Raising Money for the Artists Affected By the Historic Masonic Temple Fire

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The historic Masonic Temple building in downtown caught fire last Thursday night that caused the loss of many art galleries and studios. 

Due to this unfortunate situation, the Muskingum County Community Foundation (MCCF) has partnered with the Zanesville Appalachian Arts Project (ZAAP) and Artist Colony of Zanesville (Art Coz) to help raise money for the Masonic Temple art tenants to purchase new art supplies through the Community Cares Fund for the Arts.

“Art is very therapeutic in those, that artist, that lost everything in the fire, they probably need to get back to their art to help grieve a little bit and by us helping them being able to purchase supplies for them to get back to doing that work within their scope, we think it’ll be a very therapeutic way for them to deal with that grief,” stated Brian Wagner, Chief Executive Officer at MCCF.

Wagner added that the community coming together in support of the situation will really help when it comes to the artist accepting and dealing with these losses due to the fire.

He also focused on the fact that the fund is for the benefit of the artist only and not necessarily the businesses that were located inside the Masonic Temple.

“The Community Cares Fund was established a couple of years ago to address immediate needs like this when tragedies like this strikes. The first time we did community care was to help raise money for the Hunger Network during the pandemic and now with this fire again, the money that’s being raised will be provided to ZAAP and Art Coz to help them purchase supplies for these artists so that they can get back,” Wagner said. “So people need to keep in mind we’re supporting the artist. We’re doing so that they can get back to doing what they love to do and hopefully get back to a little sense of normalcy.”

Donations can be made online at mccf.org under the Community Cares Fund for the Arts page.