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