Local artists have been asking city and county governments for support for a long time— and after decades of touting Rochester as a ‘city of the arts,’ both Monroe County and city hall have recently made tangible moves toward making Rochester a city for the arts.
In October, Monroe County Exec. Adam Bello penned a proposal to the county legislature for an “Intermunicipal Agreement” with the City of Rochester to support the development of an arts and cultural plan that may give regional artists and art organizations a more reliable annual source of support — or at least, steadier than it has been in recent memory.
That proposal originated from the city’s Rochester 2034 Comprehensive Plan, pushed forward by efforts of city hall’s inter-departmental City Arts Team and its Arts & Creative Community Committee, an advisory board made up of local artists and representatives from arts organizations. The city of Rochester is the lead developer of this Arts & Culture Plan, the primary funder behind the project, and reached out to Monroe County to gauge interest in participating.
The city has set aside $125,000 for the project, and secured additional funding in the form of grants from the Rochester Area Community Foundation ($20,000) and the Farash Foundation ($30,000). Monroe County has agreed to pony up $25,000, to help fund a “landscape analysis of the arts in the county, define the vision and goals for the arts community, create a cultural equity policy, and define strategies for implementation,” according to Bello’s letter. The plan will also create a public art master plan within the city.
CITY’s contact at city hall said that the aforementioned funds will be used to hire a consultant team that specializes in developing arts and culture plans.
Bello’s office wasn’t immediately available for comment.
If the county legislature approves the proposal, the county will select a consultant and seek approval from the city council in December. If green-lighted, Bello anticipates the analysis work will begin in January 2024 and take 12 – 18 months to complete.
This is the latest attempt from local governments to help assuage the dearth of support for artists in the region. Following a collective outcry from artists and arts organizations as well as media reports that unpacked Monroe County’s pitiful arts funding compared to peer counties; in 2022, the county expanded both its eligibility requirements and resources for funding small to mid-sized arts organizations. It invited these groups to apply for grants through an online portal with $500,000 dedicated to the cause. In 2023, the funding was expanded to $900,000.
This past September, the City of Rochester awarded $100,000 total in grants to local artists and arts organizations through ArtsBloom, a new project-based funding initiative to assist arts education, the performing arts, and temporary arts programming in Rochester. It’s funded through the city’s Percent for the Arts program.
Six projects were selected from more than 50 applicants, with $20,000 each going to four: The Avenue Blackbox Theatre to co-sponsor (with Monroe County) its fifth production season, Borinquen Dance Theater for performances and a Juneteenth celebration, The Flower City Arts Center to develop an entrepreneurial focus for its Expanding the Field youth program, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for its Orchestral Program for Urban Students.
Two ArtsBloom grants of $10,000 each were awarded to the “In This Moment: Revolution Reckoning Reparation” project to produce issues of its chapbook, and to Revelation Rochester Art Center, run by artist Richmond Futch, Jr., for year-round classes serving guests of the House of Mercy and St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality. Funding the work of Revelation Rochester Art Center also helps expand access to benefits of arts engagement to Rochesterians who otherwise may have no entry point.
“I basically supply a safe environment and time for relaxation and reflection, and to form a therapeutic perspective where they can relax, forget about the troubles and the challenges outside of that room that they go through every day,” Futch said of the weekly art sessions he runs at each shelter. “ArtsBloom acknowledged what I’ve been doing for about 12 years now, and said they want to help me do this.”
Futch added that the grant money will help support the purchase of arts supplies and launch an exhibition of work next summer by the art session participants.
The ArtsBloom grant has also provided “In This Moment” with the seed funding needed to produce the project’s third volume, said co-creator and artist Amanda Chestnut in a provided statement. The chapbook series spotlights Black leaders in Rochester across many fields of work, and the project hires teams of Black writers and photographers to profile the subject of each book.
“There were so many deserving candidates for this funding,” Chestnut said. “I hope that the success of this grant cycle demonstrates the talent and artistic vision in this city.”
Proposals for the next round of ArtsBloom funding will be solicited in January 2024 for programming happening from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
While more support for artists and arts organizations is certainly needed, these measures, with the added likelihood of a city-county alliance for an arts and cultural plan, are promising.
Rebecca Rafferty is an arts writer at CITY/WXXI. She can be reached at becca@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2023.
