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NYSCA awards $490,000 in CARES Act funding to 49 arts organizations in 9 NYS regions, 23 counties

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Wed, Jul 8th 2020 01:45 pm

NYSCA NEA CARES grants of $10,000 support community-based arts organizations, prioritizing underserved communities

In its ongoing support of New York state arts organizations and artists facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, The New York State Council on the Arts will award $490,000 in NEA CARES Act funds to 49 organizations in nine regions of the state.

NYSCA NEA CARES Grants of $10,000 each will be awarded to community-based arts organizations that have a proven track record of essential contributions to their communities. Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, these grants will be used to support staff salaries, fees for artists or contractual personnel, and facilities costs.

“The arts and culture are critical to the health of our communities, our state and our country, and will be vital to our recovery,” said Mara Manus, executive director, New York State Council on the Arts. “Throughout the unprecedented challenges of the past months, our state’s cultural sector has shown incredible ingenuity and resilience. As we begin to navigate reopening, NYSCA is committed to supporting New York’s vibrant arts community that provides important educational, civic and economic opportunities across the state.”

NYSCA’s awards will support a broad constituency across New York, including a wide range of organizations that reach primarily underserved areas, including communities with ethnically diverse and immigrant populations, those that are geographically remote, and those with limited economic resources. 

NYSCA NEA CARES grantees represent 23 New York state counties and a wide variety of arts disciplines and include:

Youth FX, Albany, which provides digital film and media training to youth from underserved communities;

Prattsville Arts Center, Prattsville, a community arts and social services center with a pivotal role in its rural community’s flood recovery plan;

Rehabilitation through the Arts, Katonah, whose arts instruction improves outcomes for the justice-involved; participants’ recidivism rate is 12 times below the national average;

National Black Theatre, Harlem, a pioneer in Black theater productions created to uplift, strengthen and heal Black communities; over 300 works have been produced and toured internationally;

Ganondagan, Victor, a Finger Lakes destination for Native American arts and culture; a National Historic Landmark, and the only New York state historic site devoted to Indigenous Americans; and

Pendragon Theatre, Saranac Lake, a North Country theater central to its city’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative plan, providing year-round performance, arts education, workforce training, and opportunities for young playwrights

A complete list is available below.

Of NYSCA NEA CARES grant recipients all had annual budgets of $1.5 million or below; 80% had budgets under $1 million, and 53% had budgets below $500,000. Grantees are based in the Capital Region, Central New York, Finger Lakes, Long Island, Mid-Hudson, New York City, North Country, Southern Tier and Western New York.

In addition to NYSCA NEA CARES support, NYSCA is providing a diverse set of resources to aid in arts organizations’ recovery including the NYSCA PRESENTS webinar series, guidelines and best practices for reopening and recovery, guidance on creating digital programs, and listings of relief funds open to New York state arts organizations and artists.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides economic assistance for American workers, families, and small businesses, and preserves jobs for American industries, including the arts sector. Through the CARES Act, the National Endowment for the Arts is distributing $75 million to help save jobs in the arts sector and keep the doors open to the thousands of organizations that add value to America’s economy and creative life to communities. Forty percent of this funding has been distributed through state arts agencies, including NYSCA.

The arts and culture play an essential role in New York state’s economy, contributing $120 billion annually and accounting for 460,000 jobs.

CARES funding, provided both through NYSCA and through direct NEA grants, will help support those jobs and nonprofit organizations during this time of great need so that arts and culture will persevere as a significant contributor to the state economy.

 

 NYSCA NEA CARES Grantees

 

Organization

County

Region

Adirondack Center for Writing

Franklin

North Country

African Film Festival

New York

New York City

Akwesasne Cultural Center

Franklin

North Country

Buffalo Arts Studio

Erie

Western New York

Borinquen Dance Theatre

Monroe

Finger Lakes

Brooklyn Arts Exchange

Kings

New York City

Center for Traditional Music and Dance

New York

New York City

Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County

Tompkins

Southern Tier

Community Design Center Rochester

Monroe

Finger Lakes

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum

New York

New York City

Bristol Valley Theater

Ontario

Finger Lakes

Ganondagan

Ontario

Finger Lakes

Girls Write Now

New York

New York City

Herstory Writers Workshop

Suffolk

Long Island

Kitchen Theatre Company

Tompkins

Southern Tier

Lake George Music Festival

Warren

Capital Region

Locust Street Art

Erie

Western New York

Los Pleneros de la 21

New York

New York City

Ma-Yi Theater Company

New York

New York City

The Art Effect

Dutchess

Mid-Hudson

MONO NO AWARE

Kings

New York City

National Black Theatre 

New York

New York City

Nesin Cultural Arts

Sullivan

Mid-Hudson

New York Chinese Cultural Center

New York

New York City

New York Deaf Theatre

Kings

New York City

New York Folklore

Schenectady

Capital Region

North American Cultural Laboratory

Sullivan

Mid-Hudson

Pendragon Theatre

Franklin

North Country

People's Theatre Project

New York

New York City

Prattsville Art Center

Greene

Capital Region

Rehabilitation Through the Arts

Westchester

Mid-Hudson

PUSH Physical Theatre

Monroe

Finger Lakes

Quintet of the Americas

Queens

New York City

Rhizome

New York

New York City

Schweinfurth Art Center

Cayuga

Central New York

Cinemapolis

Tompkins

Southern Tier

Shakespeare in Delaware Park

Erie

Western New York

Springville Center for the Arts

Erie

Western New York

Society for New Music

Onondaga

Central New York

The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes

Steuben

Southern Tier

The Center for Photography at Woodstock

Ulster

Mid-Hudson

The Depot Theatre

Essex

North Country

The Rosendale Theatre Collective

Ulster

Mid-Hudson

The Whaling Museum and Education Center

Suffolk

Long Island

Traditional Arts In Upstate New York

St Lawrence

North Country

West Kortright Centre

Delaware

Southern Tier

Writers & Books

Monroe

Finger Lakes

Young Audiences of Western New York

Erie

Western New York

Youth FX

Albany

Capital Region

 

About the New York State Council on the Arts

The New York State Council on the Arts preserves and advances the arts and culture that make New York State an exceptional place to live, work and visit.

NYSCA upholds the right of all New Yorkers to experience the vital contributions the arts make to our communities, education, economic development and quality of life. Through its core grantmaking activity, NYSCA awarded $43.8M in FY2020 to 2,500 organizations statewide through direct grants and regrants in our 15 programs, the Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) initiative and the Mid-Size Capital Project Fund. NYSCA funding supports the visual, literary, media and performing arts and includes dedicated support for arts education and underserved communities. NYSCA further advances New York's creative culture by convening leaders in the field and providing organizational and professional development opportunities and informational resources. Created by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1960, and continued and expanded to the present day with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, NYSCA is an agency of the executive branch of the New York state government. For more information on NYSCA, visit www.arts.ny.gov, or follow NYSCA's Facebook page, Twitter @NYSCArts and Instagram @NYSCouncilontheArts.

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