Providing grants, programs, and services to the artists and audiences of Tompkins County for 30 years

Latest Grantees

Creative Recovery Fund

Bree Barton

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: Bree Barton believes sharing stories helps us feel less alone. Storytelling is especially needed amongst today’s youth who are facing unprecedented rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal behaviors. Barton is working on an audio-visual installation in which 10 youth give voice to their personal mental health struggles. The result will then be shared publicly in an exhibit space, so that the community of Tompkins County can engage with the work and further discuss the topic of mental health. A CRF grant is being used to help fund the project titled: Naming the Unnamable, as well as helping pay the young artists for their contribution.

The Cherry Arts

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: The Cherry Arts is hosting a series of community-based workshops to develop the text, performance, and puppetry that will make up the a collaborative performance with the Hangar Theatre of "An Odyssey." The overarching story follows the Ithaca Community during the trials and tribulations of the pandemic. The production will be both a literal and metaphoric return to Ithaca for the arts. A Community Relief Fund Grant was contributed to pay for community actors.
  • website: https://www.thecherry.org/

Circus Culture

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: Circus Culture and Village at Ithaca bring Village Circus to Ithaca. This program began in 2020 and has since continued to serve BIPOC students from Tompkins County nurturing their self-expression through the circus arts. In 2022 and 2023 Village Circus will hire two professional BIPOC artist teachers—Tyshaun Thomas and Shekinah Williams— to serve as educators and role models for the Village Circus youth. A CRF grant will be used to help fund the teaching program for the Village at Ithaca.
  • website: http://www.circusculture.org/

Civic Ensemble

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: Civic Ensemble will host “Community Soup: Storytelling toward the Beloved Community,” this coming fall. This event started back in 2018 in response to Civic Ensemble’s audience members voicing their concerns around feeling isolated in the Ithaca area. The event—a celebration of culture, history, and the stories of local community members—is open to the general public. A CRF grant will be used to help fund the costs of the event.
  • website: https://www.civicensemble.org/

Civic Ensemble

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: The Civic Ensemble and the ReEntry Theatre program are putting on a full production of Delia Divided. The play covers a variety of topics, including the foster care system, the criminal justice system, and mental illness. The play was developed by the ReEntry Program which is comprised of formerly incarcerated individuals. A past reading of Delia Divided was funded by a GAP Grant and the full production will be partially funded by a Creative Recovery Fund Grant.
  • website: https://www.civicensemble.org/

Civic Ensemble with Village at Ithaca

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: The Civic Ensemble is collaborating with Village at Ithaca to host a five-week theatre program for students in Village at Ithaca’s summer program. The program explores self-expression and creating conversations about issues that matter to the students. Many of the students are low-income and would not otherwise be able to participate in theatre programming. A Creative Recovery Fund Grant helped to make this program happen.
  • website: https://www.civicensemble.org/

Clockmaker Arts

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: a new folk pop musical written and performed by Carley Robinson and Elizabeth Seldin of Clockmaker Arts, will be performed at the State Theatre on October 10th, 2021. The play incorporates music, rhythmic dance, body percussion and plenty of theater magic in a deeply moving script that explores themes of racial equity, grief, and community healing.
  • website: https://www.clockmakerarts.com/

CUMEP

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: CUMEP is a 19-year-old program that educates multigenerational artists and activists in multicultural performing arts and human rights. For the next two years Resana Malone, videographer, will be capturing the joy that the Community Music Education Program brings to our city and surrounding communities. The CRF grant will fund the technical equipment needed to document CUMEP’s amazing work. Some of what CUMEP continues to offer the community includes: youth performance camps, workshops, lessons, classroom or school-wide presentations, and teacher consultation. The web link is a video sample of how Resana plans to illustrate CUMEP’s service to the community: Chasing the Dream: Southside Community Center- CUMEP
  • website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz2PP00XtuQ

Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: DCJS is a community-based chorus dedicated to preserving the Negro Spiritual. In their concerts of music of the African American tradition they promote racial justice and equity. Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers are producing the third installment in a series of musical compositions celebrating US Rep. John Lewis, Dr. Dorothy Cotton, and others for their promotion of racial equity and racial justice. The CRF grant will be used to commission Stan Spotswood, renowned African American composer, to compose the third song of the series titled: Good Trouble.
  • website: https://www.dorothycottonjubileesingers.org/

Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: Following the death of US Rep. John Lewis, The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS) engaged renowned composer Stan Spottswood to begin creating a major musical composition for four-part mixed voice chorus and orchestra to celebrate Rep. Lewis, Dr. Dorothy Cotton, and so many others for their promotion of racial justice. This grant is for further development and payment to Spottswood for another section of the larger work. In its final version, performed in the Fall of 2022, “Good Trouble” will feature the DCJS adult chorus, the Dorothy Cotton Youth Singers, and an orchestra of instrumentalists from the Tompkins County community.
  • website: https://www.dorothycottonjubileesingers.org/

Peaches Gillette

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: Peaches Gillette is hosting a series of race-related writing workshops entitled We Will No Longer Hide. The workshops aim to deconstruct racism on a systematic level, revealing how people's thoughts and behaviors can be influenced by institutions. Participants will be asked to write about their own experiences with racism and reflect on them with the group. A CRF Grant will be used to help fund the workshops.

Greater Ithaca Activities Center

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: Greater Ithaca Activities Center hosted the Black History Month Talent Show. This event showcases Black and/or indigenous artists of color. Performances will highlight black facts related to racial justice advocates throughout history and present day.

Greater Ithaca Activities Center

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: CRF will be used to provide payment to black, indigenous or artists of color performing for a community-focused arts addition to GIAC’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast, celebrating his work in racial and social justice. In 2020, the event was held virtually with over 600 viewers either joining for the live Zoom or watching the recording that was live and for later viewing on YouTube. In 2022, GIAC’s hope is for an in-person event if the pandemic allows for it, otherwise we have proven we can put together a great show online as well. 

  • website: https://www.cityofithaca.org/327/Greater-Ithaca-Activities-Center

Greater Ithaca Activities Center

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: CRF will be used for payment for performers at the GIAC Black History Month Talent Show which focuses on celebrating the history of black, indigenous and/or people of color as performing artists. The event entertains while also bringing forward the message of racial justice advocacy and uniting the community in change toward fighting against racism. Performers include GIAC youth ages 4 through pre-teens and teens, adults who dance, sing, play instruments and who perform theatrical black facts taking on the performance from the perspective of the person they are sharing facts about. 

  • website: https://www.cityofithaca.org/327/Greater-Ithaca-Activities-Center

Sarah Gotowka

  • Luna Fiber Studio
  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: Fermentation & Appropriation: A Book on Kim-Chi is a joint project of Luna Fiber Studio artists, led by Sarah Gotowka and the Youth Farm Project. The 10 page color illustrated book will focus not only on the traditional Korean method of fermenting cabbage, but will educate on the complexities of cultural appropriation and its intersections with systemic racism. The CRF will pay for 200 copies of the book and help pay illustrator and artists InShik Lee and Sarah Gotowka.
  • website: http://www.lunafiberstudio.com/

Mama's Comfort Camp

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: Mamas Comfort Camp will be creating a short film featuring conversations with Mothers of Color about the challenges of finding and receiving support. The film will be titled, Helpful Help. The organization mission is to normalize the struggles of motherhood, facilitate the asking and receiving of help, and give voice to parents to influence policy making on racial and social justice. There will be local screenings in collaboration with GIAC, Southside Community Center, and the Multicultural Resource Center. The CRF grant will go towards film production and paying the mothers for their contribution.
  • website: https://motherup.org/

No Mas Lagrimas

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: While the original funded request was for summer art workshops for local latino youth, No Mas Lagrimas | Voices of Youth has decided to suspend in-door program activities as a response to recent surges in Covid-19 infections within Tompkins County. They will re-direct its activities and resources to the community's critical needs by holding cultural showcases during outdoor food distributions. Local artists and enthusiasts will be invited to showcase cultural artifacts of Hispanic/ LatinX origin at the NML headquarters park. Whether it is a musical performance, "manualidades" (crafts), or even storytelling, Voices of Youth believes a cultural exchange during distribution will both increase attendance, attract new community members but also promote a dire service during this difficult time. =
  • website: https://nmlagrimas.wordpress.com/

OAR of Tompkins County

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: OAR of Tompkins County is hosting a mural walk with Endeavor House and the Sunflower Houses programs. These programs help community members that are returning from incarceration or have been incarcerated with housing and supportive systems. The aim of the mural walk, organized by local artist Caleb Thomas, is to help program members feel more included in the community socially. The CRF grant will go towards Caleb’s artistic personnel and effort for organizing the project.
  • website: https://www.oartompkins.org/

Story House Ithaca

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: Lifting the Cloud is a series of events related to storytelling and mental health. The program will host a documentary screening on the state of psychiatric care in the US, a writing workshop for those affected by mental illness, and a performance event featuring selections from the ReEntry Theatre Program’s “Delia Divided.” A Creative Recovery Fund Grant will be used to help put on these events.
  • website: http://storyhouseithaca.org

Story House Ithaca

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: Story House Ithaca will be hosting “Stages of Life,” an interracial, intergenerational playwrighting 12-week workshop beginning in fall 2022. Youth and seniors will interview each other and then write 10-minute plays based on each other's stories; The goal is to teach participants how to listen deeply. The workshop will be organized in collaboration with Village at Ithaca, CUMEP, Running to Places Theater Company, GIAC Seniors Program, and Lifelong Senior Theater Troupe. A CRF grant will be used to help fund the workshops and pay the teachers.
  • website: https://www.storyhouseithaca.org/

Village at Ithaca

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022 Village at Ithaca, exhibited their finished pieces for their ongoing project, “Our Seats for the Table” this July at the Ithaca City School District Diversity Symposium. Sarah Wolff, Program Educator, came up with the idea to transform old chairs into a symbol of empowerment detailing a complex history of oppression. The chairs serve as an accessible metaphor for reworking biased systems in the pursuit of providing, protecting, and nurturing all people or... seats at the table come to fruition. The CRF grant was used towards materials for the project and paying the Village at Ithaca youth for their artistic personnel.
  • website: http://www.villageatithaca.org

Village at Ithaca

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: for a 5-week summer metalsmithing workshop for the Village at Ithaca youth. The workshop was taught by local metalsmith and business owner Mercedes Redmoon. The program’s focus is on providing access to and opportunity in the arts to the BIPOC community. Mercedes guided students in metal forming, texturing, design and finishing each class, which allowed them to complete their own projects.
  • website: http://www.villageatithaca.org

Village At Ithaca

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2021: In Summer 2020, Village at Ithaca collaborated with Lisa Spring Orinda to make the Say Their Names Rock Garden. The art installation had hand-painted stones with the names of black and brown people killed by police. People who visited were encouraged to “take a rock, learn their stories, say their names.” A new installation of the project will be made with the help of a Creative Recovery Fund Grant.
  • website: https://villageatithaca.org/

Walking on Water Productions

  • Creative Recovery Fund
  • 2022: A CRF grant was used to help fund Walking on Water Productions summer production Now. Here. This., a contemporary musical by Hunter Bell, Susan Blackwell, and Jeff Bowen. Performances took place this past July at the Kitchen Theater. This program was designed specifically for an inclusive and multi-generational audience. The musical focused on universal themes of friendship, love, loss, growing up, and belonging.
  • website: http://www.walkingonwaterproductions.org

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