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http://www.freshhopalefestival.com/history.html


Proceeds from the Fresh Hop Ale Festival benefit Allied Arts of the Yakima Valley, to the tune of almost 20% of the annual budget. And what does Allied Arts do with the money? There's not enough space to list it all so here's a few examples:
•Our locally-developed and nationally-recognized ArtsVan regularly heads out into neighborhoods, parks and schools to bring arts education to more than 5000 kids each year.
•Eight art shows (including the Central Washington Juried Exhibit) annually fill our Peggy Lewis Gallery, a respected venue for artists' sales and a place of first opportunity for young, emerging, and under-recognized local artists.
•Monthly Poetry Open Mic Nights give voice to regional poets of all ages and our annual Juried Poetry Contest (est. 1994) recognizes some of the finest of them with a public coffeehouse reading and publication.
•The Millennium Arts Plaza (party central for FHAF!) was led by AAYV, the only National Endowment for the Arts millennium project site in the State and now our community's gathering spot.
•Over 100 classes each the year are offered at the Allied Arts Center for adults and children, ranging from performing arts to visual arts to art exploration to summer art day camps.
•Additional programs extend access to the arts, including musical presentations, lectures, community mural development, the Latino Film Series, outdoors movies in the parks, the Laughing Ladies and Merry Men's Luncheon, and (of course) the Fresh Hop Ale Festival.