $32,151; Thrive Mahoning Valley, $17,214; and Youngstown Playhouse, $18,456.
All of those were sustainability grants except for first-time recipient Thrive Mahoning Valley, which was awarded an ArtsNEXT grant designed to support innovative and experimental projects.
Thrive Executive Director Christopher Colon said the money will be used to incorporate the arts in the farmers market held the second and fourth Thursday of the month at the main branch Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County on Wick Avenue.
“We’re going to have some photography, some hands-on sessions with kids around food insecurity, seed-to-stomach and farm-to-table ideas that we’re going to be doing over the next year at our market,” Colon said. “It’s engaging youth and community members through the arts on healthy eating and stuff like that.
“When we started our market back in late February, early March, one of the things that we wanted to do since the beginning was engage the youth, and the original funding didn’t allow us to do that. We saw this grant and said, ‘Hey, let’s give it a try.’ We didn’t expect to even get it, but we got it.”
Dani Dier, chief business officer for the Stambaugh association, said the OAC money in recent years helped finance TubaChristmas and other free events, educational efforts such as the Stambaugh Youth Concert Band and bringing in national touring acts like the Glenn Miller Orchestra last December.
Lit Youngstown co-founder Karen Schubert said many of her friends in other states complain that arts funding only goes to the largest cities. OAC awarded more than 1,000 grants statewide totaling $23,196,364 with money going to all 88 counties.
“Lit Youngstown is honored to have the support of the OAC and proud to live in a state that protects public funding for the arts throughout Ohio, and not just in the biggest cities,” Schubert said. “These operating funds will be used for salaries and overhead like insurance, behind-the-scenes costs that keep things humming.”
Four Columbiana County groups received $21,383: East Liverpool Community Partnership for Revitalization, $8,341 (ArtsNEXT); Lepper Library, $5,507 (sustainability); Stage Left Players Inc., $6,500 (sustainability); and Salem Chamber of Commerce, $1.035 (sustainability).
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