CRC April Newsletter

We thought we'd check in to see how a couple of the projects are going for 2010 DEC Grant Recipients.

What are DEC Grants?
Decentralization (DEC) grants, through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), foster the continuing development of local cultural resources that reflect communities' needs. CRC distributes NYSCA funds throughout Onondaga, Cortland, and Oswego Counties to ensure the vitality and diversity of the art and cultural scene in Central New York (CNY). Funded programs cover a wide range of art and cultural venues including concerts, theatrical performances, music, crafts and drawing classes, poetry, sculpture, museum exhibitions, festivals, and much more. DEC grants seek to give local groups assistance in providing artistic programming to their own neighborhoods.

The Great Central Depot i n the Open City is a new media public art project that explores the resonances of local abolitionist histories in contemporary society.

This project will result in the creation of monumental-sized early cinematography devices to project and animate a community dialogue about Syracuse's abolition past as it relates to contemporary social conditions in the city.

Three weeks will be spent developing the project in a storefront workshop in downtown Syracuse, open to the public. In addition to building the elements for a large scale public event, meetings and workshops will be held in the storefront with local community groups and organizations working on contemporary issues of social justice. This project will culminate in a one night, community event.

Open City Workshop May 17 - June 4, 2010 held at
XL Projects, 307 Clinton Street, Syracuse, NY

Outdoor Event weekend of June 4, 2010 held at
Lipe Art Park on Fayette & Seneca Streets, Syracuse, NY

Partners for this project include the Community Folk Art Center, The Matilda Joslyn Gage Home and the Art School in the Art School.

"Family 9: Vincent Sgambati, Mona Sgambati, and Jack Stevens," photo by Ellen M. Blalock

The CNY Pride Family Project is a portrait of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) families in Central New York communities. This will be a multimedia exhibition including video, photographs, writings and audio.

The first exhibition will be installed at ArtRage Gallery, 505 Hawley Avenue in Syracuse, New York during the month of June 2011.

In 2007 Ellen M. Blalock collaborated with Light Work and LGBT Association at Syracuse University on a campus exhibition of CNY Pride Families. Although Love Makes A Family was exhibited at Syracuse University a year prior, CNY Pride Families exhibition was important because it put a local face on the LGBT families. Some families only included domestic partners, some included children, ex-partners, grandparents and pets. Some writings were done by children explaining what it is like to have two moms. Some partners included the vows from their union ceremony. The process of making these portraits turned into a celebration of families, to show and share the love, their strength and their togetherness.

The current project includes more families, more diversity, video, and audio.