Philanthropic chef, Gary Towsley, is planning a culinary adventure for arts council friends and members. We will begin our annual dinner with a stroll through Italy and move eastward across Asia to China and back. This gives us the opportunity to savor many cuisine’s soups, entrees and curries before coming back to savor Dee Dee Rutigliano’s marvelous pastries and cookies.
The congenial evening will be GVCA’s annual business meeting as well. On the agenda is the election of new board members, Steve Luick, Roy Grisewood and Jim Coniglio, as well as a small change to GVCA business and individual memberships.
“We are eliminating the basic membership level because we actually lose money on it, notes executive director Kathryn Hollinger. “We are keeping the $15 membership for students, because we want them to learn to be members, and, of course, any one who finds the new level unaffordable can come in at that level. The high cost of paper, printing and postage, as well as the cost of good personnel and programming are the reason that we are asking the members to step up. Of course, we are able to offer more member benefits because of the arts center now.” Business memberships will now include an ad in the Artful Holidays program and will go up slightly. “This is the first time the business level has been raised since some time before 1996,” notes Hollinger.
The annual dinner is also GVCA's opportunity to recognize contributions in the arts by local individuals. Each of the recipients of this year’s awards could have easily fit into any of the three categories, arts achievement, arts in education and arts volunteerism. They are all accomplished artists who are generous in sharing their time and talent with their communities through volunteering and education. (scroll down to Arts Leadership Awards for more details)
The dinner and annual meeting will be held at St. Mary’s Parish Center in Geneseo on Saturday, September 20 with hors d‘oeuvres at 6:30pm, dinner at 7pm, and awards and business meeting at 8:30pm. Call 243-6785 to make a reservation by September 12; the cost is $30/pp. GVCA accepts Visa and MasterCard (by phone or in person at the office) as well as personal checks.
Arts Leadership Awards
Roy Grisewood, Arts Leadership Award for Arts in Education, has been teaching visual art at Avon Central School since 1992. He began in the elementary school and moved to the high school in 1998. As an undergraduate at SUNY Oswego, he specialized in ceramics, both hand building and wheel throwing. He found work in ceramic engineering, but then enrolled at Alfred University and received his Master of Science in Education so that he could return to visual art 13 years later.
His artistic life has included fiber structures in basketry, for which he won best of show at the Corn Hill Arts Festival, rustic twig furniture and most recently, painting. “I’m now working in representational realism,” he says. “I work with local landscapes and with close scrutiny of everyday objects.
“I also work in surrealism for my own entertainment,” he jokes. Many people attending the GVCA Member’s Exhibit commented on this humorously disturbing work.
Roy’s teaching ability brought this comment from the Dean of Students at Avon High School, Polly Stapley, “Roy is very good at taking a student from a starting point and helping them go to a new level. He fosters creativity and gives students the opportunity to blossom.” His students have been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Art Awards, with two going to the national exhibit in Washington, D.C. (Both student received Dick Smith Young Artist grants to attend.) Several have gone on to major in art or to be come arts educators and therapists.
Dave Hurd, Award for Volunteerism, keeps himself very busy in his retirement from choral director for the Letchworth school system. Dave has been an invaluable asset to the vocal arts in Livingston County, accompanying for SUNY Geneseo's Festival Chorus, Geneseo School Choirs, Amy Cochrane's private studio, Organist and Choir Director at Central Presbyterian Church, and music directing and accompanying for various music productions in our area schools and theaters.
His volunteer work includes many years on the Friends of Music board of directors and as coordinator for the popular Concerts at Noon series of the Geneseo Central Presbyterian Church. He spends a great deal of time and energy making sure that our community has as many varied musical experiences as possible. He is also a volunteer for many organizations in the sense of often preparing and rehearing well above what he is remunerated for and for his warm emotional support of the singers and musicians he works with.
He actively attends to his development as a musician and accompanist participating in Westminster Choir College Summer Seminars as well as continuing to study organ and collaborative piano. Dave received his BM from Houghton College, and his MM from Fredonia. His teachers include Terry Yount, David Craighead, Peter Dubois and James E. Bobb. He also maintains a private studio of piano students, and in his spare time bikes over 100 miles a week.
Jim Kimball, Award for Artistic Achievement, wears many hats artistically in our community. He is a professor at SUNY Geneseo, the director of the Geneseo String Band, a community resource as the expert in the music traditions of central and western New York, and an accomplished performer on myriad instruments. All these areas overlap with Jim taking his students out in the community to demonstrate historic music styles or play with the string band; writing, publishing and presenting scholarly papers in ethnomusicology; teaching wayward square dancers and picking up whatever instrument is needed in whatever genre is being played, from lutenist with the Geneseo Chamber singers to banjo, accordion or fiddle with the string band.
He is mentor to Karen Canning, GVCA’s staff folklorist, and as she noted recently, “Pretty much everything that’s happened to me musically, as well as personally, can be traced back to Jim.” We know that this is true for many musicians who have had the privilege of working with him.
The arts council is also very pleased to recognize the quiet way in which Nick Mazza has helped us grow as an organization. He understands that a very small investment in the arts offers a big return for our community. His advocacy on GVCA’s behalf is the core reason why we have been able to come as far as quickly as we have.
GVCA invites members and the public to celebrate these individuals' accomplishments at our annual dinner.
-- Top of page --
|
December 5, 2008 will be the grand opening of Livingston Arts Center, a collaboration between the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts and Livingston County. Located on the county's Murray Hill Campus in Mount Morris, the Arts Center will include GVCA's administrative offices, the New Deal Gallery, Apartment One, and workshop space.
The New Deal Gallery will house rotating exhibits of the county's collection of WPA easel paintings. Created through state-based programs following the guidelines of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal federal projects, hundreds of paintings and a few prints were allocated to the former Mount Morris Tuberculosis Sanitarium (now the county campus). Two-hundred and thirty nine pieces remain, in varied condition and requiring restoration and cleaning. The GVCA is offering the public the opportunity to be involved with the restoration of this important body of work through an Adopt A Painting Program. The gallery will also be the site of small performances.
Apartment One will be used as a community gallery to display artwork by the talented individuals residing in our region.
Additional space converted from the building's original use as housing for physicians' families will be dedicated to "learning." GVCA anticipates a wide variety of opportunities: painting, fiber arts, music lessons, study space for the WPA, movement programs, and more ... based on the interests of the community. Full programming begins in January 2009 and GVCA is seeking interested teachers and workshop leaders.
Livingston Arts Center will be open to the public; the schedule has yet to be set.
For more information, contact the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, 4 Murray Hill Drive, Mount Morris NY 14510. Telephone: 585.243.6785. Email: mail@gvcaonline.org
-- Top of page --
|
|
For more information: http://www.gvcaonline.org/content/services.asp Individuals and community organizations based in Livingston County interested in applying for GVCA's Community Arts Grant or Individuals Artists Grants must attend a grant writing seminar, where details about the programs will be discussed by Program Coordinator, Chris Norton.
Registration is not necessary and the seminar is free. Four dates/sites have been scheduled:
August 13, 7pm, Big Springs Museum, West Main Street, Caledonia
August 19, 7pm, West Sparta Town Hall
August 20, 7pm, Lima Public Library
September 6, 10am, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, 4 Murray Hill Drive, Mount Morris
GVCA urges all new grant applicants to prepare a draft grant application and review it with the Program Coordinator well in advance of the application deadline.
For more information, contact Chris Norton at 585.243.6785. Program details can also be found on this website; select the link above. Under Funding, select either grant program for guidelines and a downloadable application.
-- Top of page --
|
The Genesee Valley Council on the Arts is recruiting volunteers interested in serving as docents in the New Deal Gallery, opening in early December 2008 at Livingston Arts Center in Mount Morris. The gallery will feature the county’s collection of 239 Great Depression-era paintings.
This is one of the largest collections of WPA/Federal Art Project oil paintings in a non-federal facility. It continues to be one of the few collections of its type to remain relatively intact.
Docents will interact with gallery visitors and serve as a source for additional information about the artwork, time period, and the Murray Hill campus. Volunteers should have a passion for both art and local history and be willing to contribute a few hours each month to the gallery. Training will be provided and sessions are being scheduled for September and October.
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Courtney Veaunt at 585-243-6785 or courtney@gvcaonline.org.
-- Top of page --
|
GVCA will offer programming at Livingston Arts Center in Mount Morris beginning Tuesday, January 6, 2009. We would like to offer diverse programs for individuals of all ages. We have a variety of space available.
GVCA will handle publicity, registration and payment processing, freeing you to do what you do best -- teach or share your art or hobby! If you're interested in teaching a class or leading a workshop, call us soon.
For programs beginning in January, February or March 2009, course and instructor applications must be received in our office by October 24. Call or email for your packet today: 585-243-6785 or mail@gvcaonline.org .
-- Top of page --
|
|
