Corporate Sponsorships Sought For Chickenstock – Minden Press-Herald | Minden Press-Herald

Corporate sponsorships are still being sought for the 22nd annual Chickenstock, the parish’s only arts festival.

Now in its 16th year at The Farm, the festival has had its ups and downs, executive director Chris Broussard said.

“For years, Cultural Crossroads relied on grant funding from the Decentralized Grants program set up by the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the Shreveport Arts Council,” she said. Last year, Broussard says, Cultural Crossroads underwrote a $5,000 arts program that brought the arts to more than 450 E.S. This year, Richardson was able to hire those volunteer artists to continue the program.

Today, Cultural Crossroads, the parish’s only 501c3 arts organization, faces new challenges, she said.

“Loss of grant dollars from state agencies and now a decline in local corporate support finds the organization short of their regular corporate dollars by more than $8,000,” Broussard said. A failure to complete the required reporting of expenses for last year’s festival in a timely manner left us out of this year’s cycle but eligible for 2017, a fate shared by the Scottish Tartan Festival in 2014.”

This year’s festival will be underwritten by corporate dollars from Citizens National Bank, Milbar Hydro Test of Shreveport, Minden Medical Center, Gros Trucking Company, Aeropres, Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Minden and Avery’s Catering.

Friends of The Farm include Tommy and Cindy Walker, George E. Minden Press-Herald, a division of Specht Newspapers, Inc., publishes Monday through Friday with a focus on local news, sports and community headlines throughout Webster Parish.