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CAP was founded in 1990 to act as an advocate for the arts, serve the public by providing services and resources for county artists and arts organizations, and encourage collaboration among arts, education, business, civic and government organizations.Learn more

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CAP Awards 2010 Artist Fellowships

January 4th, 2011

Five local artists received $1,000 each as part of the Community Arts Partnership's 2010 Fellowships for Artists program.   CAP awards these special grants annually to Tompkins County artists to help advance their careers. A grant panel of artists and community members reviewed applications from more than 35 artists of all disciplines, finally deciding to award the fellowships to the following five local talents: Melanie Dryer (theatre artist), Katharyn Howd Machan (poet), Sue Perlgut (filmmaker), Lin Price (painter), and Ann Reichlin (sculptor/installation artist).

The awards continue CAP's tradition of offering services, programs, and grants that support the arts. According to Brett Bossard, Executive Director of CAP, the fellowship program exemplifies the arts council's commitment to honoring the individuals that make up Tompkins County's vibrant arts community: "These modest awards help remind our community that, unlike the natural resources that provide the region's scenic beauty, it's the very human resources of talented men and women that make our community such a hub for the arts."

In addition to the financial value of the award, fellowship recipient Katharyn Howd Machan finds the moral support the grant provided to be equally important. "This...grant that will help me to focus even more closely on my manuscript-in-progress of fairy tale poems, Gingerbread," says Machan.  "Knowing others find merit in the project is deeply encouraging!"

Like Machan, many of the grantees will be using their fellowship directly toward the creation of new work in the coming year. Melanie Dryer finds particular inspiration in the award. "The CAP grant not only provides much needed financial support, but also encourages me to continue trying new ideas in the theatre," says Dryer. "I will be taking this theatre piece to New York City and to Istanbul, Turkey.  But it will originate here, and I am proud to contribute to the spirit of innovation that is a strong part of the artistic community in Ithaca."

The fellowship awards are one of five grant programs administered by the Community Arts Partnership in 2010. Others included the New York State Council on the Arts funded Grants for Arts Programs (formerly "Decentralization"), Artists in Community (formerly CAP II), and Arts-in-Education grants, as well as the Tompkins County Tourism Program's Arts/Cultural Organization Development Grants. The 2010 grant disbursement from these five programs totaled more than $220,000.