PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) has awarded $885,500 to 118 artists and arts organizations in the state in the first round of grants for the 2009-2010 season, the council announced this morning.
“The arts are an important part of the life of every Rhode Islander,” said Randall Rosenbaum, director of RISCA, “and our mission is to see that every Rhode Islander has access to the best our state has to offer, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay.”
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
He noted that, through these grants, the council is supporting artistic activity in “practically every part of our state, where the arts contribute to the quality of life, the education of our young and the vitality of our economy.”
Some 359 artists, organizations and schools throughout the state applied for the grants, requesting $3.1 million – more than three times the amount awarded. Rosenbaum said funds for these awards are a mixture of state and federal grants, and do not include federal stimulus funds.
This is the major round of grants that RISCA makes each year because, Rosenbaum noted, current awards include sums for some of the state’s largest groups, such as Trinity Repertory Co., who only approach the council for funding assistance once each year. A second round of grants for projects scheduled to take place between January and June 2010 will be announced in October, he said.
Major grant recipients today include, for general operating support:
• Trinity Repertory Company, Providence, $113,125.
• Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, East Providence, $89,471.
• Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, $87,550.
• AS220, Providence, $46,278.
• Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, Pawtucket, $34,820.
• Festival Ballet, Providence, $29,273.
• Everett Dance Theatre, Providence, $29,096.
• Perishable Theater, Providence, $28,795.
• Newport Art Museum & Art Association, $24,236.
• Island Moving Co., Newport, $21,630.
• Providence Black Repertory Co., $18,511.
• Old Slater Mill Association, Pawtucket, $15,000.
• Providence Performing Arts Center, $6,685.
• Chorus of Westerly, $11,621.
• South County Center for the Arts, West Kingston, $9,256.
• Fusionworks Inc., Lincoln, $6,170.
Grants for specific projects for individual artists and organizations make up the rest of the list of recipients and include:
• $7,000 to Colonial Theatre School Inc. in Westerly for a production of Shakespeare’s “Two Gentlemen of Verona.”
• $6,000 to Autism Project of Rhode Island to support a documentary film about the affliction.
• $6,000 for Sound Session in Providence.
• $4,500 to Providence composers Steven Jobe and Chris Turner to present a concert of their recent chamber music compositions.
• $4,000 to the City of Central Falls for a high school multi-arts program.
• $4,000 to Erik Gould of Pawtucket to create a photographic record of the effects of the economic crisis on Rhode Island.
• $3,500 to Common Fence Music Co. of Middletown for a workshop on African music.
• $3,500 to FirstWorks of Providence for the FirstWorks festival in the fall.
• $2,000 to Ann Fessler of Foster for a film on unwed mothers in the 1950s and 1960s.
• $2,000 to Friends of Ballard Park of Newport for a month of free music events at the nature preserve.
• $2,000 to Scott Indermaur of East Greenwich to integrate his “Revealed” project with Rhode Island Public Radio’s WRNI “This I Believe” series.
• $2,000 to Hillary Jones of Providence for a rock ’n’ roll camp for 40 women in August.
• $1,500 to David Angell of North Kingstown to make a documentary on a tent city in Providence.
• $500 to pay eight artists to demonstrate their work at the Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol during Harvest Festival in September.
A full list of grant recipients can be found on RISCA’s Web site, www.arts.ri.gov/.
