NYSCA History | NYSCA (2023)

Governor Nelson Rockefeller and New York State Senate and Assembly establish the New York State Council on the Arts as a temporary body with a study grant of $50,000. NYSCA becomes the first modern-day state arts agency in the country.

Presentation by GovernorRockefeller to the Metropolitan Museum of Art of the exhibition “Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas”, 05/09/1968

Through NYSCA's Touring Program, Leonard Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic for 7,000 schoolchildren in Troy.

NYSCA World’s Fair exhibit & opening reception, “The City, The Places, The people” (1965)

A young pianist performs at the 1966 New York State Awards.

NYSCA tours The Erie Maid -- a two-deck Canal-workers’ boat converted into a movable art exhibition hall featuring a calliope --to 30 canal communities with exhibition entitled “The Erie Canal: 1817-1967” to commemorate the 150th anniversary of beginning of Canal construction. The exhibition is viewed by 138,250 people

NYSCA tours The Erie Maid to 30 canal communitiesto commemorate the 150th anniversary of beginning of Canal construction.

NYSCA launches Literature program, supporting publications and readings such as one by Gregory Orr and Erica Jong at City Hall Park in New York City

NYSCA's Architecture + Design Programsupports organizations and individuals working to further innovation and excellence in the design arts, to promote the preservation and interpretation of New York State’s architectural + design heritage and to encourage the development of design literacy for all New Yorkers. Pictured is Frank Lloyd Wright'sGraycliff, a Western New York landmark and NYSCA Architecture + Design grantee. Photo Courtesy of Graycliff.

The arts account for nearly half of New York State tourism, with cultural attractions of all disciplines and styles throughout the state, including 1972 NYSCA Award winnersGeorge Balanchine & the New York City Ballet dancers.

Members of the Empire State Youth Orchestra, founded by the Decentralization Plan for the Capital District

NYSCA supports Olympic Games arts in and around the Lake Placid area, including an outdoor sculpture exhibit, performing arts events and presentation of video works

Filmmakers Kit Fitzgerald and John Sanborn were commissionedto create a series of videotapes for the 1980 Winter Olympics.

NYSCA establishes a Task Force on Individual Artists to find ways artists can best be served by public funds, the precursor to the Individual Artists Program

MIRLF offerslow-interest loans to musicians to purchase instruments

Mehendi, the art of Indian henna painting, a project at the Queens Council on the Arts supported by NYSCA'sFolk Arts Program. Photo by Martha Cooper.

NYSCA receives special Tony Award to honor 25 years of contributions to the theater

NYSCA's Facilities Program continues to support cultural destinationssuch as the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center Performing Arts Center at Bard College. NYSCA awarded the Fisher Center FY2017 Facilities Program fundingto upgrade elements of its lighting and sound systems, saving costs, reducing negative environmental effects, enhancing patron experience, and improving accessibility.

NYSCA produces Set in Motion,a week-long festival of 59 films and tapes at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, representative of the 1500+ films and videotapes supported by NYSCA since the 60s

Members of Image Union on the set of The Five-Day Bicycle Race, 1976, A NYSCA-supported film featured at the Set in Motion festival.

New York State Task Force on “Partnerships in Dance” is founded, dedicated to increasing the level of dance activity around the state and remaining active today as the NYS DanceForce

NYSCA's commitment to dance statewide continues today through the New York State DanceForce, which brings teaching and performanceresidencies by a diverse range of the state's finest companies to upstate communities. Pictured is Tango Fire, a 2017-18 resident company that will perform in the Capital Region.

NYSCA collaborates with the State Education Department to create Empire State Partnership Project, a strategic plan for raising standards for all students, integrating the arts

Multigravitational Aerodance Group conducts movement workshops with 3rd graders from P.S. 19 in Manhattan. Photo by Joel Gordon

National Book Award winner Mary Ann Hoberman spent four days with third graders and their parents at P.S. 115 in Washington Heights. Photo by Meg Kearney.

Platt Byard Dovell Architects designed the Selwyn Studio Buildding in collaboration with lighting designer Anne Militello, funded in part by a large Architecture + Design grant. Converted from an office building, the 84,000-square-foot space was designed to include 14 studios, a 199-seat theatre and nonprofit offices in the heart of Times Square. Renderings by Sean Daly featured in Changing Places.

NYSCA leads the Black Theatre Initiative, a Convening Regarding the Current State of Black Theatres, in NYC with guest panelists from major Black theatres from five other states

NYSCA’s Visual Arts Program spearheads the creation of the New York State Artist Workspace Consortium, a networked peer group of 10 organizations that share and promote the purpose of providing workspaces to create new work and dialogue.

Artist Megan Michalak in her Smack Mellon studio, a participating organization in the New York State Artist Workspace Consortium.

Luzerne Music Center Senior Session Brass Quintet and their coach Beth Graham in Lake Luzerne. Photo by Inner Mountain Photography. LMC, a NYSCA Stabilization Grantee in FY2008, receives support through NYSCA's Music Program 10 years later.

NYSCA initiates Cultural Blueprints sessions across the state. These sessions built upon the Empire State Development Corporation’s Regional Blueprints to identify regional and statewide arts-based growth strategies, still active today through the REDC initiative.

NYSCA distributes $399,900 of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) economic stimulus funds through the National Endowment for the Arts to save jobs of employees with significant impact to the surrounding arts and cultural community threatened due to the economic downturn

Battery Dance Festival, a NYSCA Stimulus grantee in FY2010, continues to receive funding in 2018. Photo by Darial Sneed.

NYSCA Celebrates its 50th anniversary; NY Arts Coalition creates “50 Years, 50 Stories” Video Collection

NYSCA begins participation in the Regional Economic Development Council Program along with other New York State agencies to support projects placing arts at the center of growth

NYSCA awarded theBardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie REDC fundingto create the 4 Seasons of the Hudson Valley Festival featuring music, theater, comedy, visual arts, food, fireworks, and a parade in collaboration with local governments, hotels, restaurants, historic sites and parks, libraries, artistsand cultural organizations.

NYSCA establishes the REDC Digital Film Projector Conversion Program as Hollywood announces it will no longer distribute celluloid formats

NYSCA awarded the Little Theatre in RochesterREDC funding toupgrade its historic cinema with a digital film projector, acoustic upgrades, and a new digital sound system and screen. These improvements were made to createuniversal accessibility, improved layouts, reduced maintenance costs and the highest quality film experience. The presence of the theater in the east end of downtown Rochester has helped focus and nurture the redevelopment of the neighborhood.

NYSCA’s Music and Arts Education Programs host the first of three Diversifying Orchestral Music convenings, leading to the creation of REDC workforce investment opportunities for members of communities underrepresented in the arts

As one of the first recipients of a REDC Fellowship for Members of Underrepresented Communities, the Orchestra of St. Luke's hiredCommunity Liaison Fellow Kristina Teuschler to support the organization’s diversity and community engagement initiatives.

Since 1985, more than 4,000 artists have received unrestricted support through the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, funded by NYSCA and administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Alumni include Spike Lee, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Lynn Nottage, Julie Taymor and Billy Collins.

NYSCA awarded the Albany Symphony Orchestra REDC funding to support Water Music NY, in partnership with fellow state agencies Empire State Development, I Love NY and the NYS Canals Commission. A 7-city tour of canalside concerts presented in partnership with local artists and food and drink vendors, Water Music New York attracted 23,000 audience members and will be expanded in 2018.