State Council on the Arts grants support vital cultural programs statewide
Arts at the Palace in Hamilton announced that it has been awarded a two-year, $6,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts for 2020 with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the state Legislature.
NYSCA grants support the transformative impact of the performing, literary, visual and media arts in New York state.
Arts at the Palace is one of 462 arts organizations across the state receiving a total of $8,383,993 million in grants through NYSCA’s Round II funding to support arts programs that drive the state’s economic growth and community health.
“The arts and culture are a critical driver of health in people and places,” said Mara Manus, executive director, NYSCA. “Our state’s creative industries generate a total of $120 billion to the state economy, account for 466,000 jobs, and play a significant role in revitalization, education and social justice.”
NYSCA will award a total of $41 million to arts organizations across New York for 2020. The second of three rounds of NYSCA funding for FY2020 includes support for museums, theatres and arts organizations that drive tourism and anchor communities and arts education programs essential to learning for all ages, including public school students, aging populations and at-risk youth.
NYSCA Round II grants also support creative arts programs promoting physical and mental health and personal and professional development in historically underserved and vulnerable communities, including those in geographically remote areas; disabled communities; impoverished and homeless populations; and justice-involved youth and adults.
Arts at the Palace received funding through NYSCA’s Theater Program to support From Script to Stage, a residency program for the development of new theater works based at the Palace Theater in Hamilton.
“We are thrilled that NYSCA has recognized the importance and potential of this program to offer opportunities to New York artists as well as engagement activities designed to bring area residents into the artistic process,” says AATP Executive Director Victoria Calvert Kappel. “In the summer of 2020, From Script to Stage will produce the world premiere of Donna Hoke’s play ‘Hearts of Stone.’ Noted playwright, author and director Kyle Bass is artistic advisor for the project. The residency will last four weeks and include weekly outreach events aimed at introducing the community to the process of writing and producing a play. The second year of NYSCA funding will enable AATP to grow this exciting program even more in 2021.”
Donna Hoke’s work has been seen in 47 states and on five continents, including at Barrington Stage, Barrow Group, Celebration Theatre, Gulfshore Theatre, Queens Theatre, The Road, Writers Theatre New Jersey, Phoenix Theatre, Atlantic Stage, Purple Rose, Skylight, Pride Films and Plays, New Jersey Rep, Hens and Chickens (London), The Galway Fringe Festival, and Actors Repertory Theatre of Luxembourg. She has been nominated for the Primus, Blackburn and Laura Pels prizes and is a three-time winner of the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play (Seeds, Sons & Lovers, Once In My Lifetime). She has also received an individual artist award from NYSCA to develop Hearts of Stone and, in its final three years, Artvoice named her Buffalo’s Best Writer—the only woman to ever receive the designation.
Kyle Bass, associate artistic director at Syracuse Stage and a professor in the theater department at Colgate University, is the author of “Possessing Harriet,” commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Association, which received its world premiere at Syracuse Stage in October 2018. He is a two-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (for fiction in 1998 and playwriting in 2010), a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award, and Pushcart Prize nominee. As dramaturg, Kyle worked with acclaimed visual artist Carrie Mae Weems on her theatre piece Grace Notes: Reflections for Now, which had its world premiere at the 2016 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, subsequently produced at Yale Rep and the Kennedy Center. As a screenwriter, Kyle is the co-author of the original screenplay for the filmDay of Days (Broad Green Pictures, 2017), which stars award-winning veteran actor Tom Skerritt, and he is the author of the screenplay adaptation of the novel Milk by Darcy Steinke. The creator and curator of Syracuse Stage’s “Cold Read Festival” of new plays, Kyle holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Goddard College and is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.
Annually, NYSCA grants are awarded in 15 discipline programs and the Regional Economic Development Council initiative. Over the last two years, NYSCA has awarded an additional $30 million in capital funding to 71 organizations statewide fueling community development and tourism, and will announce additional capital grant awards this year.
“New York’s cultural sector is a driving force in our state’s economy,” said Katherine Nicholls, Chair, New York State Council on the Arts. “As our arts organizations expand their audiences and programs with NYSCA support, we will serve many more New Yorkers and build the vitality of our communities statewide.”