By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – Cultural and state elected leaders met at Kleinhans Tuesday to hash out an arts agenda for the region that could help attract state funding.
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Western New York is known around the country as a leader in the arts. But it is only one of many highly regarded arts communities in the state. And that puts it in competition for dwindling state funding. Fourth District State Assemblyman Steven Englebright chairs the committee on arts and tourism. This was the downstate assemblyman's first chance to check out some of Buffalo's cultural treasures. Englebright said capitalizing on those treasures should be a priority for the state.
Englebright and several Western New York assembly members and senators told cultural leaders how their committees decide where the money goes. New opportunities for funding also exist, such as the recently bolstered State Rehabilitation Tax Credit for historic restorations. Celeste Lawson heads the Buffalo and Erie County Arts Council. She said many cultural leaders don't even realize there are multiple state committees making funding decisions.
Lawson added that local cultural organizations need to make sure they are only competing with other regions for funding -not with each other.
Three organizations in Western New York recently were awarded some additional federal funding. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Just Buffalo Literary Center and CEPA will get a combined $100,000 in federal stimulus funds through the National Endowment for the Arts to help preserve local jobs in the arts.