The Academy of Arts | Application Preview
The Academy of Arts is seeking government grants to fund a major expansion of their facility in Taylors, South Carolina, which they plan to name the "Hall of Heroes." This addition aims to be a public space that showcases local art, honors American heroes and historical figures, and offers free educational resources for visitors.
The expansion will significantly increase their capacity to serve the community. It will nearly triple the size of their student body and provide more classrooms, offices, rehearsal spaces, a dining area, and improved backstage access for productions. A key focus of this development is to better accommodate students with disabilities and special needs, fostering an inclusive environment for learners from diverse backgrounds.
The Academy of Arts emphasizes its impressive track record, highlighted by the world premiere of the stage adaptation of "Prince Caspian," which attracted visitors globally. They have experienced substantial growth since their establishment in 2006 and have managed to achieve this success with minimal budgets, demonstrating their ability to yield significant results from modest investments.
In terms of competition, their main rivals are The Peace Center, The Greenville Theatre, and Bob Jones University. While these competitors offer similar services, The Academy distinguishes itself by producing original works that cannot be seen elsewhere, ensuring family-friendly content, and engaging local talent. Their non-profit, faith-based approach sets them apart by integrating meaningful life lessons into their programs, catering to a broader audience, and serving the entire community rather than focusing solely on a specific demographic.
Overall, The Academy of Arts aims to provide a unique, inclusive, and enriching experience for its students and the community, believing that their distinct mission and approach are what draw more people to their offerings over other local options.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 59-152 5472
Location: Taylers, SC, United States
Length of Operation: 50
Number of Employees:
Annual Gross Income:
Annual Gross Expense:
Open to Loans: NO
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Funding Usage
To build a "hall of heroes" expansion onto our building in Taylors South Carolina that will be free and open to the public. This expansion will allow us to present local art, highlight American heroes and other great historical figures, and provide free educational material to visitors.
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Business Plan
In order to better serve the local community and also provide additional space for training our students and staff, we plan to add a significant addition to our current building. This addition will allow us to nearly triple the size of our student body. It will also provide more classroom space, office space, rehearsal space, a hall of heroes which will be open to the public for free, more direct access backstage to help the flow of productions, and a large space for dining. Utilizing this additional building addition, we would like to expand our present successful work with handicap and special-needs students by providing the appropriate space that is better suited to meet their unique needs. Our vision is to provide a diverse place where students from all walks of life can learn and grow to make a positive impact in their communities. People from all over the world traveled to see the official world premiere stage adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia "Prince Caspian." Did they go to Broadway? The West End in London? Perhaps to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh Scotland, or the beautiful stages of Paris, Rome, or Manchester? It may surprise you to learn that this monumental production, the only one officially licensed by the CS Lewis company, was produced in Taylors South Carolina at the Logos Theatre by The Academy of Arts. The world premiere of Prince Caspian was not the first time nor the last that our productions have drawn international attention and acclaim. Visitors from all over the United States, and even across the world, have come to the Logos Theatre. As a result, we have nearly tripled in size since we opened in 2006. All of this has been accomplished on a fraction of the budgets employed by most production houses. This is proof that we can take a little investment and turn it into something special. We have set and met specific goals and we have a proven track record of excellence. In addition to all of this, we have kept the family as our primary focus. We are excellent and family-friendly. We are growing. We have a vision and we are driven to see that vision become a reality.
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Self Identified Competition
As an organization, our top three competitors are The Peace Center in downtown Greenville, The Greenville Theatre, and Bob Jones University. All three of these organizations offer similar services to us including live productions, camps, and education. Our emphasis on family-friendly professional productions makes us more directly in competition with scholastic entities like Bob Jones and the youth focus of The Greenville Theatre. However, the largest live theatre venue in the area is the Peace Center. One of the single biggest differentiating factors between us and everyone else around us is the fact that we are generating our own unique productions. It was the Logos Theatre, not the Peace Center, not Bob Jones, not The Greenville Theatre, which housed the world premiere of Prince Caspian. We write the vast majority of our productions and produce them independently. This means that you cannot see the productions that are done on the Logos Theatre stage anywhere else in the world. Added to this, unlike the Peace Center, our productions are always family-friendly and accessible to all ages. Furthermore, we utilize local talent rather than hiring traveling Broadway shows and outside talent. This differentiates us from Bob Jones University as well. The fact that we work closely with members of the community and train them to perform at a high level is also a differentiating factor, in that we still carry the unity and accessibility of a community theatre while also maintaining professionalism. This is accomplished through our extensive training of those in the community and through the infusion of our talented and highly skilled staff into our productions. This blending of experience and energy creates a one-of-a-kind atmosphere that sets us apart. We are also a faith-based non-profit. This means that transformative truths are intricately woven into everything we teach and everything we perform. This means that, unlike the Greenville Theatre, children are not just having a good time and being bit parts in a simplified Broadway show, they are instead, learning valuable truths and life lessons from teachers who genuinely care about developing them, not just as students of drama but as students of life. This is by no means to suggest that the Greenville Theatre does not care about its students. I am sure they do, but our goals are specifically ministry-minded and that is a strong point of difference. Being faith-based we are often erroneously associated with Bob Jones. Unlike that institution, we are actively training all ages, not just college-age, and we market our productions to the community not just our staff and students. We are meant to be a service to the community and everything we do is geared towards being a benefit beyond ourselves. Again, this is not to suggest that Bob Jones does not benefit this community, nor that they do not want to, it simply means that our productions are filled primarily by attendees from outside our immediate circles which is unlike that large scholastic institution and again separates the Logos Theatre. We are totally unique in this current market in that no one is doing what we are doing the way we are doing it and little by little, when given the choice, people are choosing The Academy of Arts and The Logos Theatre over our competition.
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