(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs has awarded more than one million dollars in Iowa Great Places grants. Iowa Arts Council administrator David Schmitz says many of the projects selected in this round of grant funding are in rural parts of the state where there can be bigger impacts. “A lot of times we think about these projects being about preserving the past, but they’re also about the future, and, you know, signaling to a community that These places are worth investing in and keeping alive for the future,” Schmitz says.

He says an example is Cedar County officials wanting to renovate Tipton’s Hardacre Theater, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Schmitz says these projects look to make communities better places to live. He says this financial support can especially help rural parts of the state. “It’s all about communities looking at what they have, what’s authentic and local for them. I think a lot of our small and rural communities have these fantastic kind of latent assets in their community,” Schmitz says. “And this program has been really successful at helping the community and residents to identify those, and then bring them forward for funding.”

The Iowa Great Places is a ten-year designation.

(By Catherine Wheeler, Iowa Public Radio)