In 2023, Arts Services Inc. (ASI) has been included as an awardee of a significant amount of funding from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). Along with a number of other statewide arts organizations that will receive funding, ASI has been awarded $1.2M. $1M of that funding will be allocated for ASI’s Statewide Community Regrant (SCR) program, while $180K will be equally distributed to 18 WNY artists selected for funding (through NYSCA’s Round 3 Support for Artists* using ASI as a fiscal sponsor). The artists will utilize the funding to develop projects that will help them grow and develop their craft. Those artists are:
- Aidan Ryan: I Am Here You Are Not I Love You
- Darci Borgumil: Floral and Container Garden Design
- Dorothea Braemer: The Stories We Wear
- Elena Erokhina: Dark Tales
- Eric Souther: Spirals of Deep Time
- Jalen Law: Dug’s Dive
- Jason Beaudreau: Moving forward
- Ken Ferree: The Immersive World of Touch Music
- Lizzy Hayes: Pants Role Project
- Muhammad Zaman: Morphing Essence
- Nancy Hughes: Work Life, Life Work
- Phyllis Thompson: Evolving Memories
- Sara Zak: The New York Paintings
- Steve Rosenthal: How Racism Costs Us All
- Sukanya Burman: The Bayadere – Past, Present, and Future
- Tara Sasiadek: The Bandaged Place
- Timothy Frerichs: Waterways
- Tom McNulty: Image & Emotion
“I am very thankful to NYSCA and organizations like ASI for giving me this opportunity and creating similar opportunities for the artist here in WNY,” said grant recipient Muhammad Z. Zaman. “Grants like these allow me to create freely without financial restraint.”
The $1M appropriation thanks in part to a statewide advocacy campaign organized by Arts NYS, of which ASI is an active member, and members of the NYS Senate, including Senator Sean Ryan.
Of the $1M:
- Half will be re-granted to organizations and individuals through the SCR program.
- The other half will be used to provide professional development training, workshops and other services for the field. The first of these trainings, a series of day-long operating grant workshops for arts administrators, will take place in early February.
“This million-dollar appropriation will have a huge impact on the region’s arts industry,” said ASI Executive Director Jen Swan-Kilpatrick. “There are so many groups and artists that are still feeling the effects of the pandemic and we see this as a chance to rebuild the momentum and energy that the WNY arts scene had prior to 2020. We are grateful to NYSCA, Governor Hochul, local elected officials, and all of the arts advocates statewide who helped procure this funding.”
“Small grants can make a big impact on local communities,” said ASI’s Grants and Programming Director Holly Grant. “A $5,000 grant might seem small but it can give an organization the opportunity to launch a new program series or keep an existing program’s admission cost free to the public.”
“We’ve seen more and more WNY artists take the leap and apply for one of the most competitive grants in the state,” said Grant, “And it’s paying off.”
“The 2023 NYSCA grant comes at a critical time in my career as a media artist, allowing me to continue a life-long media project examining my relationship with my mother and daughter,” commented grant recipient Dorothea Braemer. “Holly and ASI have been phenomenally helpful and encouraging throughout the entire application process. This kind of support means the world to us artists!”
As for the $1M in SCR funding, it will be disseminated in batches of $5K for community-based arts, allocated to projects to nonprofits and individuals in Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua Counties.
The remainder of the NYSCA funding reflects ASI’s traditional support from NYSCA for general operations.
NYSCA Support for Artists applications were accepted in the fields of choreography commissions, composer compositions, film and media, folk and traditional arts, interdisciplinary, literature, theater commissions and visual arts. Priority was given to applicants that will use their projects to serve historically underrepresented communities. For 2023, 426 projects were selected for funding.
Photo credits: Aidan Ryan by Mark Dellas, Sara Zak by Sara Heidinger, Timothy Frederichs by David Moog, Jalen Law by Blanc Photographie, Nancy Hughes by Annette Dragon. Photos have been cropped by ASI for size.
