{"id":5585,"title":"Set in Motion: The New York State Council on the Arts Celebrates 30 Years of Independents: Introduction to Set in Motion","kind":"biblio","url":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/set-motion-new-york-state-council-arts-celebrates-30-years-independents-introduction-set-motion","version":"ea46d549ee1901dcc4920f3c1642049953d0e136d14812466ee5a801fe703505","modified":"2026-09-13T21:52:04.439992+00:00","credits":[{"role":"Author","name":"Debby Silverfine"},{"role":"Author","name":"Linda Earle"},{"role":"Curator","name":"Linda Earle"},{"role":"Curator","name":"Leanne Mella"}],"authorKeys":["Silverfine, Debbie","Linda Earle"],"subjects":["Texts by Author"],"metadata":[{"label":"Publisher","value":"The New York State Council on the Arts","url":null},{"label":"Place","value":"New York, NY","url":null},{"label":"ETC archive","value":"ETC0823","url":null}],"citations":{"page":"\u0022Set in Motion: The New York State Council on the Arts Celebrates 30 Years of Independents: Introduction to Set in Motion.\u0022 Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2026. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/set-motion-new-york-state-council-arts-celebrates-30-years-independents-introduction-set-motion.","publication":"Debby Silverfine; Linda Earle. Set in Motion: The New York State Council on the Arts Celebrates 30 Years of Independents: Introduction to Set in Motion. The New York State Council on the Arts. 1994.","risUrl":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/citation/5585.ris"},"links":[{"label":"Scanned document","url":"https://archive.org/details/ETC0823","relationship":"linked document; contents not retrieved","contentType":"application/pdf"}],"sections":[{"name":"body","source":"VHP record body","generated":false,"characters":17027},{"name":"summary","source":"existing VHP generated summary","generated":true,"characters":783}],"content":{"section":"body","source":"VHP record body","generated":false,"text":"\u0022Set in Motion\u0022 is comprised of films and videotapes funded between 1961 and 1993 as part of the New York State Council on the Arts\u0027 dual commitment to fostering the work of creative artists and promoting the development of artistic forms and disciplines. \u0022Set in Motion\u0022 grew out of a series of planning meetings held by NYSCA\u0027s staff and Council members. In light of recent debates in the media and in legislative corridors about the value of art in American culture, and the role of public money in supporting the preservation of our cultural heritage, the time seemed right to review NYSCA\u0027s mission and accomplishments. This retrospective reflects a generation of public support for the creative work of New York State\u0027s film and videomakers. Its astonishing variety of visions has given us an opportunity to reflect on NYSCA\u0027s role in broadening access to the tools of image-making, surely one of the most important hallmarks of cultural change in our society over the past 30 years. In reviewing the many films and tapes produced with NYSCA support, we became reacquainted with titles that helped launch careers or garnered international critical acclaim, and many other works that pioneered forms and techniques later used by studios and broadcast media. Private philanthropy had long helped support the state\u0027s major cultural institutions and had indirectly supported arts enrichment programs at various settlement houses and community centers. But it took the establishment of the State Arts Council to begin to develop services and programs statewide. \u0022Early in 1960, the New York State Legislature, through a bill introduced by Senator MacNeil Mitchell and with strong personal backing from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, established a precedent among governments by passing an act which was broadly designed \u0027to make recommendations concerning appropriate methods to encourage participation in and appreciation of the Arts.\u0027\u0022 (1) From its earliest years, the Council recognized the growing interest in film exhibition, production and training and considered the potential of supporting this work. Quality foreign films and emerging talents of the \u0022American New Wave\u0022 were attracting interest through a limited number of cinemas and film societies. The New Yorker and Bleecker Street Cinemas, Cinema 16, the Film Makers\u0027 Cinematheque and the Museum of Modern Art\u0027s Film Department in New York City, and the International Museum of Photography/George Eastman House in Rochester were devoted to revivals and the \u0022artfilm\u0022. At the same time, public libraries in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Rochester were collecting and circulating classic and independent films to new audiences. The Council later supported many of these and other exhibition venues, and developed a program of support to libraries that allowed wider geographic distribution of films to rural and urban areas. Other new entities were also changing the face of the media landscape. Public television was expanding its universe of interests beyond instructional programming. New types of TV documentary and talk show formats emerged, including Black Journal and Tell It Like It Is. The Ford Foundation began to fund independent filmmakers in 1964, and, in 1965, the Rockefeller Foundation began funding artists for experimentation with video. Also during this time, CBS Produced Alwin Nikolais\u0027 first video image-processing experiments. In 1961, the Council had commissioned Robert Bell to make Watching Ballet, a 16mm film with Jacques D\u0027Amboise and Allegra Kent demonstrating ballet technique. The film, completed in 1963, was used in the Ballet Society\u0027s touring educational programs. In August 1965, NYSCA Executive Director John Hightower convened an advisory group to discuss ways the Council could help disseminate distribution information and tour films to communities throughout the state. (2) The group included Ralph Hetzel, the acting head of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Margareta Akermark, from the Museum of Modern Art\u0027s Film Library; Amos Vogel, founder of Cinema 16 and Program Director of the newly-founded New York Film Festival; and producers Arthur Meyer and Dore Shary, who soon after became the first Commissioner of New York City\u0027s Department of Cultural Affairs. Within the year, NYSCA had created the Film Project, and, under the direction of Peter Bradley, began sponsoring tours of contemporary art that included filmmakers and artists exploring multi-media and newly emerging small format video. In 1967, the Film Project\u0027s work was formalized within the agency as the Film Program. A variety of film-related activities followed, including screenings in secondary schools, colleges and film societies, at which critics and experts would speak; as well as support for independent film and video production. (3) From the beginning, diversity was a key aspect of the Council\u0027s support for media. NYSCA embraced experimental forms as well as traditional ones, professional as well as training opportunities. There was a strongly held belief that communities in rural areas and inner-city neighborhoods, and students of all ages deserved access to the arts, both as practitioners and as audiences. NYSCA-funded community youth workshops offered production training alongside classes in dance, drama, music and painting. Hands-on workshops for youth, it was felt, helped to develop more adventurous audiences. In addition, professional workshops began to attract artists from other disciplines and provided supportive environments for those with limited access to production opportunities within the industry. The Council added support for electronic media in 1970, when small-format video presented new possibilities for artistic experimentation and grassroots journalism. As with the development of its Film Program, funding for media acknowledged the importance of connecting artists and audiences early on. NYSCA helped seed programs in video training, production and exhibition throughout the state. Public TV stations were funded to work with independent producers and provide an outlet for their work. And in 1972, the Rockefeller Foundation and NYSCA helped established the TV Lab at WNET/13, which gave artists access to broadcast-quality equipment. University-based programs such as SUNY Buffalo\u0027s Center for Media Study, Syracuse University\u0027s Synapse Studio, and the Experimental Television Center - first a project within SUNY Binghamton, later incorporated - provided access to resources, equipment and faculty for many emerging artists. The Council also encouraged a number of New York City-based video production groups to work in other areas of the state in order to share their know-how and enthusiasm with arts and community groups interested in creating local television. A number of production collectives found receptive communities, and relocated to Jamestown, Woodstock and Lanesville to create early community cable and low-power television projects. Training and access programs, and increased exhibition and distribution venues stimulated production of scores of tapes and films during this period. While there had been occasional production funding and commissions since the beginning, and film projects were funded with increasing frequency during the early 1970s, it wasn\u0027t until the Council developed a more comprehensive relationship to the field that it began to directly support production. Though not a formal category of support, a dozen filmmakers and 20 media artists received production funding in 1974. Film production funding increased dramatically the following year when NYSCA launched the Bicentennial Film Project with matching monies from the National Endowment for the Art. In 1976, both the Media and Film Programs developed guidelines to meet the growing number of applicants and to provide instruction to artists new to the grants application process. In 1984, the Council created the Individual Artists Program to oversee direct support for film and video production. The Council has always attempted to respond energetically to the full spectrum of artist-initiated activity in film and electronic media including narrative, documentary and experimental forms. The scope of work supported has included films and videotapes demonstrating both promise as well as accomplishment. These projects represent the artist\u0027s vision and point of view. They are produced outside the studio system with funds from savings, families, friends, NYSCA and other funders. The artists (in most cases the director) who conceive these projects maintain artistic control over all aspects of production. Styles, genres and budgets vary considerably. By design, there is no typical NYSCA project, no prescribed funding agenda in terms of content or form. This is insured by the centrality of the Council\u0027s peer panel grant review system. Over the years, panels have been comprised of literally hundreds of artists, programmers, teachers and curators from every corner of the state. Their job is to advise the Council by reviewing written applications and artists\u0027 work samples and to recommend support. Because of the volume of activity in New York State, funding has always been highly competitive. Artistic and demographic diversity on the panels means that in a typical year, 1990, for example, NYSCA funded 48 projects including preproduction support for a first feature by Todd Haynes; an installation work by video artist Mary Lucier; technical research for an interactive narrative based on African storytelling by Collis Davis; animation by Maureen Selwood; and documentaries on such diverse subjects as Atlantic City (by Michael Penland), psychologist Evelyn Hooker (by Richard Schmeichen) and civil rights activist Dollie Robinson (by Melvin MeCray). Budgets for these works ranged from $7,000 to $200,000. The work in \u0022Set in Motion\u0022 was selected by Debby Silverfine, Director of the Electronic Media and Film Program; Linda Earle, Director of the Individual Artists Program and Leanne Mella, a consulting independent curator. Organized to showcase a wide range of aesthetics, artists and genres, this project by no means exhausts the territory and the multiple histories of independent film and video. Of the hundreds of titles considered, many outstanding works have not been included. We hope that \u0022Set in Motion\u0022 will spark renewed interest in earlier works, introduce titles to new audiences and help artists to discover a broader public for their next efforts. One area of activity not included in this exhibition is audio/radio art. The Council has supported an impressive range of productions, artists\u0027 residencies at public radio stations around the state, and has sponsored seminars and workshops designed to increase exposure to innovative work. We hope that NYSCA-supported audio work will be the subject of a series at a later date. Finally, the essays and statements in this catalogue are by the \u0022eye-witnesses\u0022 to the development of independent media. They speak to the role that public funding has played in helping to create a space for media art in a commercial universe and in promoting a diversity of vision and expression. \u0022The formative years of the Council\u0027s programs in film and video were grounded in, and sustained by, a conviction that film and video had as much potential to stir, startle, transport, entertain, and inform as the more traditional arts, and often more. In concert with superb teams of panelists, we allocated support on the principle that advancing the work of artists in film and video would advance both the media themselves, and the appreciation of audiences. The Council had been created by a powerful arts enthusiast Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and there was a sense of optimism and a belief that support should include the exploration of cultural terrain. Creating the programs themselves was a dynamic, evolving process involving passionate discussion in panel meetings and lively interaction with t","offset":0,"nextOffset":12000,"totalCharacters":17027,"complete":false},"rightsUrl":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/terms-service"}