Eric Chaney Georgia Humanities Grantwriting Simulation

Interpretive Signage Celebrating Mr. Imagination

Public History Simulation

Georgia Humanities Grantwriting Simulation

N/A N/A O: 404-523-6220
50 Hurt Plaza SE
Suite 650
Atlanta, GA 30303

Eric Chaney
50 Hurt Plaza SE ericchaney1@gmail.com
Suite 650 O: 618-521-6034
Atlanta, GA 30303

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Application Form

Project Summary
Project Name*
Response limited to 250 characters.
Interpretive Signage Celebrating Mr. Imagination

Is this a proposed project for the Digital Tour initiative?*

The Digital Tour Initiative invites nonprofit organizations to apply for the opportunity to create walking and driving
tour mobile apps using Open Tour Builder, a free software platform created by initiative partner, the Emory
University Center for Digital Scholarship.
No

Please provide a brief overview of the proposed project.*

Responses should be no longer than 3 sentences. Further information may be entered in the project narrative
section of this application.
Atlanta's newest city park, Lower Paul Park, will include an Imagination Garden honoring the late
outsider/folk artist Gregory Warmack, aka Mr. Imagination, who owned part of the property. This grant will
fund interpretive signage exploring his life, his art, and his legacy.

Grant Request*
The amount of funding requested should not exceed $2,500.
$2,500.00

Project Start Date:*

Approximate dates are acceptable.
09/01/2023

Project End Date*

Approximate dates are acceptable.
03/30/2024

Applicant Organization Information

Name*
Riverwalk Atlanta, Inc.

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Mailing Address
3650 Habersham Road NW, Atlanta, GA, 30305

Physical Address
Required only if different than the organization's mailing address.

County*
Fulton County

Phone
Ex: 404-523-6220
618-521-6034

Website
EIN
Annual Operating Budget
Georgia House District*
You can find this information here.
Georgia House District 60

Georgia Senate District*

You can find this information here.
Georgia Senate District 6

U.S. Congressional District*

You can find this information here.
U.S. Congressional District 5

Briefly describe your organization’s mission and how it connects to the

humanities disciplines.*
Responses limited to 750 characters.
Riverwalk Atlanta is focused on advocacy and implementation for a 5-mile greenway along the
Chattahoochee River within the Atlanta City Limits. Atlanta's newest city park, Lower Paul Park, will connect
to this greenway. Riverwalk is managing Mr. Imagination's estate and will be working with the city to choose
art for display in the Imagination Garden portion of the park. Riverwalk president Keith Sharp knew Mr.
Warmack and is passionate about preserving his legacy and the spirit of his art, which according to the
Smithsonian, "excelled at turning discarded materials from the streets and alleyways ... into art, and
transforming the castoffs of contemporary society into celebrations of his unique identity."

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Project Personnel
Project Director
Name*
This individual will be considered the primary contact for all grant communications and is responsible, along with
the Financial Officer (see below), for completing all required materials, including a Final Report.
Keith Sharp

Title/Affiliation*
President

Phone*
Ex: 404-523-6220
678-778-8774

Email*
oksharp@kw.com

Financial Officer
Name*
This individual will be responsible for all of the project’s fiscal reporting, including the processing of grant payment
requests. This individual cannot be the same as the Project Director.
Kathy Hearn

Title/Affiliation*
Secretary

Phone
Ex: 404-523-6220
[Unanswered]

Email

Humanities Scholars
Humanities Scholars*
List the credentials and/or experience of the project’s humanities scholar(s), including their name, position, and
institutional affiliation (if applicable), a brief biography for each scholar, and the specific ways the scholar(s) will

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inform the project. Please do not exceed more than a paragraph for each scholar listed. Do not include resumes or
CVs of the project’s humanities scholar(s).

Georgia Humanities considers a humanities scholar to be someone who meets one or both of the following
qualifications:

• Holds an advanced degree (M.A. or higher) in the humanities discipline;

• Is a recognized expert with a verifiable record of working, teaching, and publishing in the humanities
discipline and/or is acknowledged as such by other scholars in the field
Katherine Jentleson - Merrie and Dan Boone Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art - High Museum of Art

Katherine “Katie” Jentleson, PhD, is the Merrie and Dan Boone Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art at the High
Museum of Art, Atlanta. Her most recent exhibitions, Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self-Taught Artist in
America and Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe, opened to the public in Atlanta in fall 2021 and
began national tours in 2022. Since joining the High, she has overseen more than half a dozen exhibitions and
grown the collection by more than five hundred objects, including major acquisitions of work by Thornton
Dial, Lonnie Holley, the Gee’s Bend quilters, and Henry Church, many of which debuted in the newly expanded
and thematically integrated Folk and Self-Taught Art galleries as part of the Museum’s 2018 reinstallation.
Her exhibitions and collection-based initiatives have been awarded major support from Bank of America, the
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Art Bridges
Foundation, and the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation.Before she became a curator, Dr. Jentleson worked
as an arts journalist in New York. Through her editorial assignments and general experiences at galleries and
museums there, she discovered her passion for self-taught artists and their historical legacy in the United
States. In 2010, she began her graduate studies in art history at Duke University, where she focused her
research on the rise of self-taught artists during the interwar period. During her graduate career she received
awards and fellowships from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Archives of American Art, and the
Dedalus Foundation, and she contributed research and writing to exhibitions at the American Folk Art
Museum, the Ackland Art Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Prospect.3
New Orleans. Dr. Jentleson adapted her dissertation into a peer-reviewed book Gatecrashers: The Rise of the
Self-Taught Artist in America (University of California Press, Spring 2020) and the High Museum of Art’s 2021
exhibition of the same name.

Mr. Imagination was a widely celebrated self-taught artist who had a significant following in Atlanta, where
he spent the last years of his life, and the High has seven of Mr. Imagination's pieces in its permanent
collections. As a former journalist and a curator of self-taught and folk art in Atlanta, no one is better
positioned than Katie to help tell Mr. Imagination's story and place it within the broader context of American
art.

Project Narrative
This section of the application provides the opportunity to share more information about the proposed project.

Describe the project’s events and activities.*

Please focus this description on the activities that will be supported directly by Georgia Humanities grant funds.

Address the following questions: What is the need for this project?What activities and events will the project
include? Are the project’s events and activities free and open to the public?

Response limited to 4,500 characters.

What is the need for this project?

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The project will involve creating and installing interpretive signage detailing the life and art of folk artist
Gregory Warmack, aka Mr. Imagination. An Imagination Garden dedicated to Mr. Warmack is slated to be part
of the City of Alanta's newest city Park, Lower Paul Park. This accompanying signage will help preserve the
legacy of this nationally known folk artist and provide context for the art on display. The sign will be installed
at a dedication event open to the public which will hopefully include some of Mr Warmack's family and city
officials. Catering will be provided by a neighbor with a catering business.

Are the project’s events and activities free and open to the public?

Will the project’s audience incur any fees to participate in the proposed project
above?*
If yes, detail all fees to be charged to participants below and the justification for each fee. Include the entity’s
standard admission fees, if applicable.

Responses limited to 2,500 characters.

No fees will be charged to the public. The dedication for the sign will be free and open to the public and the
sign will be part of a public City of Atlant Park, open to anyone.

What is the project’s COVID-19 contingency plan?*

If the proposed project includes in-person activities and events, how will the project adapt/change course if public
health circumstances pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic make in-person activities impracticable? Can the
project transition to a virtual or digital format? Has the project team explored other program format options?

Responses limited to 2,000 characters.

The dedication will take place outdoors at the park site, which is allowable under current COVID rules. If
guidelines change in the meantime, chairs can be spaced 6 feet apart for social distancing purposes. If
regulations change such that outdoor gatherings are not allowed even with social distancing in place,
Riverwalk Atlnat officials will conduct the in-person ceremony and oversee installation, while guests can view
the ceremony remotely through Zoom.

How do the humanities inform this project?*

Please identify the humanities disciplines central to this project. What questions or issues will your project
address? What makes these questions significant at this moment? How will this project connect the research and
knowledge of humanities scholars with the public?

Responses limited to 2,500 characters.

This project is centered around the interpretation of visual arts specifically folk art created by renowned local
artist Mr. Imagination, aka Gregroy Warmack. Mr Imagination's art focused on reclaiming materials others
might consider trash. According to Material Culture.com, "He saw the untapped possibilities in everyday or
discarded objects, transforming them into spectacular works of art. At times whimsical and at times
commanding, his pieces always have an individual force and an animating presence." This idea dovetails with
the idea of reclaiming what was once industrial and residential land to create a riverside park. This project
explores the idea of value and says, ultimately, that we all have value, even those who might otherwise be
overlooked. This idea seems to be fading in this day of hyperpartisan politics, culture wars, and rising racism
and xenophobia.

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Describe the intended audience(s) and desired audience reaction to this project.*
Who is this project designed to reach? If your organization has an established audience base, how will this project
attract new audiences? What do you hope the project’s audience(s) will learn, experience, or gain as a result of
this project?

Responses limited to 2,500 characters.

The project is designed to reach not only the Riverside neighborhood but any Atlantan or visitor who comes
to enjoy the park and the Imagination Garden. As parks are often children-centric part of our message will
focus on Mr. Imgination's efforts to foster folk arts in a younger generation. He often encouraged
neighborhood children to help him find materials, in the process teaching them to be good stewards of their
environment. He also worked with kids to transform a vacant lot neAar a youth center in Chicago into a
community art park. We hope that Mr. Imgination 's story will inspire both children and adults to tap into
their own imagination to create music, write, draw, paint, sculpt, or pursue other creative avenues of their
choosing.

Publicity and Marketing

Publicity and Marketing*
What are your plans to publicize and promote the project? How will the publicity and marketing plan help reach
the project’s desired audience(s)?

Responses limited to 1,500 characters.

We will publicize the dedication of the sign on the neighborhood's Facebook page and work with the High
Museum to discuss the best ways of reaching their patrons, such as a monthly newsletter event listing or
email blasts.

Timeline
Timeline*
Provide a timeline for your project, including planning, implementation, and post-program activities. Including as
many details as are available is encouraged. Responses limited to 1,000 characters.

For example:

• October: Outline run of show draft

• November: Invite panelists; develop discussion companion
• December: Finalize panelists; finalize discussion companion; finalize run of show
• January: Reserve facilities and AV company; finalize panelist travel plans
• February: Begin event promotion

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• March 23, 2022: Event date

• September: Begin text research, reach out to High Museum
• October: Price signage, frames and installation costs
• November: First text draft to Katie at High; identify and price photos
• December: Draft guest list for dedication invites, Warmack family, city officials, neighborhood
• January: Final text and photos; send dedication invites
• February: Finalize details for dedication; catering costs, port-o-potty and chair rentals
• March 30, 2022: Dedication date

Evaluations and Outcomes

Goals and Intended Outcomes*
What are the goals and intended outcomes of this project? Describe the methods you will use to evaluate your
project, and how you will determine if the project was successful.

Responses limited to 1,500 characters.

This project is intended to preserve the legacy of Mr. Imagination in his former neighborhood and hometown
and to carry on the legacy of his art, the idea of value in everyday or discarded objects. Evaluation of the
project will be based on successfully capturing both the facts and the spirit of Mr. Imagination's life and art in
the interpretive text and images used. This can be determined to be successful through interviews with Katie,
members of the Warmack family, and others who knew Gregory personally.

Project Budget
Budget Narrative*
Please download the budget narrative template here, fill out and upload below. (Once the link opens, use the
download button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to begin the download).
Mr Imgaination Interpratvie Signage Bugdet Narrative.xlsx

Application Submission
By submitting this application, I certify to the statements contained in the list of certifications and attest that the
statements are true, complete, and accurate to the best of my knowledge. I agree to comply with any stated terms
of this grant award. I am further aware that any false or fraudulent claims or statements could establish criminal,
civil, or administrative penalties as stated in U.S. Code, Title 213, Section 1001. Certifications and Assurances, as
well as general terms and requirements that apply to this grant award, can be found online.
The applicant organization assumes all responsibilities as grantee. In signing and submitting a grant application, the
applicant organization certifies that it will submit all required documents and reports on time. Recipients must
certify their compliance with above named nondiscrimination statutes and affirm that they have not been
disbarred or suspended from eligibility to receive these funds. By signing and submitting this application, the
applicant organization is providing these certifications.

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Authorized Electronic Signature*

By entering your name below, you indicate that you agree to the certifications and assurances listed above.
Eric Chaney

Date*
04/11/2023

Applicants may submit a draft of their application by Monday, September 12 to receive feedback and modify their
application before the final September 30 deadline. This feedback process is not required. Please indicate below if
you would like to receive feedback before the September 30 deadline.

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File Attachment Summary

Applicant File Uploads
• Mr Imgaination Interpratvie Signage Bugdet Narrative.xlsx

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 BUDGET NARRATIVE
Project Title: Mr. Imagination Interprative Signage

Organization: Riverwalk Atlanta, Inc.

• Use detailed estimates to explain each line item
• Include both in-kind and cash contributions under Cost Share
• Contact Grants Manager Jerald Crook (jcrook@georgiahumanities.org) with any questions.

Cost Breakout GaHum Grant Cost Share

Administration
Project Director Keith Sharp
Assistant Director Eric Chaney
Other Staff
Benefits
Honoraria
Scholars
a. Katherine Jentleson - Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art - High Museum
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Others
a.
b.
c.
d.
Travel & Per Diem
Airfare - coach or equivalent on U.S. flag carriers only
a.
b.
Mileage - IRS Standard Mileage Rate maximum (.56 per mile for 2021)
a.
b.
c.
d.
Per Diem
a.
b.
c.
d.
Supplies $ 825.00 $ 2,500.00
a. Catering for Dedication Event - Neighbor owns catering business $2,500
b. High Pressure Laminate Sign 3' x 2' $ 450.00
c. Signage Display Frame 3’ x 2' $ 375.00
d.
e.
f.
Promotion/Publicity
Printing
a. Dedication Invitations $100
b.
Postage
a. Invitation Postage $50
b.
Marketing
a.
b.
c.
Facilities & Equipment
Exhibition Space
a.
b.
Equipment Rental
a. Chairs for Dedication $175
b. Port-o-potty for Dedication $150
Other Expenses
a. Historical Research and Writing $500
b. Photo Rights $500
c. Sign Installation $200
d.
e.
TOTALS $ 2,500.00 $ 2,500.00
GaHum Grant Cost Share

BUDGET NOTES
Use the following section to provide notes or to explain how you calculated the cost of line items listed above. Applicants are
especially encouraged to explain costs for line items over $1,000.