GO Art! presents grants tonight for 2015 cultural events
File photo by Tom Rivers – Zach Shaffer, an Albion High School student, waits for his cue to enter the stage when he played a waiter in “Follies,” a musical performed last October by the Lake Plains Players. The community theater group will receive $2,800 in grants from GO Art! this year for two different productions.
BATAVIA – The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council will distribute grants for nearly 30 different cultural initiatives in the two counties during a celebration from 6 to 8 p.m. today in Batavia at Seymour Place, 201 E. Main St.
Several awards will be presented to arts efforts in Orleans County. The evening will kick off with a performance by the Genesee Chorale Children’s Chorus, a 2015 Reach Grant recipient.
Awards will be presented to all 29 grant recipients who have proposed artistic and cultural projects to occur within Genesee and Orleans counties throughout 2015.
Legislative representatives will be present from both counties to help present the awards. The evening will conclude with a musical performance by 2015 Ripple Grant recipient Bill McDonald and his wife Kay.
GO ART! approved $41,600 in state decentralization grants for 26 projects in the two counties. The agency also approved $5,000 in Ripple Grants to support local artists who wish to involve the community in their creative process.
GO ART! approved $2,500 in Ripple Grants to Alex Feig of Orleans Radio for a “Remembers Medina” music recording and video, and $2,500 to Bill McDonald of Batavia for the Travelling Towpath Troubadors, a concert series along the Erie Canal.
Albion native Stacey (Kirby) Steward was approved for a $2,000 Spark Grant for an arts project with Holley Central School students. Steward’s project is sponsored by the Orleans County Adult Learning Services.
“Seeing Like an Artist” will encourage students to see the world as an artist sees it – noticing details that many miss. Students will be introduced to observational drawing and encouraged to practice developing skills such as focus, patience and attention. Inspiration will be drawn from nature.
Third graders will have several sessions with Steward, including drawing sessions, scientific observations and sharing sessions. The project will culminate in a mural created by the students and Steward.
The decentralization grants for projects in Orleans County include:
Village of Albion, Concerts by the Canal, $2,530;
Lee-Whedon Memorial Library, Finally Fridays concert series, $2,300;
World Life Institute in Waterport, Voice from the Earth, $3,440;
Bill Lattin, sponsored by Pullman Memorial Universalist Church, for Halloween Pictures and Pranks Show, $1,515;
Lake Plains Players, $2,000 for fall production and $800 for spring production;
The Cobblestone Society Museum for “The Lost Generation,” an exhibit about World War I, $2,300;
Yates Community Library, “More Than Just Books,” $2,800;
Lyndonville Lions Club for Concert Fun for the Summer, $1,500.
