The Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County awarded over $70,000 to various local art centers at its annual Decentralization Program/Key Arts Program grant ceremony late last month.
A non-profit organization founded in 1973, the Arts Council seeks to expand participation in all artistic disciplines by granting money to centers of cultural arts in Western New York. While the council most often grants money to non-profit organizations, no program is turned away.
"We provide various services and funding to programs seeking assistance," said Lawrence Cook, assistant director of the council. "We will always try to help a group fund its activities and promote culture and art in the area."
The Decentralization Program and the Key Arts program grants often serve as a lifeline to the awardees.
"We couldn't survive without it," said Tom Irish of the Springville Center for the Arts, one of the Decentralization Program awardees. "We are a small, village concern, but I don't know of any other groups like ours in the rural areas."
Operating in downtown Springville out of an old shoe store, the center offers space for performances as well as gallery space. According to Irish, the money will likely be used to pay for gallery lighting.
The Community Music School of Buffalo received an award of $3,449, which, according to Director Linda Mabry, will be used to support the neighborhood concert series the school runs in collaboration with several other agencies.
"We have been awarded the grant probably for the past seven or eight years," said Mabry. "It really helps cover the cost of putting on the performances."
The performances include minority and multicultural music programs offered at community centers, schools and senior citizen centers.
Other recipients of the Decentralization Program grants included the Amherst Symphony Orchestra Association, Ballet Artists of WNY, the Cheektowaga Community chorus, Folkloric Productions Dance Co., Explore and More: a children's museum, and the Youth Orchestra Foundation of Buffalo.
The Key Arts Program grant serves a slightly different function than the Decentralization Program. The award, funded by Key Bank, exists to help art groups gain sources of revenue.
"It works as a sales project to help organizations promote themselves and gain economic independence," said Cook.
This year, there were four recipients of the $1,800 award: The Irish Classical Theater Company, Ballet Artists of WNY, Explore and More and Locust Street Neighborhood Art Classes.
The Irish Classical Theater Company, which has received the grant for the first time this year, has earmarked the money for use in promoting the company's group sales program. The program, in its first year of operation, works to bring groups of 15 or more to the theater's productions throughout the season.
The Locust Street Neighborhood Arts Classes has received the grant several times and will use this year's award to fund program promotions.
"It will pay for a brochure to inform people about the various things we do outside of our regular art classes," said founder and director Molly Bethel. These include teaching workshops and art instruction for second- and third-grade children at Futures Academy on Carlton Avenue.
According to Bethel, the 42-year-old community group was an unplanned endeavor that has continued to grow as "kids in the neighborhood asked for [art classes]. It just grew at the request of people attending classes."
According to Cook, the bulk of the award money is supplied by the New York State Council on the Arts.
