The ARTS Council Awards $70,800 in Grants

The ARTS Council administers the Decentralization Grant program with funds provided by NYSCA.  Founded in 1978 following the mandate of the State Legislature to encourage increased participation at the local level in the state’s cultural funding process, the DEC program fosters continued development of local artistic and cultural resources that respond to community needs. This grant program enables artists and organizations to enhance the artistic and cultural climate in communities and neighborhoods where they live and operate. The DEC program has three funding categories: Community Arts, Arts Education, and Artist Crossroads.

• The Community Arts category supports the activities of arts groups and community organizations in service to local residents.

• The Arts Education category supports the role that local cultural organizations and/or individual artists play in engaging K-12 public school students in rich artistic learning experiences.

• The Individual Artist category supports individual artists who plan to create unique, site-specific, and multi-disciplinary public art projects occurring in non-arts venues.

Twenty-nine area organizations and artists will receive a total of $70,800 for community and school-based arts and cultural programs taking place in 2014.

Community Arts

Chemung County

• Arnot Art Museum Association, Inc.: $5,000 to present Arnot Festival 101. The Arnot Art Museum will close the year-long celebration of its centennial with a community day of festivities on its campus and in its galleries. Storytelling, plein-air painting, music, theater, dance, and film will be presented throughout the day as the museum kicks off its 101st year as a cultural touchstone in the community.

• The Cantata Singers: $2,750 to present the 50th Anniversary Season. The 2013-14 season of Cantata Singers concerts marks the 50th anniversary of the organization’s dedication to providing local residents with the opportunity to perform in and listen to great classical choral works. To mark this milestone year, the Cantata Singers has planned a series of concerts that incorporate contemporary works, commissioned works, and classical touchstone works.

• Economic Opportunity Program of Chemung County: $2,050 to present Juneteenth.  Juneteenth, a nationally recognized event, commemorates the day the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached African slaves in Texas in 1865.  The entire community is invited to celebrate with music, dance, poetry and artistic expression on June 13 & 14 at the Ernie Davis Community Center and the Ernie Davis Park in Elmira.

• Elmira College: $1,750 to present Arts Alive – Visiting Artists Project.  The 2014 Arts Alive Festival at Elmira College is a month-long festival of events in the performing arts, music, and the fine arts. Events include student and faculty presentations, performances, and exhibitions.

• Elmira Downtown Development: $3,250 to present PopArt Elmira.  In keeping with Elmira Downtown Development’s mission of revitalizing the city center, this project will add color and visual appeal to the downtown district by creating vibrant artwork on functional electrical boxes.  The project will engage local artists to create and reproduce their Elmira themed designs on the downtown area’s electrical boxes.

• The Park Church: $1,500 to present The Arts at Park.  This program is a free arts program for children of all ages offered during the hours of The Wisner Market, held in downtown Elmira throughout July and August.  Local artists will engage youth in hands-on art lessons.

Schuyler County

• Episcopal Parishes of Schuyler County: $3,500 to present Schuyler County Concert Series VIII. This project will produce concerts involving local and regional professional musicians. The Series is the only music series of any kind in Schuyler County.

• The Lake Country Players, Inc.: $700 to present Zombeo and Juliet. The Lake Country Players, a community theater organization serving the lower Finger Lakes Region, will present an adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play “Romeo and Juliet”, but with zombies.

• Watkins Glen Public Library and Dutton S. Peterson Memorial Library: $2,830 to present It’s a Wonderful World @ the Library.  Together the two libraries will present professional storytellers, musicians, and folk & performance artists who will provide quality artistic programming throughout the community.

Steuben County

• The Belfry, sponsored by the YMCA of Hornell New York, Inc.: $3,253 to present Andrew Brehm and Damien Gilley at the Belfry.  The Belfry, a local artist-run exhibition venue, will host artists Andrew Brehm and Damien Gilley.  Though workshops, exhibitions, and lectures these artists will engage the community in the development of new works through the exchange of ideas, works, and creativity.

• Crows Nest Artists Collaborative, sponsored by the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum: $3,250 to present Collaborative Multi-Arts Puppet Production & Workshops. This project will work with local artists and youth to collaboratively create all aspects of a human scale puppet production, including working with writers to create the script, textile artists to create costumes, sculptors to create puppets and props, painters to create sets, dancers to choreograph movement, and musicians to work out sound effects and a musical score.

• Dormann Library: $1,070 to present Summer Reading Program. This project will enhance the reading experience of the 2014 Summer Reading Program participants through free community arts programming that uses creative expression to stimulate further interest in books.  The library will present family workshops in pottery, improvisational theater, and music.

• Endless Mountain Music Festival: $2,625 to present Classically Yours.  This project will take place during the 2014 Endless Mountain Music Festival.  Concerts will include internationally-renowned guest artists and orchestra musicians from the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, and Harrisburg Symphony, among others.

• Hornell Area Wind Ensemble, Inc.: $2,200 to present Hornell Area Wind Ensemble Concert Series.   This project will support six free concerts for the 2014 calendar year.

• Keuka Lake Art Association: $3,250 to present the Once Upon a Lake Storytelling Festival.  This two-day event starts with ghost stories in the evening, followed by a full day of storytelling in four venues in the village of Hammondsport.  Professional and amateur storytellers of various ages and areas of expertise will tell stories from a variety of literary traditions, including Native American tales, American and European folk tales, stories for children, and local tales of Keuka Lake history.

• Keuka Lake Players: $1,750 to present Tarzan the Musical. This project will present Tarzan, the musical based on the Disney movie, with music by Phil Collins.  This production will allow families to participate together in a flexible ensemble cast and will offer the public the chance to see something new, fun, and family friendly.

• The Orpheus Chorale, sponsored by the United Presbyterian Church of Hornell: $1,250 to present The Poet Sings.  The Project is a concert program performed by the Orpheus Chorale that focuses on the importance of words and how they integrate with music.  Setting songs to poems, this program will bring out the music in poetry and the poetry in music.

• Pulteney Free Library: $1,195 to present Programming 2014. This project will host three artist workshops.  Artist Charlotte DiGennaro will teach a three day workshop combining zentangles and watermedia, Charlie Alsheimer will teach a workshop on nature photography, and Joan Belles will teach a workshop on basket making.

• Savona Free Library: $2,000 to present Savona Arts Workshops V – Collage Creation. In partnership with artist Wynn Yarrow, this project will provide a series of eight workshops to local youth, culminating in the creation of a framed 36″ x 72″ collage mural.

• Wayland Free Library: $1,000 to present Wonder of Words.This project will support the popular Sunday afternoon concert series with programs for older adults and programs for children, combining theater, music, and science.

• YMCA of Hornell New York, Inc.: $3,250 to present Arts for All – Arts Classes and Family Art Saturdays. This project will host twelve music and art classes for youth and a craft workshop series to encourage further exploration of the arts and the entrepreneurial opportunities afforded by the renaissance in handcrafts.

Tioga County

• The Kirby Band: $2,000 to present The Kirby Band 2014.  This project will provide quality musical programs throughout the summer months and into the fall in approximately 12 parades and 8 community concerts.

• Newark Valley Historical Society: $2,500 to present the Depot Friday Night Series and $2,500 to present the Folk Art Series (FAS).  The Newark Valley Historical Society (NVHS) will hold the Depot Friday Night Series, a musical concert series occurring at the Newark Valley railroad depot on Friday evenings between June and September.  The NVHS conduct a variety of artistic workshops, lectures, and events at the Bement-Billings Farmstead Museum in Newark Valley between June and October.

• Tioga County Contra Dance, sponsored by Tioga County Local Development Corporation & Tourism Office: $3,650 to present Tioga County Contra Dance 2014.  This project supports eleven combination workshop and dance events where the caller teaches each dance before it begins, participants learn and participate in a variety of contradances.

• Village of Newark Valley: $2,000 to present Artistic Expressions at the Trout Ponds.  This project is a summer performance series of four free shows that can be enjoyed by the entire community.  The performances will be held at the Trout Ponds Park.

Arts Education

Steuben County

• Parent Teacher Association of Tuscarora Elementary School, in support of Tuscarora Elementary School: $3,893 to present Dinosaurs, Creatures Walking Amongst Us?   This project will partner the Tuscarora Elementary School and teaching artists Tony Ferro and Paul Speight to engage Addison Central School District first-grade students in experiential learning opportunities through an integration of visual and performance arts.

• Wayland Free Library, in support of Wayland Cohocton Elementary School: $550 to present Click!Movies 2. Integrating technology into the classroom curriculum, the project will familiarize students with the skills and terminology used in making animated and claymation movies. Students will learn the basics of planning and designing such movies and take still photos of small movements that will be pieced together in a movie-making software program creating the illusion of animation.

Individual Artist

Steuben County

• Erica Flanagan: $1,784 to present Giant Knitting Nancy Art Installation.  This project will create a Giant Knitting Nancy art installation, providing an educational experience for participants of all ages.  Through a series of education workshops and teachings, community members will work together to build the structure.  Participants will take pride in the development of artwork in non-art spaces.  The initial installation will be in the Civic Center Courtyard on Civic Center Plaza.

• George “Ian” McMahon: $2,500 to present Momentary Repetitions: When the curtains fail. This project will support the construction of a series of temporal cast, plaster sculptures using the architecture and historic backdrop of the building that once housed the central post office in Hornell, NY.  Three large-scale, plaster theater curtains will be designed and constructed to accentuate the theatricality of the space.  Following this fabrication, the community will be engaged in a dramatic spectacle as each 15by 20 foot curtain, consisting of 500 to 1000 lbs of plaster, will fall in an intense crashing moment of virtually instantaneous destruction, activating an array of senses, emotions, and perceptions of time.

For further information about The ART Council of the Southern Finger Lakes’ grant programs, please contact Chris Walters at 607-962-1332 x205 or at chris@eARTS.org.

The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes serves artists of all disciplines, arts and cultural organizations and the public in Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, and Tioga counties of New York State, and beyond.

Please visit here to learn more!