Ancram Center receives $50k grant to expand

Ancram Center receives $50k grant to expand

Rendering of the renovated Annex at Ancram Center for the Arts.

Provided

Ancram Center for the Arts in Ancram, N.Y., has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to support the renovation and expansion of its facilities. This grant is part of a larger NYSCA initiative, which is distributing over $32 million to 102 capital projects throughout New York State.

The funding will be used to renovate a recently acquired adjacent building, known as The Annex. The Annex will provide accommodations for theater staff and a community room for the Center’s free classes and workshops. Additionally, the space will be available to other local groups for meetings and small gatherings.

Said Jeffrey Mousseau, co-director of The Ancram Center, “We acquired this house next to us, so we were literally expanding our footprint to include this new building and in a way, creating a min-campus.” In 2023, The Ancram Center produced 90 events, including theatrical productions, concerts, and workshops, serving approximately 1,700 individuals. This grant will help them expand not only their current space, but also the continuation of their mission to bring innovative, contemporary theater and community programs to Ancram.

The Ancram Center is optimistic that The Annex will be complete by this time next year. The 2024 Season starts Saturday, June 1 with a family-friendly open house.

For more information about the Ancram Center for the Arts, visit www.ancramcenter.org. To learn more about the New York State Council on the Arts, visit www.arts.ny.gov.

An interior rendering of the renovated Annex.Provided

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.

Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Matter and memory: The mixed media art of Sophie Eisner

Sophie Eisner in her studio in Kingston, New York.

Hannah Vaughan

Sophie Eisner is a mixed media artist working in steel, fabric, concrete, silicone and other materials. Her solo show “Holding Patterns” at the Norfolk Library will be on view through July 1.

Thematically, “Holding Patterns” explores the energy of potential and how the human body holds emotional experience. Her work often depicts empty vessels and uses negative space to explore tension between objects.

Keep ReadingShow less