Visit Zanesville held a ceremony to recognize the second round of 2026 Tourism Development Grant recipients, A Taste of Ohio Wine Bourbon & Beer, Artist Colony of Zanesville, and The Bright Spot Campground and Marina, on Thursday, July 30, at the Welcome Center.
“Tourism is more than just attracting visitors. It supports the local economy in more ways than one, and gives people a reason to experience the unique places, events, and hospitality that make Muskingum County so special,” said CVB Manager Jordin Harmer. “It’s about telling a story and creating a feeling. Visit Zanesville is honored to invest in our storytellers. From established events to exciting new ideas, each recipient shares a commitment to strengthening our community through tourism.”
The grant program was established to invest in projects and experiences that are designed to increase the number of visitors to Muskingum County and encourage overnight stays. Muskingum County Tourism Grant funding is made possible through funds obtained from county lodging tax revenue.
A Taste of Ohio Wine Bourbon & Beer
“Our space is very big, and in the good weather months, we expand our space by closing down the alleyway, so it creates just a natural gathering place for people, and several customers have approached us and asked us if we could put something together to have multiple musicians in our space, so they helped us collaborate and come up with this Y-Bridge Music Fest. We’re going to hold it on October 17th, hoping to have five bands come in, and really pleased that David Spires is going to help us with the audio production,” explained A Taste of Ohio Wine Bourbon & Beer co-owner Angela Bailey.
The grant money will be used to market the event and to pay the bands for their time.
“We really want to do a mixed-genre event. We want to, just like our name, A Taste of Ohio, we want you to come in and taste all the different wines, bourbons, and beers. We want you to come to this venue and listen to all the different kinds of music, because perhaps you didn’t know what you liked until you heard it, right? Same thing with wine. You don’t know you like a certain wine until you taste it. So I think that having all the different genres come into this music fest lends itself nicely to exactly what we do inside this venue with our wine bar,” Bailey explained.
A Taste of Ohio Wine Bourbon & Beer is a family-owned lounge that recently celebrated its second anniversary. The business has doubled its operating hours and is hosting a myriad of events, including bingo and live music as well as book, writing, and craft clubs, and a new Euchre club.
Visit them at 524 Main Street, Zanesville, or online at atasteofohiowbb.com or on Facebook.
Artist Colony of Zanesville
The Artist Colony of Zanesville promotes local artists through their monthly newsletter, website artcoz.org, social media platforms, and events like the monthly First Friday Art Walks and the very popular annual Y-Bridge Arts Festival, a free public event held during the summer.
The grant awarded to The Artist Colony of Zanesville will support the Y-Bridge Arts Festival.
“The Y-Bridge Arts Festival is a chance to celebrate our local artists. And that’s certainly the feature. I have 68 group spaces, so there’s a wide variety of mediums there. But the festival also celebrates our musical artists. We’ll have dancers there. So just a wide variety of arts being celebrated there. But we also have a full schedule of live music, all kinds of food trucks. And we want to make sure folks know there’s children’s activities there. So all ages are welcome. And the children will have plenty to do there, such as art projects as well,” explained ArtCOZ President Mark Goodall.
This year’s Y-Bridge Arts Festival was just held on July 31 through August 1. It was the 16th year for the two-day festival and featured 68 artist spaces at the Zane State Campus, utilizing both the Campus Green and Campus Center.
“We’ve been at Zane State a couple years now. This is our second year at Zanes State. And I think that just provides the best opportunity for indoor and outdoor space. They have a beautiful campus,” Goodall mentioned.
“We just appreciate the partnership from Visit Zanesville. And we love the opportunity to celebrate our artists. And they’ve been able to help us with our marketing. And we hope that we can reach just as many people as possible with the festival and all of the activities we have planned,” said Goodall.
The Bright Spot Campground and Marina
The Bright Spot Campground and Marina recently opened and is located just south of Blue Rock at 10200 S. River Road, McConnelsville. The Bright Spot offers affordable campsites and gear rentals, as well as both day and seasonal access to the Muskingum River. Since opening this spring, the campground continues to grow with new features and events being added.
The Bright Spot will be hosting its inaugural Halloweekend event the last weekend in October. The grant funds they received from Visit Zanesville will go towards this event that will wrap up their first regular season (although if the weather allows, there may be additional camping days available into November).
“We’re really excited to be part of the community,” explained The Bright Spot Campground and Marina co-owner Tessa Pratt-Smith. We’re from Columbus, so it’s very important for us to know more about this community. Our neighbors are amazing, so we’ve been really connected with them, and when we bought this place, our biggest goal was to make camping affordable and accessible, including to locals. So not just bring folks from outside of the area, but also support our local community. So the fact that we got this grant means we can continue doing that; we can offer daytime activities, so it makes us feel really connected with the community that we’re trying to support in the first place.”
“I think the biggest takeaway that I want people to have is that this space is for them. No matter if they’ve gone camping a million times, or it’s their very first time. If they have a huge RV and an elaborate setup, or they don’t even have a tent and this is their first experience using our rental gear. We really care about thinking of that list of reasons that someone might say the outdoors isn’t for me and striking that down and saying it’s for all of us to enjoy, appreciate, give back to. So the biggest takeaway is anyone who’s thinking, should I go to the Bright Spot? Yes, it’s open to you, and we’re a safe space for you to come enjoy the outdoors,” said Pratt-Smith, also adding. “If you’re going through a rough patch, or maybe you’re doing great and you just want to have that thing to look forward to, we hope that this will be a bright spot in people’s lives.”
The first round for the 2026 Tourism Development Grant awarded five organizations early this year. Those recipients were Bravo Six Foundation, Wolfie’s Campground, Muskingum County History, McDonald’s Greenhouse and Corn Maze, and Dresden Community Association.
More information about the Grant Program can be found at visitzanesville.com/Grant-Program.
CAPTION: Members of Visit Zanesville and the Zanesville-Muskingum Chamber of Commerce gathered with representatives from two of the three second-round recipient organizations of the Muskingum County Tourism Development Grant. Left to right: Hunter Lepi, Lauren Johnson, Joseph Bailey, Angela Bailey, Mark Goodall, Sally Luburgh, Jordin Harmer, Lydia Tom, and Dana Matz (Not pictured: Tessa Pratt-Smith and Chelsea Pratt-Smith). Photo Credit: Lynette Dotson
