Numerous regional organizations awarded state arts grants; O’Mara says funding helps promote local cultural opportunities

Elmira, N.Y., January 26--State Senator Tom O’Mara (R-C-I, Big Flats) today said that numerous organizations across the 58th Senate District are among more than a thousand groups statewide that have been awarded local assistance grants from the New York State Council on the Arts.

The Council annually distributes the state grants to locally based organizations across New York.  This year, more than $41 million is going to 1,230 cultural and arts organizations statewide to support the creation of visual, performing, literary, and media arts, as well as arts education, economic development through the arts, and cultural programs for underserved populations.

O’Mara said, “We’re grateful for this state funding that will assist local organizations devoted to the arts, culture and history.  This funding helps enhance an appreciation of culture and the arts vital to communities throughout the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions and statewide.  It also helps bolster organizations that are central to our tourism-based economy.”

O’Mara said that the following local organizations are receiving grants through the latest round of funding:

> Arnot Art Museum (Chemung County), $12,000;

> Chemung County Historical Society (Chemung County), $15,000;

> Chemung County Performing Arts (Chemung County), $20,000;

> American Dance Asylum, Inc. (Steuben County), $175,323;

> ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes (Steuben County), $270,260;

> Corning Museum of  Glass (Steuben County), $114,500;

> Corning-Elmira Musical Arts, Inc. (Steuben County), $13,300;

> Corning-Painted Post Civic Music Association (Steuben County), $10,000;

> Rockwell Museum (Steuben County), $18,000;

> Center for the Arts at Ithaca (Tompkins County), $31,696;

> Community Arts Partnership (Tompkins County), $128,400;

> Community School of Music & Arts (Tompkins County), $30,000;

> Constance Saltonstall Foundations for the Arts (Tompkins County), $18,000;

> Cornell University (Tompkins County), $29,693;

> Historic Ithaca, Inc. (Tompkins County), $21,000;

> The History Center in Tompkins County (Tompkins County), $28,500;

> The Ithaca Shakespeare Company, Inc. (Tompkins County), $43,000;

> Kitchen Theatre Company, Inc. (Tompkins County), $53,500;

> NYS Early Music Association (Tompkins County), $11,000;

> The Seventh Art Corporation of Ithaca (Tompkins County), $12,000; and

> Yates County Arts Council (Yates County), $16,000.