Three Conroe organizations—the Conroe Art League, Conroe Symphony Orchestra and Players Theatre Co.—received funding from The Texas Commission on the Arts, which approved 976 grants totaling $11.6 million for nonprofit and governmental arts organizations in the state, according to a news release from the commission Sept. 9.

The art league received $8,500, according to the TCA’s website. The Conroe Symphony Orchestra and Players Theatre Co. received $4,500 and $5,500, respectively.

“We are honored and humbled to provide these grants to help sustain the Texas arts industry, which has been economically devastated by COVID-19,” TCA Executive Director Gary Gibbs said in the release. “We are proud to invest these funds with arts organizations toward recovering the creative economy in Texas.”

The art league, which has a gallery located in downtown Conroe, closed down in March 2020 before reopening in a limited capacity in June 2020, President Ken Roy said. Roy said the organization will use the grant money to offset day-to-day and monthly expenses that were incurred while the gallery was closed and lost revenue.

“We took a hit in revenue; visitors to the gallery decreased; our ability to show art decreased, but we still had fixed expenses each month,” Roy said. “The grant was instrumental in helping us make those fixed expenses and keep the doors open [now].”