*Press Release from the Orange County Arts Council

Orange County Arts Council Creates New Grant Program

Sugar Loaf, NY – The Orange County Arts Council is celebrating its Ten Year Anniversary this year and, to help commemorate this milestone, the Council created a new grant opportunity for artists and arts organizations in the county. The Orange County Arts Council 10th Anniversary Community Arts Grants were designed to encourage new and more abundant arts and culture opportunities in Orange County. The Community Arts Grants were funded through individual donations made to the Arts Council from donors and sponsors, including a generous gift from the Wesley-Krueger Family Foundation.

The Arts Council received thirty-two submissions for the grants earlier this year. Each application was competitively reviewed by an outside panel comprised of Orange County artists and community members. After much deliberation and debate, the selection panel decided to award grants to fourteen projects. These projects represent a variety of arts disciplines and span the county from Port Jervis to Newburgh.

The grant winners are:

· The Greenwood Lake Film Strip project: Developed in conjunction with the Hoboken Film Festival, the project consists of twenty (20) wooden “film-strip” cutouts, 2 feet wide by 4 feet high and mounted on stands at local businesses and area attractions in and around Greenwood Lake throughout the film festival. Each film strip was painted by a local artist with a movie related theme, such as film scenes, movie posters, collages, or any form of movie film art.

· Ghosts of Port Jervis: Through story compellation of carefully researched town history, historical facts and documented local ghost stories, the lives and memories of past residents of Port Jervis, will be shared. Guests will be led on foot, to various buildings and landmarks, while the storyteller acts as a guide, interweaving historical fact and ghost tales to create an entertaining, yet educational experience.

· Strongroom presents Jennifer Williams: Strongroom will produce a public work by Jennifer Williams to be displayed on the empty wall on the side of 128 Liberty Street, which faces the empty lot on the corner of Liberty Street and Broadway. The project will open during the Newburgh Illuminated Festival in early June and remain up through the end of August. For this project Jennifer will be in residence in Newburgh while creating photographs that will then be used to digitally assemble a photo collage, to be printed on a large scale and applied to the wall. This will be her largest exterior public work to date.

· SeaChange Voyage and Floating Residency: Led by Orange County artist Kevin Buckland in association with the Mare Liberum arts collective, the 2017 SeaChange voyage supports deeper engagement of local artists in local environmental organizing through a “Floating Residency” whereby artists will join the voyage and explore river-related themes. Their artworks will be presented in a community art exhibition in Newburgh to raise awareness about the need to protect the Hudson River.

· The Painted Trotters of Goshen: The Painted Trotters of Goshen is a collaborative effort between the Village of Goshen and the Goshen Art League. Individual artists are given a plywood cutout of a horse which the artist can paint in any style they choose. The horses will then be arraigned around the downtown Village of Goshen business district. The horses will be displayed to coincide with the start of racing season at the Historic Track.

· Requiem (Newburgh): Requiem is a new theatrical work based on the poetry of Anna Akhmatova.

Russian poet Anna Akhmatova began writing her poem, Requiem, during the 1930s “Reign of Terror,” when Stalin arrested, executed & sent to Siberian work camps an estimated 20 million of his own people, calling them “enemies of the state.” Written over three decades, the poem wasn’t published in the USSR until 1987. This production follows this period of time in Russian history – examining it from the viewpoint of one woman left all alone who has lost both her husband and son.

· Encapsulate: Encapsulate is a short documentary about the unearthing of a time capsule in the Village of Warwick that has been buried for fifty years. The time capsule itself represents the community’s past, buried in the ground during the Centennial celebration during 1967. The Village has seen many changes in the past fifty years, but there are many things that remain the same. As preparations are made to bury a new time capsule, to be opened in 2067, the film deals with the commonalities in the human experience: responsibility, homecoming, mortality and legacy.

· Treecycle 2017: Wickham Works is producing its 2nd annual Treecyle, a collaborative community art project. Treecycle is a two-day event that coincides with Earth and Arbor Day, and takes place at Wickham Woodlands Manor & Pavilion in Warwick (former O.C. Correctional Facility). Seven Orange County artists/facilitators guided children and adults in the creation of sculptural trees made from up-cycled materials.

· DUSKLIT Interactive Art Bazaar: DUSKLIT is a one night art bazaar that challenges visitors to accept experience, rather than solely object, as art. Over seventy-five artists will transform the Seligmann Homestead in Sugar Loaf into a landscape of interactive 10 x 10’ installations, offering visitors the opportunity to witness, engage with, and participate in elaborate micro-environments and interdisciplinary performances, as well as to form relationships with the artists themselves.

· Newburgh Open Movement: Newburgh Open Movement (NOM) is a monthly dance and movement improvisation event that will take place from 1 – 4 PM at the Safe Harbors Lobby at the Ritz in the City of Newburgh on the last Saturday of every month between February and December of 2017. The event is open to all ages, backgrounds and abilities. It features expert instruction and facilitation by Ophra Wolf and live, improvised music by respected local professional musicians.

· Confabulation: The Notion of a Small Town: In 2017 the Village of Warwick is celebrating its Sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the Village. Confabulation is a theatrical piece based on true/real stories garnered from the community. From these stories, archetype characters will emerge forming the basis for a larger story which will be edited into a final play which will be performed during the Warwick Summer Arts Festival.

· Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival: The Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival is a national-level plein air (outdoor painting) event which will take place at a variety of local sites including the Newburgh Waterfront and all the heritage tourism sites along the Hudson including Nature Museum of the Hudson Highlands, Washington’s Headquarters, Newburgh Landing, and Knox’s Headquarters, and culminate in a large exhibit at the SUNY Orange Middletown Campus.

· MIlkweed Poetry Journal: The mission of Milkweed Poetry Workshop (MPW) is to create a community of poets and to support and encourage expression in words – written, spoken, and otherwise. MPW seeks to honor the diverse voices of these poets by publishing a quarterly journal that showcases the poems that are being written right now in Orange County, New York.

· Middletown Concert Chorale: The Middletown Concert Chorale will offer multiple musical performances which typically include a major classical work and smaller choir pieces chosen from a variety of musical styles from medieval to modern — including musicals, madrigals, spirituals, seasonal, patriotic and folk music from around the world. Performances are held at St, John’s Lutheran Church in Middletown, as well as one or two other venues in Middletown or other Orange Country townships such as Otisville, Montgomery and Port Jervis.

The Orange County Arts Council envisions a county that celebrates artistic diversity and inspires creativity and participation. As such, the Arts Council has made it its mission to champion the arts, connect artists with audiences and foster the growth of Orange County’s creative resources. For more information about the Orange County Arts Council, visit www.ocartscouncil.org or call 845-469-9168.