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For Immediate Release
February 5, 2008
Contact: Christy Post, Director of Marketing and Strategic Planning
(585) 473-4000, extension 206
cpost@artsrochester.org

Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester Awards $83,600 in Grants to Artists and Cultural Organizations in Monroe County

Rochester , NY , February 5, 2008 – The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the New York State Legislature, is pleased to announce the 2008 Decentralization and Education through the Arts grants. Twenty-five area artists, cultural organizations and school partnerships will receive a total of $83,600 for programs taking place in 2008.

“We are very grateful to New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature for their investment in our county’s cultural economy,” said Sarah Lentini, President and CEO of the Arts and Cultural Council. “We are particularly grateful to Governor Spitzer and to the New York State Legislature for increasing funding to New York State Council on the Arts this year, which resulted in an increase in the funds we received to distribute locally.”

An award ceremony for grantees will be held Thursday, February 28, from 10 am – 12 pm at the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, 277 N. Goodman Street, Rochester.

Decentralization Grants (Organizations)
The Arts & Cultural Council administers the Decentralization Grant program with funds provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature. Decentralization grants are awarded through a competitive process. The grants provide financial and technical assistance for community-based arts activities offered by eligible nonprofit organizations and individual artists sponsored by nonprofit organizations in Monroe County. The term “decentralization” refers to the way these grant funds are distributed or decentralized, by the state to arts councils throughout the state so that local priorities and needs are addressed.
Funds Awarded: $68,100 for projects taking place in 2008.

Awardees

  • Genesee Center for the Arts and Education: $2,238 to use an intergenerational approach to work with underserved youth and older adults to create and display a ceramic work based upon literary works to be selected by the participants. The project will be completed and viewed by audiences in at least three locations.
  • Rochester Chamber Orchestra: $5,000 to create a performance in which performers of varied backgrounds come together to bridge a gap between classical and contemporary music for the audience.
  • Church of the Holy Family: $ 4,990 to host a gala concert series in 2008 utilizing the 1914 Wangerin-Weickhardt pipe organ and the ideal acoustic setting of Holy Family Church, located in the historic Dutchtown neighborhood, to promote cultural awareness and revitalize interest in its underserved community.
  • South Wedge Planning Committee, Inc. : $4,000 to install eight artist-created sculptures over parking meter posts that have been decommissioned along South Avenue in the City of Rochester. The sculptures will also serve as bicycle racks.
  • Polish Heritage Society of Rochester: $2,480 to develop awareness and popularization of a medieval Polish holiday tradition. A workshop led by an artist who has studied this art form in Poland will result in 15 creches (szopkas) built by registrants. The szopkas will be displayed throughout the community during the holiday season.
  • Park Avenue Repertory Dance Company: $5,000 to strengthen the collaboration between Rochester and Toronto dances and choreographers through a series of original collaborations between choreographers, poets and musicians resulting in a concert series with pre-performance workshops that illuminate contemporary dance for audience members.
  • Chinese Choral Society of Rochester: $2,700 to support its 25 th anniversary concert. The concert will feature renowned Ying Quartet and saxophonist Chien-Kwan Lin of Eastman School of Music and other guest performers in a community outreach effort promoting appreciation of Chinese music and culture in the Greater Rochester community.
  • Print Club of Rochester: $2,900 to support a digital arts workshops and an exhibition promoting the expression of the arts through digital media. All Rochester residents are eligible to partipate. Exhibition will be held in the Dyer Arts Gallery at RIT.
  • Bop Arts, Inc. : $3,575 to support the New Music Series, bringing new, exciting, challenging, innovative and forward-thinking music to the Rochester community. The emphasis is on internationally recognized musicians who represent the latest trends in jazz and improvised music.
  • Brighton Symphony Orchestra: $4,700 to perform a series of twelve community orchestra concerts at accessible sites around the Rochester area.
  • Pegasus Early Music: $5,000 to present a series of four chamber music concerts in 2008 featuring a variety of baroque music performed by world-class musicians. Community events in conjunction with the series include pre-concert talks and receptions with the musicians at each concert and master classes for music students.
  • Hallmark Danceworks: $5,000 to support the Rochester Dance on Camera Festival, a three-day event offering local audiences a series of five screenings of short and long titles made up of award-winning stage work adaptations, documentaries on visionary dance makers, and unique works choreographed for the camera.
  • Theatre Young Kids Enjoy (TYKES), Inc.: $5,000 to present eight live performances of the musical Rapunzel at Geva Theatre Center as part of Geva and the Community Foundation’s year-long TheatreFest celebration. TYKEs is presenting a unique version of this classic Brothers Grimm tale, written by the creators of the hit TV show “Friends.”
  • Immanuel Baptist Church: $3,600 to provide affordable jazz programming in a community setting at the historic Immanuel Baptist Church. The program promotes interaction between the artist and the audience and provides regular performance opportunities for students of jazz.
  • The Baobab Cultural Center: $4,750 to organize a two-week folk art workshop for 15-18 year-olds in Monroe County. Participants will learn about the artistic, technical, and aesthetic basis of building African mud houses in which 40% of the world’s population lives.
  • Rochester Vocal Arts Collaborative: $3,607 to present collaborative performances of solo vocal music for the cultural enrichment of our community; and amateur voice recitals and performance seminars for students singing at all levels of advancement in an accessible, centrally located venue (Hochstein Music School), utilizing the talents of professional singers, painters and vocal experts.
  • Wilson Commencement Park: $3,560 to teach 7 to 12 year-olds in an after-school day care program, along with children from the community, about ballroom and Latin social dancing and music, using performing and visual arts.

Decentralization Grants (Individuals)
The Arts & Cultural Council administers Decentralization Grants to individual artists with funding provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature. Four grants of $2,000 per grant are awarded to artists in Monroe County for creation of new work. Artists are to involve the public in some significant way in the creation of their art.
Funds Awarded: $8,000 for projects taking place in 2008.

Awardees

  • Janice Feldman, Visual Artist: $2,000 for Word Play: Communication is Key. Resembling “Magnetic Poetry” refrigerator magnets, hundreds of white painted wood tiles will feature words in black type will be secured onto Monroe High School’s block-long iron fence. The words will form positive phrases visible from the sidewalk and street. Development and creation of poetry and plaques will occur in public workshops throughout Monroe County.
  • Nicholle LaVann, Filmmaker: $2,000 for Homicidez, a documentary featuring interviews with city officials, clergy and families of homicide victims in the Rochester area, and the convergence of their shared losses to heal and provide a solution to social issues that plague their communities.
  • Cori O’Connell, Visual Artist: $2,000 for Abstract Polaroid to Abstract Painting. Monroe County citizens will be invited to participate in a mini-workshop that will include instructional techniques for altering a Polariod image of themselves. Participants will take two portrait images and alter them during the workshop, which will then be used to create a series of portraits in oil paints. The project will culminate with a public exhibit and lecture in Monroe County.
  • Neima Atkins, Choreographer: $2,000 for Patriot’s Act. The project will address such questions as how Americans feel about candidates and the electoral process? What did our leaders during the Civil Rights era think? What is a “patriot” and what makes one “patriotic?”

Education through the Arts Grants
The Arts & Cultural Council administers Education through the Arts grants with funds provided by the New York State Council on the Arts (through the local Capacity Building Initiative) and the New York State Legislature. Education through the Arts is awarded through a competitive process and provides financial and technical assistance in support of partnerships between schools and teaching artists or cultural organizations that focus on the integrated study of the arts and non-arts subjects in Monroe County. Funds Awarded: $7,500 for projects taking place January – June 2008.

Awardees

  • Indian Landing and Cobbles Elementary Schools: $2,000 for student residencies designed to support students’ understanding of the world we live in today in order to prepare them for an increasingly intercultural 21 st century.
  • Schlegel Road Elementary School : $2,500 for “Emotionscapes.” Students will work with PUSH Physical Theatre to create “Emotionscapes,” choreographed movement sequences that represent the emotional journey of their chosen literature. Students will celebrate their new understanding of the shared humanity of emotions through a group performance.
  • Adlai Stevenson School #29: $1,500 for “Weaving and Fiber Arts: A Fourth Grade Learning Aid.” Fourth grade students will learn about math, science, social studies, language arts and art while experiencing weaving and related fiber arts. As they learn about machines and materials, early American and worldwide traditions, patterns and vocabulary, teachers will help connect to the curriculum with class lessons and assignments.
  • The Charles Finney School: $1,500 for “Express! A Music & Poetry Arts-in-Education Project.” Students will gain an understanding of the interplay between different modes of artistic expression, foster and enable creative expression with a focus on the areas of musical and written expression; increase understanding of historical and contemporary creative expression by learning about poetry, writing poems, composing music and using poetry as lyrics. Various technological tools will be used and explored.

For more information about grant opportunities, contact Michael Futter, Director of Development and Grant Programs, at (585) 473-4000, extension 202, or via email at mfutter@artsrochester.org.

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The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rocheste r is a nonprofit corporation serving arts and culture in the 10-county greater Rochester region. Our mission is to strengthen and promote the region’s creative sector through grant programs, constituent services, and special initiatives; and to act as an advocate, planner, and funder, supporting artistic vitality and cultural diversity throughout the region. For more information about our programs and services, visit www.artsrochester.org.

 

 

 

 

This site is supported by funding from State of New York Grants secured by Senator James S. Alesi, Assemblyman Joseph D. Morelle, and Senator Joseph E. Robach; the New York State Council on the Arts; WROC Television; and Rochester Area Community Foundation.

 

 

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