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CAP was founded in 1990 to act as an advocate for the arts, serve the public by providing services and resources for county artists and arts organizations, and encourage collaboration among arts, education, business, civic and government organizations.Learn more
Published: June 6, 2010
The Community Arts Partnership was founded in 1990 to act as an advocate for the arts, serve the public by providing services and resources for county artists and arts organizations, and encourage collaboration among arts, education, business, civic and government organizations.
Nearly 20 years later, Tompkins County's arts council continues to act as one of the driving forces behind the vibrant arts community that makes Ithaca and our surrounding towns and villages a jewel of the Finger Lakes. CAP's mission ensures "Arts for Life" in Tompkins County, through:
Since 1992, more than $2 million in grant funding has been administered through CAP into the hands of artists, arts organizations, and community projects, bringing the arts more fully into the daily lives of the citizens of Tompkins County.
The Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, Inc. was incorporated as a New York State not-for-profit corporation on November 9, 1990 following an 18-month effort to create a new arts council after the demise of the predecessor organization, the Arts Council for Tompkins County, in the spring of 1989.
The effort was organized as the Community Arts Coalition and was spearheaded by Ray Van Houtte - President of the Tompkins Trust Company, Tom Niederkorn and Andrea Clardy - members of the Hangar Theatre Board, Mary Kane Trochim - then Director of the Community School of Music and Arts, Loralyn Light of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Carol True Palmer - then Managing Director of the Hangar Theatre and numerous arts enthusiasts and community volunteers drawn from business, government and the arts. Coordinating the Coalition's efforts was CAP's first executive director, Richard Driscoll.
A central function of the Coalition was to conduct an assessment of the community to determine if a new arts council was needed, how it would be supported and by whom, and what services/programs it would provide. An extensive series of surveys, meetings, and one on one conversations were held over that time and indeed it was evident that a new arts council was in order. It would be a service agency assisting existing, new and emerging arts organizations and providing services and programs appropriate to the artists community. The new arts council would not duplicate nor engage in competitive programming. It would be supported financially by the business community with commitments of significant support from founding Capstone Partner businesses as well as commitments from the City of Ithaca, Tompkins County government and the New York State Council on the Arts. The name of the new organization encapsulates its mission placing the arts at the center, the community as the lead interest and with partnership as the approach by which the mission is achieved.
For much of its early history, CAP resided with a number of the community's arts organizations on the first floor of the historic Clinton House, a restored 19th century grand hotel just a block from the Ithaca Commons. The Hangar Theatre's administrative offices, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Kitchen Theatre, the Ticket Center and, for a time, the Ithaca Opera, all shared space at the Clinton House beginning in 1995.
As organizations grew, use of the historic structure became increasingly difficult to manage, and, after a new group of owners purchased the building from Historic Ithaca (it's rescuer and caretaker since the 1970s), CAP joined the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Hangar Theatre, Ticket Center and Downtown Visitor Center at our current home inside Center Ithaca, at the heart of downtown.
