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CNY Arts Reaches Arts Impact Fundraising Goal for Onondaga County

CNY Arts Reaches Fundraising Milestone During COVID-19

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
April 21, 2021 

 

$882,733 Raised in 10 months to Help Save the Arts in CNY through the COVID-19 Arts Impact Fund

(Syracuse, New York) CNY Arts is happy to announce a major milestone for the COVID-19 Arts Impact Fund. Through a recent $100,000 grant from The Trust for Cultural Resources of the County of Onondaga (CRT), CNY Arts has officially met its per capita funding goal for Onondaga County. The CRT funding brings the total for CNY Arts COVID-19 Impact Fund to $882,733 including $188,580 of in-kind contributions and services from WSYR, M&T Bank, ASM Global, and CNY Arts, among others. 

County Executive Ryan McMahon said, “The arts are incredibly important to our local economy and the quality of life we enjoy in Onondaga County and I want to congratulate CNY Arts for achieving this important milestone.” McMahon continued, “As more and more people in our community receive the vaccine and we reclaim our lives, I encourage everyone to do what they can to support these important community assets.”

In response to the crisis facing the arts sector because of the pandemic shutdowns, CNY Arts created the COVID-19 Arts Impact Fund with the goal of raising $1 million. Ten months since the start of the campaign, CNY Arts is closing in on this goal with $882,733 raised to date. 

CNY Arts Board and staff are grateful to its community partners, including County Executive Ryan McMahon, for their role in the success of our efforts so far. CNY Arts also appreciates the challenge grants provided by The Central New York Community Foundation, The Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation, and the John Ben Snow Foundation and Memorial Trust, and all contributors who helped to support the arts over the last year. 

By the middle of April, CNY Arts will have provided $463,758 in Arts Impact Grants to more than 100 organizations and artists. This grant program is providing emergency funding for arts agencies and artists in Cayuga, Cortland, Herkimer, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego counties.

The Arts Impact Fund supports the CNY Arts resiliency, restart, reopen, and rebuild grant opportunities designed as a rapid response funding program for nonprofit arts organizations. These grants help organizations reopen, remain operational, and provide safe arts programming and education throughout the region. Funds also support artists and help create jobs locally so they will remain in our communities.

According to recent studies done by the Americans for the Arts, the arts sector has suffered great hardship with only 41% of arts organizations able to operate (on a reduced scale) and 62% of creative workers reporting drastic losses of income

Across the seven counties in Central New York, CNY Arts' research demonstrates that losses for the arts were projected at $55 million for last year alone with additional losses building in 2021 during the pandemic.

The cultural sector continues to be challenged; performance venues remain closed, while other organizations must operate on a reduced scale. CNY Arts is continuing to raise funds to meet its goals and is asking for the community’s help to get there. 

Donations can be made by mailing a check payable to:

“CNY Arts – Arts Impact Fund” to CNY Arts, John H. Mulroy Civic Center, 421 Montgomery Street, 11th floor, Syracuse, NY 13202 or online at cnycf.org/cnyartscovidimpact.

Funds can be designated to a locality, arts discipline, or category (agency, artist). Support for cultural equity, inclusion, and access is encouraged. Donations will be quickly turned around to support artists and organizations in immediate need of financial support. 

 

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About The Trust for Cultural Resources of the County of Onondaga
The CRT supports, promotes, and protects the institutions that provide cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities to the people of Onondaga County and New York State and works to improve the viability and support the growth of these organizations.

About CNY Arts, Inc.
CNY Arts' mission is to promote, support, and celebrate arts and culture in Central New York by providing support and assistance to individual artists and arts and cultural organizations through access to grants, capacity-building assistance, education and training, and promotional services.