We’ve mentioned this fantastic group before, for their fall meeting.  This Monday they are holding their January event in the city, with a great lineup of speakers discussing summer programs, the cultural data project and a number of other topics to get yourself ready for 2010.

Co-Hosted by the New York State Presenters Network

and the Presenting Program of the New York State Council on the Arts

Monday, January 11th, 6 PM — 7:30 PM

New York City Center – Studio 5

130 W. 56 Street, between 6^th & 7^th Avenues

Stage Door Entrance

On the Schedule….

New York State Presenters Network Updates on Regional Tour, Summer Meeting, NY Touring Roster

Meet and Greet with fellow presenters, members of service organizations and NYS-based touring artists

– Also, while you’re probably thinking going into midtown Manhattan right at rush hour may not be the best idea, the blocks around that area are only $14-15 for the evening, which is a great price.  While we love public transportation into the city, if a few people go together you can easily split the toll and parking and have it less then $10 a person.  And think how valuable it will be for your organization – registration for the event is free…

We had many strong applications this year! Thank you for your patience as we wait the final decsions – and best of luck to all applicants.

NYSCA loses $384,000 from the remaining local assistance funds in the CURRENT budget.

The State Legislature passed a $2.8 billion mid year deficit reduction plan on Wednesday.

The Governor, however, says the gap is more than $3.2 billion, indicating that the Legislature fell far short of addressing the full deficit, while the Comptroller DiNapoli estimates the gap at $4 billion. And conventional wisdom says that in a few months the gap will be even bigger…perhaps $6 to $9 billion.

In addition, the Governor is threatening to delay payments to schools, hospitals and municipalities to ensure that the State does not run out of money. Remember this is all about the CURRENT 2009-2010 budget. The Governor will be presenting his budget for 2010-11 in about a month. So prepare for a very, very tough 2010-11 budget fight for the State Arts Council!

Please see their web site for more information about what’s happening with the state and the arts, and join them on their Arts Day in Albany, 2 February.

From their announcement:

In Fiscal Year 2011 (calendar year 2010), we will implement a series of changes to NYSCA’s annual application calendar in an effort to further improve our grantmaking process and better serve New York’s cultural community. As a result, a number of important deadlines, including the close of registration, will now shift to earlier points in the calendar year. Given these changes, it is tremendously important that you take careful note of NYSCA’s FY11 calendar, provided below. Please pay particular attention to NYSCA’s registration deadline (January 22, 2010) and first application deadline (February 17, 2010).

NYSCA CALENDAR – FISCAL YEAR 2011

• December 15, 2009 – FY11 Application Guidelines Available
• January 4, 2010 – Registration Opens
• January 22, 2010 – Registration Closes
• February 17, 2010 1st – Application Deadline
• February 17, 2010 – CDP Data Profile Completion Deadline (optional)
• April 12, 2010 – 2nd Application Deadline

The events are being coordinated with, New York State Presenters is a consortium of state-wide presenting organizations.

“These gatherings are open to all presenting organizations, both NYSCA and non-NYSCA funded, along with community-based organizations who may be interested in presenting activities in the future…  Each of the gatherings will feature a panel of New York State based performing artists such as the Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company, composer and violinist, Daniel Bernard Roumain, about the potential of developing new audiences for your venue.”

The gathering for the Hudson Valley will be held on Thursday, November 19th at the Fisher Center for the Arts at Bard College, 10 am – 3 pm.

There is no charge for the event, and both organizations that present events and are looking for an audience, and presenting artists who are looking for venues are encouraged to attend.

To make it easier for you to register, please contact us using the form here or contact the Arts in Orange office.

The Dutchess County Arts Counil and are available for Ulster and Dutchess artists and projects.  They are “designed to promote local community-based arts and culture in Dutchess & Ulster Counties. Last year these grants ranged from $500 to $2,000. The average 2009 award was approximately $1,300.”

For more information including guidelines and applications, see their web site.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the New York State Cultural Data Project (New York State CDP), a powerful management tool for arts and cultural organizations. This unique system will, at no cost, allow arts managers and artistic leaders to understand and analyze their organization’s financial performance through easy-to-run reports. By participating in the New York State CDP, you will be part of a successful and growing project that will allow researchers and the arts community as a whole to better articulate and provide evidence for the sector’s assets and needs, as well as its contributions to the state and the country. By completing the online form annually, you will also be able to generate reports to be submitted to grantmakers with the click of a button.

After four years of planning, the CDP was first launched in Pennsylvania in 2004 and has grown to include Maryland, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York.

The CDP will provide nonprofit arts and cultural organizations with the best tools to easily track trends in performance and benchmark against others. Organizations can quickly and effortlessly produce reports that will help them make their case for support to funders, board members and policymakers. After entering historical financial and operational data into a standardized online form at the end of each fiscal year, organizations can rely on technology to reformat the data to match the needs of different funders. The report needed as one part of the grant application process to participating funders can be generated instantly, greatly reducing the time required to provide the same information to multiple funders.

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There will be a regional workshop in September showcasing this system, when we have more information of course we will post it.

NYSCA has been awarded $399,900 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to administer American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds in New York State.

These funds are to be used exclusively for the preservation of specific positions that are threatened due to the economic downturn.

Given that the funds available are limited, NYSCA will target the funding to support cultural organizations with service and support-oriented positions-at-risk that serve a broad range of artists and cultural organizations. By preserving jobs that are service and support-oriented, NYSCA will touch the maximum number of artists and arts organizations possible.

The application and guidelines for NYSCA’s Economic Recovery program are now available at www.nysca.org.

Arts Community Grants 2009 Award Recipients

Arts in Orange (AiO) is pleased to announce the 2009 Arts Community Grants award recipients. Arts Community Grants fosters locally based arts activities, assists emerging arts organizations, supports the cultural expression of ethnic groups in Orange County and provides cultural programs to underserved communities. These arts and cultural project awards, made available each year to not-for-profit arts and cultural organizations as well as individual artists through a not-for-profit conduit or sponsor, must be open to the public and presented in Orange County. These grants are made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program (DEC) of the New York State Council on the Arts.

For a complete listing and schedule of funded events, visit www.artsinorange.org.

Congratulations to the following grant recipients:

ARTISTS’ FEES WILL GO TOWARD THESE INDIVIDUAL ARTIST PROJECTS

Kofi and Sankofa

Music & Culture of Ghana: six performances at the Port Jervis Youth Center and one performance at the National Night Out at Riverside Park, Port Jervis.

George Hayes

Sculpture for Teens: 12 classes and group exhibition at the Wallkill River School, Montgomery.

Eugene Bove’

Oil Painting for Teens: 12 classes and group exhibition at the Wallkill River School, Montgomery.

Paul Ellis

Air Pirates Radio Theater, a series of a unique mixture of three live contemporary interactive theater and old-time radio drama. The live performances at the Lycian Centre in Sugar Loaf will be recorded for future broadcasts on WTBQ 1110AM/99.1FM and on www.WTBQ.com.

ARTISTS’ FEES WILL GO TOWARD THESE ARTS ORGANIZATION PROJECTS

Wallkill River School

A series of 50 public Plein Air Painting Demonstrations and Workshops by 25 Orange County artists at locations throughout Orange County: Bear Mountain State Park; Trotter’s Museum and Salesian Park in Goshen; Middletown Farmers’ Market; Black Dirt Region in Pine Island; Blooming Hill Farm in Blooming Grove; Harriman State Park; and End of the Season Group Show at Wallkill River School in Montgomery.

Tuxedo Public Library

Let’s Get Creative @ Your Library –three workshops at the Tuxedo Public Library: Workshop for Children, Workshop for Teens, Workshop for Adults.

Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra

Musician and guest artist fees for three Symphony Concerts at Newburgh Free Academy.

The Ritz Theater – Newburgh, Inc.

Three Guitar Series performances: The Ramo Group; Bucky Pizzarelli, Frank Vignola and Gene Bertonici; Noche Flamenca.

Elant, Inc.

Three performances for Elant Summer Concert Series: Gabriele Trachina Quartet, The Wild Rovers and Metropolitan Hot Club  –at Glenn Arden in Goshen.

Newburgh Free Library

Looking Back: The Sounds of Newburgh — Music of the 17^th & 18^th Century with Lydia Adams Davis, Music of the 19^th Century with City Winds Trio, Music of the 20^th Century with Sam Wayman and his Magic Band.

Goshen Chamber of Commerce

Goshen Arts Walk in the Park at Salesian Park: Evan Teatum with Lesley ann Bowe, Mighty Girl Band, Off the Wall Blues Band.

Creative Theatre Group, Inc.

Three Mainstage Productions at the Playhouse at Museum Village in Monroe: nine performances of musical “Little Shop of Horrors”, eleven performances of farce “Leading Ladies”, 12 performances of musical “Kiss Me Kate”.

Orange County Ballet Theatre Group

New Choreography and Great Classics for New Audiences: three performances at schools and three performances at nursing homes throughout Orange County.

ReadNex Poetry Squad

Eight performances “Hip Hop and Poetry Saved My Life” at the Ann Street Gallery, Newburgh.

Charles Graham & Associates

Influenza Musical performance at the Paramount Theater, Middletown.

Ferry Godmother Productions, Inc.

18 performances for the Newburgh Jazz Series 2009 including: U.S. Military Academy Band’s Jazz Knights, Richard Pryor Jr., Sumi Tonooka Trio, Gene Krupa II Orchestra, Neil Alexander with Nail, Saints of Swing, Matt Jordan’s Big Band, New York Swing Exchange, Betty MacDonald Quartet, Mambo KiKongo, Jazz Pioneer, Swinging Jive Patrol — at the waterfront.

The Palisades Parks Conservatory

Five different genre performances for the Trailside Summer Music Concert Series: The State Workers Concert, Sruli and Lisa, Blue Plate Special Concert, Sonando Concert, Guillermo Saar Concert — at the Trailside Amphitheater, Bear Mountain.

Examples of eligible projects for this grant program include: historic structure reports for public buildings; historic landscape reports for municipal parks; and cultural resource surveys of downtowns and residential neighborhoods.

In 2009, the Preservation League especially encourages projects that advance the preservation of architecture and landscapes of the recent past, preserving historic bridges and transportation corridors including rural roads, canals, and related structures.

Project should also focus on preserving and continuing to use historic municipal buildings and supporting Main Street revitalization.

ELIGIBILITY: Municipalities and not-for-profit organizations.
FUNDING: A total of $96,400 is available, with individual grants likely to range between $3,000 and $10,000 each.
DEADLINE: May 4, 2009.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the League’s regional directors of Technical and Grant Programs: Eastern New York, including New York City and Long Island, Erin Tobin, 518-462-5658, or Central and Western New York, including Southern Tier, Tania Werbizky, 607-272-6510; or visit the Preservation League of New York State’s Web site: www.preservenys.org. Also, Art in Crisis at www.artsincrisis.org