SAN ANTONIO – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday met with artists and venue owners about a new federal grant program aimed at helping the entertainment industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The grants are available through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program, established by his Save Our Stages Act which was signed into law in December.
According to Cornyn, just over 100 Texas venues have already received help from the program, with $91 million going to venues.
Sen. Cornyn said $16 billion in total was made available, which was crucial because the businesses were often some of the first to close and last to reopen.
“We realized what we had done for small business, the pay check protection program in particular, which was very popular that we had not covered many segments of the economy, like our venues and music venues,” Cornyn said.
The program will likely run until the end of the year and the application process is still open. Cornyn said if more help is needed he would like to extend the deadline.
Tuesday’s event was held at Jazz, TX at The Pearl. In addition to Sen. Cornyn, the following people participated in a roundtable discussion about the funding:
- Brent ‘Doc’ Watkins, Musician and Owner, Jazz, TX
- Garrett Capps, Musician and Owner, The Lonesome Rose
- Catalina Garza, Dancer/Teacher/Venue Owner, Quenedit Dance School
- Tim Handren, CEO, Santikos Entertainment & Mayor of Boerne, TX
- Daniel Rosen, Manager, Floore’s Country Store