GO Art! ups funding for cultural events in Orleans and Genesee
File photos by Tom Rivers – John Dady, part of the Dady Brothers with his brother Joe, performed along the Erie Canal in Albion on July 12, kicking off the concert series on Thursdays. The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council approved funding for the concerts in 2016.
BATAVIA – The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council has announced $52,283 in funding for several cultural programs in Orleans and Genesee counties for 2015.
The funding in state decentralization grants is up from the $41,600 approved in 2015.
GO ART! also approved $5,000 total for two Ripple Grants to support local artists who wish to involve the community in their creative process.
One of those $2,500 goes to Bill McDonald of Batavia for the Travelling Towpath Troubadors, a concert series along the Erie Canal. The Troubadors performed several canal concerts from a boat this past summer. The group will be back for more music in 2016.
Members of the “Old Hippies” play as the Travelling Towpath Troubadors in a concert on July 12 in Medina’s Canal Basin. The group includes Vinny Pastore, Jim Catino, Kay McMahon and Bill McDonald.
The decentralization grants approved for projects in Orleans County include:
Lake Plains Players for its fall musical (to be announced), $1,819.73;
Lake Plains Players summer musical (to be announced), $638;
Lake Plains Players, Summer Youth Theatre Camp, $1,324.73;
Lee-Whedon Memorial Library in Medina, “Finally Fridays!” – 15th annual series of free music programs during winter, $1,969.73;
Lyndonville Lions Club for Concert Fun in Lyndonville, $2,794.73;
Mental Health Association for pottery and print making, $835;
Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4-H Fair Flower Show, $585;
Orleans Renaissance Group, Inc. for an evening with Irish Tenor, Ronan Tynan, $3,619.73;
Julie Patel portrays Olive Ostrovsky, one of six contestants in the The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which was perfomed last summer at Leonard Oakes Estate Winery by the Lake Plains Players. Patel is singing, “My Friend, the Dictionary.”
Tale for Three Counties Council for three-county community reading effort “A Tale for Three Counties,” $2,094.73;
Village of Albion, Concerts on the Canal, $2,509.73;
World Life Institute in Waterport for “Voices from the Earth,” $4,875;
Yates Community Library for “More than Just Books,” $2,969.73
GO ART! welcomes artists and organizations to apply for funding again next year. Workshops for the 2017 grant cycle will be in the summer of 2016 at select local libraries and at the GO ART! building in Batavia.
Megan Brenner-Zwara plays Mary and Joseph Kusmierczak is George Bailey in the Lake Plains Players production of the It’s A Wonderful Life, which was performed last month. The Players were approved for funding in 2016 for three different theater projects.
