This project would not have gotten off the ground without the promise of the reimbursement that this grant offered our program.  Once activated this opportunity also showed us that there is community support out there for work of this nature.  We have been able to access more community partners through the catalyst that this grant provided us.    The project benefited the local community in multiple ways, most directly is by bringing art into the public realm where it can be accessed by anyone in the community.  Through this project we were able to work with a local community group (African American Quilt Documentation Project of Bartow County) to bring a sculpture into downtown that they commissioned to tell the story of freedom quilts and what the different patterns meant when they were used as codes to help slaves that were escaping to freedom on the Underground Railroad.  This aspect of the project not only brought a permanent piece of public art into downtown, it also served as a vehicle for bringing diverse groups from across the community together to create the piece, interpret it, and then share that history with the public.  I spoke with individuals at the sculpture unveiling that said this piece brought them a greater sense of their own history and also represented a new level or partnership for the different entities in the community that worked on it which was very exciting and uplifting.