New York State Council on the Arts
   1960 -
   New York City

Total Local Assistance Awards: $26,970,731, Media: $992,000

Total Local Assistance Awards: $29,992,082, Media: $1,075,000

Total Local Assistance Awards: $30,965,640, Media: $1,127,000

Director: John Giancola

            The Media Program at the New York State Council on the Arts was developed in 1970; during the Program's ten years of growth. New York State has gained recognition as an international center for alternative uses of television and radio and innovative trends in video, audio and multi-media. Aesthetic accomplishments in color and form have been created through electronic compositions; serious statements that challenge the control ofviewership by commercial television have been produced; television technology has been taken apart, re-designed and reconstructed to make it a more varied performance medium for the artist; societal and personal concerns have been expressed in new formats; community video has flourished; artists have turned their cameras on the other arts in order to find new ways to capture them for television; and works that address the very basis of perception itself have come out of the video field as have documentaries of professional caliber on a myriad of interesting subjects.

            During the three years of this report, the Council has directed funds to numerous areas of the media field to assist in the development of this relatively new and unique art form. In some areas, Council support appears to have been essential to its development. Because of the costs of high technology (a disadvantage offset by the tremendous audience potential of media), artist participation would perhaps have been severely limited, if not for Council support of production and post-production facilities. Through the Council's Production Program, scores of artists in audio and video have emerged to create a recognized body of work through co-producing organizations (such as public television stations and media centers). Council support of Post-Production

Facilities has helped to make possible such excellent editing and finishing facilities as the TV Lab at Channel 13 and the Sound Studios at ZBS Foundation. Council support has also been provided to Media Resource Centers such as Media Study in Buffalo, a multi-function organization where production work, exhibition, promotion, advertising and curatorship may be done under one roof.

            The Service Projects Program has supported organizations that provide video and audio arts with information, studies, distribution, publications and advocacy. Statewide service organizations include the Media Equipment Rental Service, administered by Young Filmmaker's Foundation, and the Media Bureau, administered by the Kitchen Center for Video, Music and Dance. Both organizations additionally serve as re-grant agencies for modest expenses including speakers' fees, public screenings, residencies and production. Under the Exhibition Program, the Council has supported the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen Center for Video, Music and Dance, Media Study, and Visual Studies Workshop for their enthusiastic and dedicated video departments which acquire, exhibit and study this new art form. The Chautauqua, Mid-York, Mid-Hudson, and New York Public Libraries have also developed impressive archives and exhibition programs in video for the public, and in 1978-79, the American Film Festival added video to its screening schedule with Council support. The Council's Workshop Program in video has also flourished with the small format, easy-to-use video equipment allowing a variety of artistic applications from training for the community to experimentation with dance notation.

            A newly instituted category of support, beginning in 1980-81, is Arts Programming for Television, in which video art takes another art form as its subject, thereby securing a broader audience for both.

            Council funds for media arts are disbursed across the state. But the field of media also has a special quality about its production and dissemination process that makes all media ventures typically state-wide. Media artists themselves are mobile in the electronic arts and will travel to another part of the state to work if they need equipment of certain specifications or are attracted to the access policy of a particular organization. For example, sophisticated computer editing of television tapes is available to artists primarily in the Manhattan, Central New York and Genesee Valley areas. Artists are also aware that the Capital area offers one of the finest audio laboratories, and the Experimental Television Center in Chemung Valley is well known as a place where electronic artists may re-design the electronic equipment. The work media artists produce and exhibit may be broadcast across the state or mailed as a video or audiotape to any part of the state. In this way, the media art form is constantly "on tour."

            As successfully as the media arts have developed in New York State, there remains a need in the field for greater development, access for the field itself, and stability. Networking systems for television programming need to be researched and developed, as do video laboratories for beginners and artists from other disciplines who wish to begin experimenting with the medium of television but have no access to cameras on an informal or inexpensive basis. Finally, curatorial conferences and seminars would improve the visibility of the electronic arts and nurture the growth of a body of critical literature, and therefore also of an educated audience appreciation.

Afro-American Total Theatre Arts Foundation (NYC)

 1977-78, $4,000

Ambrose Arts Foundation (NYC)

1979-80, $5,000

American Foundation on Automation and Employment Center for Non-Broadcast Television (NYC)

 1978-79, $5,000

Amigos del Museo del Barrio (NYC)

 1979-80, $4,000

Artists Television Network (NYC)

 1978-79, $21,150; 1979-80, $12,500

Asian Cine-Vision (NYC)

1977-78, $3,000; 1978-79, $4,500; 1979-80, $5,000

Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers/AIVF (NYC)

1977-78, $3,000

Bronx Museum of Arts

1979-80, $4,000

Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association/BACA

1977-78, $3,500

Cabin Creek Center for Work and Environmental Studies (NYC)

1977-78, $15,000; 1978-79, $18,000; 1979-80, $20,000

Cable Arts Foundation (NYC)

1977-78, $20,000

Center for Arts Information (NYC)

1978-79, $8,000; 1979-80, $7,867

Center for New Art Activities (NYC)

1978-79, $3,500; 1979-80, $4,000

Center for Non-Broadcast Television (NYC)

1979-80, $16,000

Center for the Study of Filmed History (NYC)

1979-80, $2,000

Chautauqua-Cauaraugus Library System (Jamestown)

1977-78, $2,000; 1978-79, $3,000; 1979-80, $3,000

Chautauqua County Association for the Arts (Dunkirk)

1977-78, $1,968

Chautauqua Institution

1979-80, $4,500

Collaborations in Art, Science and Technology/CAST (Syracuse)

1977-78, $16,000

Community Cable Center of Washington Heights (NYC)

1978-79, $995

Composers' Forum (NYC)

1978-79, $3,975

Cultural Council Foundation for WNYC AM-FM, TV 31

 1977-78, $10,000; 1978-79, $1,450; 1979-80, $5,000

Cunningham Dance Foundation (NYC)

 1977-78, $4,000

Downtown Community Television Center (NYC)

 1977-78, $43,000; 1978-79, $46,000; 1979-80, $43,000

Educational Broadcasting Corporation/WNET TV, Channel 13 (NYC)

 1977-78, $80,000; 1978-79, $117,250; 1979-80, $92,250

Educational Film Library Association (NYC)

 1978-79, $5,440; 1979-80, $5,000

Elaine Summers Experimental Intermedia Foundation (NYC)

 1977-78, $23,000; 1978-79, $5,000; 1979-80, $12,821

Electronics Arts Intermix (NYC)

 1977-78, $33,000; 1978-79, $35,000; 1979-80, $35,000

Erpf Catskill Cultural Center (Arkville)

 1977-78, $4,000; 1978-79, $12,000; 1979-80, $1,000

Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theatre Center (NYC)

1978-79, $4,000; 1979-80, $4,000

Everson Museum of Art of Syracuse and Onondaga County

1977-78, $8,000; 1978-79, $9,000; 1979-80, $9,000

Experimental Television Center (Binghamton)

1977-78, $38,000; 1978-79, $30,000; 1979-80, $35,990

Film Art Fund (NYC)

1977-78, $8,000; 1978-79, $10,000; 1979-80, $7,000

Foundation for Independent Video and Film (NYC)

1978-79, $36,938; 1979-80, $25,500

Franklin Furnace Archive (NYC)

1979-80, $3,000

Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center (NYC)

1978-79, $7,500; 1979-80, $6,000

Fund for Theatre and Film (NYC)

1978-79, $9,500

G.A.M.E./Growth through Art and Museum Experience (NYC)

1979-80, $1,000

Gallery Association of New York State/GANYS (Hamilton)

1977-78, $1,500

Global Village Video Resource Center (NYC)

1977-78, $21,000; 1978-79, $42,000; 1979-80, $39,000

Greene County Council on the Arts (Athens)

1977-78, $4,000

H.E.A.R. (NYC)

1979-80, $3,000

Haleakala (NYC)

1977-78, $65,000; 1978-79, $78,000; 1979-80, $83,897

Hallwalls (Buffalo)

1977-78, $6,000; 1979-80, $3,200

Harvestworks (NYC)

1978-79, $4,000

Henry Street Settlement (NYC)

1977-78, $3,000; 1978-79, $3,000

Historic Ithaca

1977-78, $3,000

Independent Cinema Artists and Producers (NYC)

1979-80, $5,500

Innervision Media Systems of Central New York (Syracuse)

1977-78, $8,000

Institute for Art and Urban Resources (NYC, Queens)

1978-79, $2,500; 1979-80, $2,500

Institute of New Cinema Artists (NYC)

1978-79, $6,000; 1979-80, $5,000

Inter-Media Art Center (Bayville)

1977-78, $50,000; 1978-79, $33,000; 1979-80, $33,000

Intermedia Foundation (Garnerville)

1977-78, $10,000; 1978-79, $1,500

Ithaca Video Project

1977-78, $25,019; 1978-79, $44,142; 1979-80, $46,000

Kitchen Center for Video, Music and Dance

See Haleakala.

La Mama Experimental Theatre Club (NYC)

1977-78, $3,000

Lakeshore Association for the Arts

See Chautauqua County Association for the Arts.

Mabou Mines Development Foundation (NYC)

1978-79, $1,000; 1979-80, $3,000

Media Bus (Lanesville)

1977-78, $42,510; 1978-79, $34,400; 1979-80, $28,000

Media Study (Buffalo)

1977-78, $43,000; 1978-79, $30,000; 1979-80, $42,500

Merce Cunningham Dance Company

See Cunningham Dance Foundation.

Mid-Hudson Library System (Poughkeepsie)

1977-78, $3,000; 1978-79, $3,000; 1979-80, $3,000

Mid-York Library System (Utica)

1978-79, $2,000; 1979-80, $2,000

Museum of Broadcasting (NYC)

1977-78, $3,000

Museum of Modern Art (NYC)

1977-78, $3,000; 1978-79, $10,000; 1979-80, $15,000

National Fine Arts Committee for the Lake Placid Olympics

1979-80, $35,000

New Ground Presentations (NYC)

1978-79, $8,087

New Wilderness Foundation (NYC)

1978-79, $5,500; 1979-80, $5,000

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYC)

1978-79, $5,000; 1979-80, $5,000

New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NYC)

1977-78, $8,745; 1978-79, $10,665; 1979-80, $11,265

New York University, Department of Cinema Studies (NYC)

1978-79, $2,000

New York Visual Anthropology Center (NYC)

1979-80, $800

Nuyorican Poets' Cafe

See Puerto Rican Playwrights/Actors Workshop.

P.S. 1/The Clocktower

See Institute for Art and Urban Resources.

Pacifica Foundation/WBAI-FM (NYC)

1977-78, $25,500

Patchworks (NYC)

1978-79, $1,500

People's Communication Network (NYC)

1977-78, $4,000; 1978-79, $12,500; 1979-80, $22,000

Peoples Production Education Center (Far Rockaway)

1979-80, $4,000

Port Washington Public Library

1978-79, $3,000; 1979-80, $9,625

Portable Channel (Rochester)

1977-78, $31,000; 1978-79, $15,000; 1979-80, $12,500

Public Broadcasting Council of Central New York/WCNY-TV, Channel 24 and WCNY-FM, 91.3 (Liverpool)

1977-78, $13,000; 1978-79, $1,000

Puerto Rican Playwrights/Actors Workshop (NYC)

1979-80, $1,500

Queens Council on the Arts

1977-78, $3,000; 1979-80, $1,000

Radio Foundation (NYC)

1978-79, $15,000; 1979-80, $15,000

Raindance Foundation (NYC)

 1978-79, $8,000

Richard Alien Center for Culture and Art

 See Afro-American Total Theatre Arts Foundation.

River Arts Productions/Open Studio (Barrytown)

 1978-79, $4,000

Rochester Area Educational Television Association/WXXI-TV and FM

 1977-78, $44,470; 1978-79, $101,740; 1979-80 $76,940

Rochester Public Library

 1979-80, $3,000

Rod Rodgers Dance Company (NYC)

 1977-78, $4,000

Schenectady Access Cable Council

 1978-79, $750

Schenectady Museum Association

 1977-78, $12,000

Some New Faces Productions (NYC)

 1979-80, $995

Southern Tier Educational Television Association/WSKG-TV (Endwell)

 1977-78, $8,000

Sun Ship Communications (Buffalo)

 1978-79, $2,000; 1979-80, $500

Survival Arts Media (Jamestown)

 1977-78, $30,000

Synapse, Syracuse University

 1977-78, $75,488; 1978-79, $68,500; 1979-80, $69,000

Synechia Arts Center (Middletown)

 1979-80, $3,500

Vasulka Corporation (Buffalo)

 1978-79, $5,000; 1979-80, $7,000

Video Rainbow/Center for Children's Video (Hartsdale)

 1979-80, $1,500

Video Repertorie (NYC)

1977-78, $5,000; 1979-80, $10,000

Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester)

1977-78, $10,000; 1978-79, $6,000; 1979-80, $15,000

WNYC AM-FM, TV 31

See Cultural Council Foundation.

Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC)

1978-79, $3,993; 1979-80, $10,000

Willow Mixed Media

1978-79, $2,425

Women/Artist/Filmmakers (NYC)

1979-80, $10,000

Women Make Movies (NYC)

 1979-80, $1,000

Women's Interart Center (NYC)

1978-79, $4,000; 1979-80, $13,500

Woodstock Community Video (Rhinebeck)

1977-78, $26,000

Young Filmakers Foundation (NYC)

1977-78, $55,000; 1978-79, $60,500; 1979-80, $60,500

ZBS Foundation (Fort Edward)

1977-78, $26,300; 1978-79, $27,100; 1979-80, $33,850

Advisory Panelists:

Pat Anderson, Independent Radio Producer, President, ZBS Foundation; Fort Edward, 1977-80

Dena Crane, Director, Greene Country Council on the Arts; Athens, 1977-79

Jim Day, Independent Producer, Professor, Brooklyn College; 1977-78

Jim DeVinney, Arts Program Producer, WQED Public Television; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1977-78

David Dial, Television Manager, WXXI-TV; Rochester, 1978-80

Louise Etra, Video Artist; New York City, 1977-78

Pablo Figueroa, Independent Producer; New York City, 1977-80

John Goberman, Director of Media Development, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; New York City, 1978-80

Shalom Gorewitz, Video Artist; New York City, 1979-80

John Hanhardt, Director, Film and Video Department, Whitney Museum of American Art; New York City, 1978-79

Philip Mallory Jones, Director, Ithaca Video Project; 1977-79

Larry Josephson, Executive Director, Radio Foundation; New York City, 1978-80

Joan Lapp, Independent TV Arts Producer; Schenectady, 1979-80

John Minkowsky, Curator, Media Study; Buffalo, 1979-80

Gil Noble, TV Producer, WABC-TV; New York City, 1977-79

Marquita Pool, Associate Producer, CBS Evening News; New York City, 1979-80

Dale Riehl, Manager, National Program Development and Funding, WPBT; New York City, 1978-80

Michael Rothbard, Director, Inter-Media Arts Center; Oyster Bay, 1977-78

Joan Shigekawa, Independent Television Producer; New York City, 1978-80

Robert Steams, Director, Kitchen Center for Video, Music and Dance; New York City, 1977-78

George Stoney, Professor, Department of Film and TV, New York University; New York City, 1979-80