Providing grants, programs, and services to the artists and audiences of Tompkins County for 30 years

Grantee Features

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posted 1/26/26

"Play it Again Sam" Senior Theatre Troupe  

The Play it Again Sam Theatre Troupe has been a CAP grant recipient for many years! A program of Lifelong in downtown Ithaca and led by retired ICSD teacher Susan Kaplan, the group includes area seniors that come together to develop well rehearsed and entertaining theatre in choral-reading style, often based on their life experiences with a theme of their choosing. The group performs multiple times each year, including our own Spring Writes Literary Festival! Visit SpringWrites.org to find a recording of their 2025 performance. And visit contact Lifelong to find out how to join! 

Back row L to R: Susan Kaplan, Jean Senegas, Emily Johnson, Mark Silverman, Valerie Evans. Front row L ro R: John Buskin, Deirdre Silverman, Patricia Frazier. Missing: Meg Doherty, Sam Swartz

CAP's "Grants for Arts Programs" (GAP Grant) supports artistic programs open to the Tompkins County general public. New York State Council on the Arts provides these funds statewide to make exemplary arts programming available to geographically, ethnically, and racially diverse segments of the State's population.

 

posted January 1, 2025

BJM Elementary “Look Club” at State of the Art Gallery

CAP's Grants for Arts Programs supports artistic programs open to the Tompkins County general public. New York State Council on the Arts provides these funds statewide to makes exemplary arts programming available to geographically, ethnically, and racially diverse segments of the State's population.

The State of the Art Gallery (SOAG) is a long time recipient of GAP! Operated by over 25 artist members who staff and run the gallery, they host monthly exhibits, workshops, and events to bring people to the gallery to enjoy and talk about art.

One of the Gallery's outreach projects this year focuses on the students at Beverly J. Martin elementary school. Katrina Morse, gallery member, has worked with the BJM art teacher, Kate Praisner, to design a program for all the students at the school.

Katrina facilitates a "Look Club" for the classes, using whatever art is in the gallery at the classes' visits. There is so much the students learn on a visit, with primary goals being to encourage opinions about art and create a welcoming environment in the gallery so the students come back with their adults!

Additionally, the 5th grader will have an art show of their portraits for parents and gallery members. Along with displaying their work, the students will be reading "I am" poems and there will be a student group playing music. This is very impactful for the children, first visiting the gallery and then having their work there! They are so proud!

Adults can also take part in a Look Club! Gallery Members Patty Brown and Carol Spence join Katrina Morse at the gallery every second Sunday, 2–3 to look at the artwork on display. The next meeting will be on January 11. Learn about different types of artwork and how to talk about art. What do you see? How does it resonate with you?

CAP is thrilled to support amazing arts activities like these in our communities.

 

 

Ithaca City of Asylum & Pedro X. Molina 

Ithaca City of Asylum presents Voices of Freedom on Dec. 4th, featuring Pedro X. Molina.

CAP's "GAP" grant support artistic programs open to the Tompkins County general public. The New York State Council on the Arts provides these funds statewide to makes exemplary arts programming available to geographically, ethnically, and racially diverse segments of the State's population.

Ithaca City of Asylum is a long time GAP grantee. They invite the community to attend Voices of Freedom, their annual event recognizing artists who continue to create despite persecution. This year they are celebrating the publication of a graphic novel by former ICOA artist-in-residence Pedro X. Molina. Hitos de la Democracia (Milestones of Latin American Democracy), is being published in December by the United Nations Development Programme. 

This U.N. program produces an annual report about democracy, usually papers from specialists; but this year, Molina says, they wanted to bring information to the general public, especially young people. His graphic novel is one of three in the current project; the others cover Mexico and El Salvador.

Molina will speak about the development of his graphic novel, including the preparatory work and creative process. He’ll project images from the work and provide translation of the Spanish captions. (Versions in English, French, and Portuguese are forthcoming.)

“From working on this project,” Molina says, “I realized that if you’re waiting for the ideal movement or a magical leader, history teaches you that in fact it’s the work of community – getting together toward a common goal – that’s the most important for change to happen.”

A political cartoonist focusing on Nicaragua and Latin American, Molina publishes regularly for the independent news site Confidencial. His work is also published in CounterPoint and on the cartoon website Tinyview. His cartoons are in syndication with Tribune Content Agency, which distributes them throughout the US.

Thursday, December 4, at 5:45 p.m
BorgWarner Room, Tompkins County Public Library
101 E. Green St., Ithaca

Free and open to the public. Refreshments served

 

posted October 28, 2025

Latino Civic Assocation - Spanish Puppet Shows! 

The Community Arts Partnership is happy to support organizations like the Latino Civic Association (LCA) through our Grants for Arts Programs (GAP).

LCA has received annual funding through GAP for the Heritage Month Celebrations and Heritage Fiesta. In 2025 they also sponsored a grant to host Spanish puppet shows by artists Leonor Lypszic (pictured), and LilySilly Puppets.

The GAP grant supports artistic programs open to the Tompkins County general public. It is through grants like the GAP grant that CAP helps keep Ithaca’s art scene vital!

Leonor is a professional Argentinian puppeteer, dancer, and actress and has been an artist for over 40 years. Her most recent project is the theater company “Los Salvatierras” (The Earth-savers). Her show, “Pedro and the Odyssey of the Parana," has won many awards and nominations from Argentinian entities, and now Leonor is adventuring into international spaces to keep sharing her art with a wider audience!

Leonor brought the story of Pedro, a character that came to life out of her giant book, to Ithaca in mid-October. Pedro has playful moments in his garden with a lama and a bunny, then took on the tale of Ulysses on the Parana River. In the midst of a terrible storm, Ulysses fell under the enchantment of three singing frogs, was attacked by a monstrous one-eyed fish, and was rescued by an unlikely hero.

LCA also hosted local puppeteers from the LilySilly Puppet Theater, who performed one of their well-loved shows, “Wanda and the Three Magic Potions,” for a full afternoon of puppet presentations. Loreto Molina and Eva Luna translated the LilySilly show into Spanish and provided their puppeteers with a script.

Hispanics make up 6.5% of the total population of Tompkins County, yet there is a lack of representation for arts programs for youth. These shows were directly targeted to the Spanish-speaking community and Hispanic youth, to bridge that gap during Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Visit https://www.lcatompkins.org/

 

posted July 27, 2025

Artist Annie Sheng

The Community Arts Partnership is thrilled to support artists like Annie Sheng through our Artist in Community Grant (AICG). The AICG grant is a program of New York State Council on the Arts "Statewide Community Regrants," and gives Tompkins County artists the opportunity to share their work in an immersive way with a local community of their choosing. It is through grants like this that CAP is able to keep Ithaca’s vibrant art scene alive.

Annie Sheng is a visual artist, martial artist, and speculative fiction writer. Her visual art includes acrylic painting, watercolor, and sumi ink on canvas or watercolor paper. She also works in ceramics and mixed media. Her work is speculative and narrative in nature and draws from her identity as a person of Asian heritage and her anthropological background (Ph.D. Anthropology, Cornell University, 2022).

She received AICG funding to create eight large-scale paintings in the form of Kokeshi portraits (Japanese traditional wooden doll crafts), drawing inspiration from interviews with community members, mostly BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ populations. She will also paint eight wooden dolls, drawing from the same interviews.

She is hosting two events, where people of all ages can create Kokeshi dolls at the Lansing Community Library. Come to the library on Saturday, Nov 8th and Nov 15th, 11 am-12:30 pm to create and learn.

"The reason I want to paint kokeshi is because I want to highlight this Asian art form and bring more attention to local Asian-style arts while simultaneously drawing from historically marginalized local community members to bring their portraits to life in modern depictions of this traditional craft."

-Annie Sheng (Multifaceted Artist)