At a press conference today (March 21), Broome County Executive  Jason T. Garnar and Broome County Arts Council Executive Director Nancy Barno Reynolds announced that the BCAC this year is awarding $227,969 in United Cultural Funds (UCF) grants to 23 local arts organizations, community non-profits and individual artists.

The grants will help support the general operations of six major arts organizations, including — for the first time — LUMA, as well as 17 community non-profit and individual artist projects, an increase of three project grants over 2018. Funded projects range from theater productions to art restoration to film.

Since 1987, the BCAC’s United Cultural Fund has distributed more than $10.5 million to the arts in Broome County, while serving more than 100,000 residents. Last year, UCF grantees collectively returned more than $3 million dollars to Broome County’s economy.

The 2019 campaign raised $269,443, a portion of which is reserved for the BCAC’s general operating support. The remainder, $227,969, is dispersed among the grant recipients. Reynolds noted that the UCF raised more  it did in the 2018 campaign and that new donors were up 20 percent.

General Operating Support (GOS) Grants (total: $211,000)

  • Binghamton Philharmonic $60,000
  • Endicott Performing Arts Center $20,000
  • Goodwill Theater $17,000
  • LUMA Arts Initiative $5,000
  • Roberson Museum & Science Center $59,000
  • Tri-Cities Opera $50,000

Project Grants (total: $16,969)

  • Binghamton Community Orchestra $1,000: concert featuring Tony Kadleck
  • Binghamton Downtown Singers $1,000: “A Concert of Hope and Peace”
  • Binghamton Theater Organ Society $1,000: “From London to Eastman: ALEX JONES, Winner of ATOS Young Theatre Organist 2017”
  • Binghamton University Foundation $1,000: Binghamton Center for Writers: The Binghamton Poetry Project”
  • Binghamton Youth Symphony $1,000: 2019 season annual spring concert
  • Bundy Museum of History and Art $1,000: “Live from First Friday!” (local musical shows”)
  • Cooperative Extensions Association in the State of New York — Broome County $969: “Much Ado in the Garden”
  • Kopernik Society of Broome County $,1000: “4th EXPOSURE: A Screening of Art Films with Astronomical Images”
  • The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton $1,000: “A Moses Hogan Celebration”
  • Phelps Mansion Museum $1,000: “Chamber Music at the Phelps”
  • Safe Streets $1,000: Walnut Street Park mosaic restoration”
  • Scott Danzig $1,000: original film production entitled “Perfection”
  • SPARE Productions $1,000: “Haslop & Holmes: Art of the Steal”
  • SRO Productions III $1,000: “Falsettos”
  • Summer Savoyards $1,000: “The Yeomen of the Guard”
  • Vestal Museum $1,000: “Important Regional Women and Their Contribution to History”
  • YWCA of Binghamton and Broome County $1,000: YWCA garden

Major donors, whose charitable gifts help make UCF grants possible, include the Stewart W. & Willma C. Hoyt Foundation, Broome County Government, the Dr. G. Clifford & Florence B. Decker Foundation, the Miller S. & Adelaide S. Gaffney Foundation, the IBM Corporation, BGM Foundation, Lyubov and Dorollo Nixon, Jr., the Security Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York, Tyrone Muse, NBT Bank, Alice & Yaron Kweller, Dos Rios Hospitality Group, Columbian Financial Group and other local businesses and individuals who believe in the value of arts investment (http://www.broomearts.org/united-cultural-fund/donors/).

— Barb Van Atta