The former St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington (LINK nky file)

An effort to “reimagine and reactive” the exterior of the former St. Elizabeth Hospital building in Covington received a $100,000 federal grant.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced its “Our Town” grant recipients on Wednesday, and the Center for Great Neighborhoods (CGN) and the City of Covington were awarded funds for their joint Eastern Arts and Creative Enterprise (ACE) project at the old, mostly vacant hospital.

The funds in this category are designed to support projects integrating arts, culture and design activities to advance local economic, physical and social outcomes, a news release said.

LINK nky reported last summer on the city and CGN’s focus on the former St. E building and the surrounding “eastern four” neighborhoods.

“The essence of our mission is to help a community create their story, honor their history, and live out their values and vision,“ said Shannon Ratterman, CGN’s strategic initiatives director, in an announcement. “The activities that will happen as a result of this grant underscore our commitment to being an active partner with the City of Covington.

“Together we will seek out opportunities and future uses for this historic community asset as a critical component of our revitalization work in the Eastern Neighborhoods. We are honored and grateful to the NEA for selecting Covington to be part of an elite group of Our Town Grant recipients.”

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants, including The Center for Great Neighborhoods, providing opportunities for all of us to live artful lives,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, in a news release. “The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.”

Part of the plans includes the hiring of local artists to work with residents and businesses to reimagine future uses for the old hospital, located on East 20th Street in the Wallace Woods neighborhood, and to have it serve as the site of events, block parties, markets and temporary art installations outside of its buildings, CGN said in an announcement.

Both CGN and the City of Covington have expressed that the sprawling property could be an asset for future economic change in the immediate area.

Covington-based My Nose Turns Red also received an “Our Town” grant in the amount of $15,000 for its arts projects.

Kentucky organizations received a total of ten grants worth $1,167,470 in this round of NEA funding.

Michael Monks was one of the founding members of LINK nky.