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Community Art Grant
The Locals is a creative placemaking organization and we want to support artists who want to create something to share with the community of Conway! We are giving out $1500 to support an artist's project. The theme of the grant is Cultivating Community--any medium is welcome: create a piece of music, a sculpture, a mural, a play, anything you can come up with that celebrates community. For all the details and to apply click here or on the image above. Please share with your artist friends!
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MOVIE NIGHT IS BACK!
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Support Your Community
Check out more videos and info on The Locals Food Initiative by clicking this link
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May
It is farmers market season: asparagus, strawberries, broccoli, and kale are making an appearance!!
This growing season, The Locals are helping spread the word about the places in Conway where you can get local food. With the support of an Arkansas Community Foundation grant, we are developing a marketing campaign for The Farmstand at Bell Urban Farm, Conway Locally Grown, the Conway Farmers Market, and the Downtown Farmers Market. Click on the image above to preview one of the videos you might come across on your FB or Instagram feed :)
The Locals are also proud to announce the winners of our Growing Farms Grant! Thanks to donations from supporters like you, we are going to be able to help the Bradford Valley Farms build a new brooder for their pastured chickens. We are also helping expand the Burrows Craft Chocolate bee hives, which will provide all the honey they will need for their new local and hand crafted chocolate business.
The Locals just made a pledge to support The Rogue Roundabout Kickstarter, and you should too! The Rogue Roundabout will be the first micro-brewery and restaurant in Conway. They plan to use local ingredients in their Craft Kitchen, and brew craft beers in their Beverage Lab. Learn more about their project, and help make this dream a reality by clicking the image above!
Stay tuned for more updates on our awesome community. Thanks for all your support!
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2021 Accomplishments
2021 was a bit of a turmoil and who knows what 2022 will bring, but all things considered 2021 wasn't too shabby for The Locals. One way or another, we were able to continue supporting and promoting projects that benefit our community. We'd like to share with you some of last year's accomplishments:-The food recovery program partnering with Harps completed another year of donations to the Bethlehem house;-We gave out two garden grants--one for Mayflower elementary school, and one for UCA's department of student transition;-We received a grant from the Arkansas Community Foundation to launch a marketing campaign for places that sell local food, and to try to increase access to that food by signing farmers up to accept EBT (food stamps)-Through our partnership with the Green Space Initiative and the Conway Tree Board, we gave a grant to plant a tree in the 5th Avenue Park;
-We also gave out two grants to the Urban Farm Project-- one to pay for the design of the proposed Conway Library Pavilion (see attached picture), and one to buy a freezer to provide storage for food used in community events, as well as a place to house part of the seed library collection;
We are able to do all this with the help of people like you, our community partners, and everyone who shows up and participates. If you'd like to give us an extra hand, consider making a donation or becoming a super supporter. Learn more at https://www.thelocals.be/super_supportThank you so much and we hope to keep making our community a more creative, unique and vibrant place to live in 2022 :)Stay safe!Sandra Leyva
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October 2021 updates
Check out all the fun activities that are right around the corner!
Join the Urban Farm Project's Potluck Social. This coming Saturday, October 23rd from 5-8pm. Celebrate the end of a great season and, if you haven't yet, meet the new garden programmer Erica Lunde. Enjoy roasting hot dogs and marshmallows around the firepit, and some fun games for adults and kids. The library will provide the hot dogs and fixings, and the drinks. Bring a dish to share, such as a salad, soup, vegetable side, or dessert. For all the info and to invite your friends visit https://fb.me/e/4xENXBp2x
For this month's online movie Club we are watching Adaptation with Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. This meta-film takes you on a screen writers journey to adapt a book into a film, while taking every opportunity to take a filmic cliche and completely turn it on its head. Watch on your own and join us for a fun discussion via Google Meet on Thursday, October 28th, at 830pm https://meet.google.com/ngx-gqxa-mas
Visit Downtown Conway to enjoy drinks and small bites, live music, retail shopping, and art demonstrations! Conway Art Walk will happen every third Thursday of the month from 5–8pm. Each month, new artists will be featured in retail shops along Oak Street, between Chestnut and Front Street.
On October 21st, 5–8pm, in honor of Hispanic Heritage month, artist in residence, Sector Sick, will be creating live art throughout the event. Live music will include an African drum circle by Ron Jensen-McDaniel and a duet by the Conway Symphony Orchestra.
Help Conway develop its Public Art Master Plan by filling out this survey! https://surveymonkey.com/r/XG8MGWZ
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September 2021 updates
We are so happy to see things starting to pick up around the community. If you know of any activities or events you want to spread the word about, please let me know.
Also, we recently had a problem with our website and lost a bunch of our newsletter subscribers :(
If you enjoy our newsletter, please forward it to a friend (or two, or three :) and encourage them to sign up to receive monthly community updates www.thelocals.be/newsletter
Great news! The Locals received a grant from the Arkansas Community Foundation to create a marketing campaign for local food, as well as to help farm stands, farmers markets, and any place where local food is available, to apply and get set up to accept SNAP/EBT benefits. If you are interested in this please contact me at [email protected]The more people know where local food is available, and the more accessible it is, the more local food sales will increase! Please share this so it can reach the people that can benefit from this opportunity.Carolyn Lewis Elementary in Conway is searching for a service member to manage the school garden from September 2021- July 15th 2022. This is an amazing paid professional development opportunity. This position pays $22,000 over the course of 11 months and includes health insurance. There is also potential for childcare assistance.
Apply using this link: https://foodcorps.org/apply/
To learn more about FoodCorps Arkansas, click here:
You can also check out our recruitment powerpoint, here.
For any questions contact [email protected]
Hope to see you soon!
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School/Community Garden Grants
The Locals wants to help get a couple local gardens ready for this year's growing season. The Locals will be awarding two $500 grants for school or community gardens in Faulkner County, AR. To apply please fill out this application by March 31st, 2021 https://forms.gle/8Wxp11xbGfbkKE8E7 Please help us spread the word about this grant!!
For questions contact [email protected]
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Online Movie Club
Let's face it, social distancing has many of us watching a lot more TV and movies than usual, so why not try to make the best of it--together!
We will all watch a movie on our own time, and then get together through a video conference to chit chat about it. The films we pick will all be available through Kanopy.com, a free online streaming service made available through the public library. And our friend, and Movie Night host, Felipe Pruneda would be the moderator.
If this sounds like something you would be interested in participating in, register for the Movie Club and receive a special goodie package in the mail https://forms.gle/5ZLrh7vziLrXb1ZS7 before each meeting--you must participate in the meetings to continue receiving the packets.
Our next meeting will be Thursday, March 25th at 830pm. For this month's movie club we will be watching Miss Juneteenth.
Tensions between Turquoise and her daughter Kai erupt when they prepare the young woman for Texas' Miss Juneteenth pageant. Turquoise, a former winner and single mom working as a waitress at a bar and a beautician in a mortuary, pushes Kai to follow in her footsteps, but might be confusing what she wants with what her daughter needs. As the contest approaches, Turquoise will begin questioning her choices for her family and wonder if her idea of her future is all that clear.
Director Channing Godfrey Peoples's eloquent, lucid portrait of a resilient Black woman celebrates personal and historical forms of liberation while bringing the community around the pageant to vivid life.
Watch the movie on your own time and join the discussion via Google Meet (https://meet.google.com/dah-jtha-rks).
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The Locals Statement of Inclusion
The Locals is committed to cultivating a strong community that is inclusive and diverse. We believe each person is different and can contribute their unique gifts in terms of ideas, abilities, opinions, perspective, culture, education, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, national origin, age, languages, color, religion, sexual orientation, and beliefs, and any other manifestations of being human.
Our goal is to help people develop their particular skills and pursue their passions by connecting them with other people, projects, and groups with shared interests.
We do not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment.
If you believe there is something we can do to stay true to our values, please contact us at [email protected] and we will do everything we can to honor our commitments.
