There's Good News and Bad News for the Wyoming County Arts Community
The number of grant applications for the local arts community has gone up. More than a dozen checks were given out Friday, March 4, 2022 by Linda Franke, SLI resident, who is the Community Regrants Coordinator of the Arts Council of Wyoming County (ACWC), and by Becky Ryan, Chairwoman of the Wyoming County Board of Supervisors. Individual artist grants and scholarships were given out by ACWC Executive Director Jackie Hoyt.
The larger number of grant applications points to the vibrancy and growing interest in the arts both in Wyoming and Allegany counties.
The flip side of this positive story is that growing interest means that fewer dollars from the State need to be distributed among a larger number of groups, programs, and individual artists. This year there was $96,548 to divide up between both Wyoming and Allegany counties. In Wyoming County, $56,088 was requested in grant applications, but there was less than $27,000 available to give.
Sometimes that means groups must spend part of their volunteer time money raising, or local programs need to be cut back. Grant writers are doing the same amount of work but receiving less for their time-consuming efforts. Nevertheless, all groups are grateful for whatever help is available.
Present at the "check ceremony" from the Silver Lake Institute were SLI Trustee Peggy Phillips and SLI VP Kris Schultz (9 summer concerts). Among the crowd and receiving grants were Josh Rice (Josh Rice Projects including Shake on the Lake), Eric Parker (member-treasurer of Village of Perry Community Band), Meghan Hauser (Perry Market Arts Series), among a host of others.
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