ABILENE, Texas — Abilene Heritage Square capital project has just received a $50,000 grant thanks to proceeds from the Open Road concert series to help in its revitalization of an eight-acre tract that includes the former Abilene High and Lincoln Middle school buildings.
“The concerts’ success has given the Future Fund an opportunity to give back to the community financially,” Open Road co-founder Sam Vinson said.
Open Road co-founders Taylor Sturgis and Vinson developed plans for the concert series to boost Future Fund, a membership-supported endowment fund at the Community Foundation of Abilene that gives grants to nonprofits serving children and youth.
“As more people join Future Fund, the endowment fund grows from those membership dues,” Sturgis said. “Today, we see the impact of Future Fund continue with this grant to Abilene Heritage Square.”
Abilene Heritage Square will include a state-of-the-art 65,000 square-foot public library, exhibition space for local and traveling exhibits, technology-equipped meeting rooms of various sizes, special event space for private and public use, a restored historic auditorium and a coffee shop. The complex will also include classroom space for the Stone Owl Institute, an extracurricular course of study that educates high school juniors and seniors in the principles of civic service and free-market economics.
Plans include a portion of the complex that will serve as The Grace Museum’s “Spark Innovation.”
Laura Moore, The Grace Museum executive director, said, “From the walls to the hallways, the whole facility will be geared to foster excitement, promote curiosity, grow problem-solving skills, and broaden understanding in the world of science.”
The new children’s museum will be dedicated to exploring science, technology, engineering and math and feature an outdoor discovery area.
The concert series, founded in 2017, has awarded grants to nonprofits serving children and youth. In 2022, Open Road awarded a grant to Hendrick Medical Center Foundation to purchase cameras to allow parents to see their newborns while the babies are in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. With the grant, Hendrick Health placed 13 cameras at the hospital’s north campus and four more at its south campus.
Tickets for the 2024 Open Road series launch in March. For more information, visit openroadabilene.com.
For information about membership in the Future Fund, visit cfabilene.org/futurefund.
