The Choral Society of West Georgia was approved this week for a grant for $4,950 from the Georgia Council of the Arts to host its annual choral festival in LaGrange.

The guidelines for the grant emphasized community impact, an area that organizers of the free annual West Georgia Choral Arts Festival put an emphasis.

The choral society applied for the grant in February.

“This is a significant award,” said Bettie Biggs, the West Georgia Choral Arts Festival coordinator.

“These project grants are few and far between, and our grant writing staff has worked very diligently to submit the most professional grant possible. It will help to cover the cost and expense of the West Georgia Choral Arts Festival.”

The grant is exclusively for use for the festival, which features a variety of performances by local groups each year ranging from local school choirs to choral groups that have graced professional venues. The next festival will be the fourth annual choral arts festival in 2019.

“We are privileged to be able to be a partner with LaGrange College music department for the use of their facilities, the Callaway Auditorium, and their staff is supportive of everything that we do,” Biggs said. “That [partnership] was a vital component of the grant.”

The maximum possible award is $5,000, and while requests from eligible partner and arts education applicants exceeded $2.7 million, GCA was only able to award $1.9 million of the requests, according to information from GCA.

The Choral Society of West Georgia will also receive $2,000 in funding from the City of LaGrange this fiscal year.