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Beck Cultural Exchange Center gets $250,000 from state grant

The grant was included in the latest Tennessee budget.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Beck Cultural Exchange Center received $250,000 from Tennessee after a grant for the center was included in the $56.2 billion state budget which Governor Bill Lee signed.

Representative Sam McKenzie (D - Knoxville) worked with the administration to make sure the funds were included, according to a release. He said he is looking forward to more programming at the Beck Center as well as facility upgrades. He also said he hopes the center would get more grants in the future.

"It's just an opportunity for the state to give just a little piece back to what is a wonderful facility. The first executive director of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center was the first African American to represent Knox County at the state level, Bob Booker," said McKenzie. "What I'm hoping for is a deeper relationship."

Renee Kesler, the president of the Beck Center said the center has more than 50,000 artifacts that speak to local and regional African American history and culture. She said that the largest collection the center has received was 47 boxes of artifacts that included a rocking chair, bicycle and quilt from Nikki Giovanni — a writer, poet and activist.

"While we have friends in Chattanooga and other places, we are a state repository for Black history and culture. So, right now we are bursting at the seams, running out of space with the history and the artifacts," said Kesler. "What the state is saying, what the governor has said, and with the advocacy of Representative McKenzie and what his colleagues have said is, 'Beck is important, and we want to see continuing work with the Beck as great as they're doing now.'"

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