Community Arts Funding Awards Announced by RAG
The Roxbury Arts Group announces that Community Arts Funding awards totaling $25,860 have been granted to 19 of the 22 Delaware County applicants for the 2007. These awards will provide over 40 theater and performance events, 13 concerts, 8 workshops, two lectures, two films and four artists’ exhibits throughout the year in Delaware County. The awards will be presented at a gala ceremony at The Roxbury Arts Groups’ Hilt Kelly Hall on March 11 at 2 pm. Refreshments will be served, and there will be a showcase of artists’ work. The public is invited free of charge.
A seven-member panel of artists and community leaders recommended the awards to the Board of Directors of the Roxbury Arts Group, which approved the decisions. Funding for the awards is made possible through the New York State Council on the Arts’ (NYSCA) Decentralization Program, administered since 1987 in Delaware County by The Roxbury Arts Group.
The Decentralization Program was begun in 1977 in accordance with its mandate from the NYS Legislature to encourage participation in the state’s cultural funding process at the local level. Decentralization funding for local arts activities is available in all of the state’s counties and remains one of NYSCA’s most dynamic means of making arts and cultural programs available to diverse segments of the state’s population.
This year the panel reviewed 22 applications for funds totaling over $45,000. Even though there were fewer applications than usual, the high quality of the applications made the work of the panelists as difficult as it always is. Ann Epner, Community Arts Funding Coordinator, suspects that the crippling June floods had an impact on the number of applications. “People were overwhelmed with cleanup and attempts to get back to business as usual, and just couldn’t focus on the application process,” she says.
The grants awarded range from individual artist projects to concert and theater productions that will be presented throughout the County. All funded projects are intended to serve and benefit local residents and are open to public attendance and/or participation.
Those organizations awarded funding are:- Performance Plus of Stamford, NY, Inc.: $1,150 for a series of lectures and performances based on the Chautauqua format.
- The Community Chorale of the Catskills, Halcottsville, $800 for sheet music for 4 annual concerts.
- Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, $1,000 for “Connecting the Dots,” a series of writing workshops taught by writer/historian Dorothy Kubik.
- The Roxbury Library Association $1,500 for poet/ artist Bertha Rogers to create and exhibit “Stones and Bones of Delaware County,” an interdisciplinary installation.
- The Andes Public Library $650 for a series of four “Nature and Arts Together” workshops for intergenerational participants.
- The Todd Mountain Theater Project, Arkville, $2,000 for a professional production of a new full-length play.
- Delhi Senior Community, $825 for three free concerts.
- Writers in The Mountains, $1,500 for three playwriting workshops taught by New Kingston resident Frank Canavan, two public readings and a full production of 10-minute plays.
- Pepacton Arts Center, Downsville, $2,500 for 4 chamber music concerts by the Queens Chamber Trio and by pianist Jose Raul Bernardo in Downsville and Treadwell.
- Sidney Memorial Public Library, $980 for 4 performances for family audiences, one of which will take place at the Masonville branch library.
- Franklin Free Library $1,156 for 10 free performances for children.
- Tri-Town Theatre , Sidney, $2,000 for a production of the musical “Seussical”
- Roxbury Library Association, $500 for musician/artist Stephanie Zito of Harpersfield to perform 4 cello concerts accompanied by exhibits of her paintings of Delaware County churches.
- Town of Andes $1,000 for playwright Stuart Brown of Delancey to present fully staged productions of three one-act plays in Franklin.
- William B. Ogden Free Library, Walton, $1,480 for three performances for children.
- Catskill Theatre Works, Delhi, $1,750 for a production of “Man of La Mancha”
- M-ARK Project , Margaretville, $1,824 for Bovina artist Luke Dougherty to create and exhibit ten abstract paintings and give a series of artist talks.
- Todd Mountain Theater Project $750 for playwright Wilma Mazo of Andes to present a rehearsed public reading of her full-length play “Risk Factors: One, Two, Three.”
- Franklin Improvement Society, $2,500 to commission artist LizBeth Firmin to create twelve paintings of historic Frankin Buildings, which will remain on permanent display .
Call the Roxbury Arts Group (607) 326-7908 for schedules and locations of grant-funded events as well as for information about obtaining Community Arts Funding and/or serving as a volunteer panelist.