New York State Council Funding Artists
Since 1960, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) has been working to expand the benefits of art through education, community, and funding.
The NYSCA’s purpose is to create opportunities for New Yorkers to preserve the art that makes up the state’s history and assist artists in creating the future for the arts throughout the state. With 15 different programs, an artist or art group may find their niche while also being supported by the state through projects and programming. In 2020, the NYSCA granted a total of $43.8 million to 2,500 organizations and 142 individual artists.
One of the fifteen programs is the Music Program, targeted for musical groups in the genres of chamber music, choral music, early music, jazz, new music, opera, and orchestral music. At a glance, the Music Program awarded and supported 209 organizations in 2020 alone, offering $3.1 million in grants. The goal behind these grants is to expand the creation of music throughout the state and provide organizations with the opportunity to educate others in music. These grants have helped organizations in areas such as general funding, project support, and community music schools.
Artists in the five boroughs of New York City are not late to this giving party provided by the NYSCA. In 2020, the NYSCA Music Program selected 152 organizations in New York City as grantees to the sum of $1.9 million. These organizations ranged from multicultural groups, music educators, orchestras, and many more. The graphic below shows the comparison of funding within the entire state, the Music Program (state-wide), and the grantees within New York City.
Data collected from NYSCA Grant Search; Infographic created by Marty Sullivan II using Canva
Among the 152 organizations in NYC is the Harlem School of the Arts (HSA). Since its creation in 1965, HSA has been enriching the lives of its students and their families through the training of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts. With programs in each of these art forms, HSA provides education to students of varying backgrounds. Within their music program, they educate their students in strings, woodwinds, brass, piano, guitar, percussion, and voice. With funding from NYSCA in 2020, the school gained support in operation and with its In-School Educational Outreach Program.
The NYSCA Music Program offers grants in the following areas: general operating support, project support, community schools, services to the field, and regrants and partnerships. Applicants are entered into a multi-step review process each year that justifies criteria such as, service to the public and artistic merit. All NYSCA grants for 2021 are currently under review and will be announced on Tuesday, December 15th, 2020.
