SCRANTON — Lackawanna County Commissioners Patrick M. O’Malley, Jerry Notarianni and Laureen A. Cummings announced the 2016 arts and culture organizations and individuals who received grant support for their various community projects, events and activities.

Financial assistance was awarded in two forms: program stream grants and community project grants. The program stream grants are larger awards to arts and cultural non-profits who receive a yearly allocation from the Lackawanna County Arts and Culture Department. Their operations are reviewed every other year to gauge need, their projects and general growth. Community project grants are one-time disbursements for a specific activity administered by an organization or individual. Applicants may reapply every October for this form of funding.

The amount awarded for 32 program grants this year was $211,700. The total for 23 project grants was $50,113.

The applications for both revenue streams are reviewed and scored by a panel to help determine if the programs, projects or activities should be funded. Both grant programs are modeled after the process that The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts utilizes.

The financial resources for the grants come from the Arts, Education and Culture tax, which is assessed annually at a rate of approximately 1.0 mill.

Also at the Jan. 27 awards ceremony, the County’s Arts and Culture Department and the Pocono Arts Council recognized the Pennsylvania Arts Council’s “Partners in the Arts” Project Stream Award recipients from the region.

• Local anchor institutions that received their annual education/arts and culture allocation of $240,000 each include:

The Scranton Public Library

The Everhart Museum

The Scranton Cultural Center

• The 2016 program stream grant recipients include:

The Abington Business and Professional Association Festival of Ice, $4,000

Actor’s Circle, $7,000

Anthracite Heritage Museum and Iron Furnaces, $7,000

Arcadia Chorale, $3,000

Artists for Art Gallery, $6,000

Ballet Theatre of Scranton, $7,000

Boys and Girls Club of NEPA, $5,000

Broadway Theatre League, $15,000

Catholic Choral Society, $3,000

Choral Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania, $3,500

City of Carbondale Pioneer Heritage Festival, $4,000

Classical Guitar Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania, $1,200

Electric City Television, $25,000

First Friday Scranton, $5,000

La Festa Italiana, $7,000

Lackawanna All County High School Band, $1,000

Lackawanna Historical Society, $20,000

Lackawanna River Corridor Association River Fest, $2,500

Lackawanna Heritage Valley Heritage Explorer and Santa Train, $1,000

Lyric Consor, $3,000

Mostly Opera, $1,500

N.E.I.U. No. 19 Poetry Out Loud Program, $1,000

North Pocono Cultural Society, $2,500

Scranton Civic Ballet, $7,000

Scranton Jazz Festival, $6,000

Scranton Music Association, $3,000

Scranton Public Theatre, $3,500

Scranton Shakespeare Festival, $6,000

St. Patrick’s Day Parade Association, $6,000

St. Ubaldo Festival, $6,000

The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, $16,000

United Neighborhood Centers of NEPA Project Hope and Shutter Bug Photography Program, $23,000

• The individuals and organizations receiving 2016 community project grants include:

Margo Azzarelli, $1,500

Jeffrey Boam, $2,550

Lisa A. Cassella, $2,550

Covenant Public Concerts, $2,550

Lucia Daily, $2,550

Shirley Eagen, $1,500

Tim Farrell, $2,550

First Presbyterian Church, $2,125

Friends of the Arc Auxiliary, $3,000

Ghostlight Theatre Productions, $3,000

K.K. Gordon, $1,071

Rosemary Hay, $2,120

Camp Create, $2,100

Pop Up Studio, $1,500

Ringgold Pops of Scranton, $1,800

Scranton Fringe Festival, $2,700

Ihor Shablovsky, $2,550

Doug Smith – $2,100

Voluntary Action Center of NEPA, $1,785

Wally Gordon Community Singers, $1, 012

Waverly Community House, $3,000

Michelle Wheeler, $1,500

West Scranton Hyde Park Neighborhood Watch, $3,000

For Abington Journal

Information provided by Lackawanna County Communications.