New York State Council on the Arts Annual Report 1987-88. Reports by Film and Media Programs

Total Aid to Localities: $48,404,936, Media: $1,570,000 (1987-88)

MEDIA PROGRAM

Director: Dai Sil Kim-Gibson (until February, 1988)

Acting Director: Arthur Tsuchiya

Program Analyst: Jerry Lindahl

In 1987-88, the Media Program received over 500 requests from 160 different organizations for support of both organizational activities and individual productions throughout the State. Of its total allocation of $1,570,000, more than 25% ($400,897) was earmarked for productions by individual artists and independent documentary producers.

Within its twin priorities of production and audience development, the Media Program simultaneously sought to address the needs of emerging, minority and upstate artists and organizations. A grant was made to Black Filmmaker Foundation to help underwrite its 10th Anniversary fundraising events, with the goal of strengthening this important film and video distributor. Support was given to the World Institute of Black Communications to plan a major exhibition of the work of black video makers. A new Special Project, sponsored by Women Make Movies, aimed at the double purpose of making an advanced new video facility (at Starrett City in Brooklyn) available to artists while at the same time training minority women in video production techniques. Film News Now was awarded $20,364 to complete its "Minority Action Project" report on the current status of media makers of color in the State. With this grant, Media Program commitment to this important project totals over $40,000.

Exhibition activities continued to represent the largest portion of the Media Program budget (after production), reflecting the Program's on-going commitment to developing new audiences for video, audio and radio, especially in under-served communities throughout the State. Several new applicants, among them the Arts Council of Wyoming County, Crandall Library (Glens Falls), and Cornell Cinema (Ithaca) were awarded grants to establish video exhibition programs.

Another new applicant, the New York City Hall of Science in Queens, was awarded a first-time grant for a major audio installation (by Yoshi Wada) to celebrate the re-opening of the Museum's Great Hall. Broadcast TV was represented by WNET's "New Television" series, which is both broadcast in New York City and offered free of charge to New York State public television stations for rebroadcast upstate. The Media Program will continue to support efforts to identify, educate, and entertain new audiences with the best in video and audio art.

A wide range of activities intended to assist, inform, and train media artists was supported through the Services to the Field category. Highlights in this category include: a second-year grant to the newly formed Association of Independents in Radio, an organization which represents and provides services to independent radio producers; awards to the Experimental Intermedia Foundation to explore the use of video projection systems at seven presenting sites in Lower Manhattan; and to Hallwalls in Buffalo to assemble and exhibit the 1988 edition of "Infermental," an international video "magazine" in tape cassette form.

The Media Regrant category, a very effective way to both increase the amount of money available to artists for production and to identify and encourage the work of upstate emerging artists, continued to grow last year. The Niagara Council of the Arts received support for four media regrant awards to local artists; the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts (CEPA) was awarded funding for its regrant program for Western New York video artists; a regrant program at Rochester's Visual Studies Workshop was

established with a new grant; Funding Exchange was funded for its regrant program to support work in alternative issue-oriented media; and continuing support was made for regrant programs at Educational Broadcasting Corporation (WNET), the Checkerboard Foundation, and Writers Guild of America. These awards leveraged an extra $54,500 in outside matching funds given by the organizations directly to artists for the production of new work.

General Operating Support was awarded to nine organizations which continue to offer on-going services of significant importance to the media art field. Among them, Downtown Community TV Center, Asian Cinevision, Locus Communications, Media Alliance, Media Bus, Harvestworks, Experimental Intermedia Foundation, and Film News Now. The Program's first three-year multi-year award was made to Owego's Experimental Television Center for its unique and valuable services to video artists.

Awards in the Writing on Media Art category went to three established writers--Berenice Reynaud, Micki McGee, and David Trend. A fourth award was made to Haleakala to commission six articles on media art by major writers from other fields. This project was undertaken to expand the boundaries of discourse in critical writing on media art.

Other highlights of the year included a first time grant to Albany's WAMC-FM to host a conference centering on public radio and its place in the arts. The State Office of Cultural Education is a co-sponsor of the conference. Bread and Roses Cultural Project received a grant for its touring video installation and single-channel exhibit, "Between the Lines," addressing "social, political, cultural and ecological issues in ways that provoke critical thought without abandoning art for polemics or propaganda." New York University was funded to construct a small temporary listening room as part of its major symposium on the work of Orson Welles. The listening room will exhibit all Welles' major radio works of the 1930's and '40's, the first time all this work will be heard together. Film/Video Arts received support for a residency for seminal film and video artist Shirley Clarke. As part of the residency, Ms. Clarke offered workshops for emerging film and video makers at F/VA.

The coming year will see continued efforts by the Media Program to strengthen the field in three significant areas: by expanding audiences across the State through increased exhibition and promotional activities; by continuing to support the work of individual artists through production awards, regrant programs and artist residencies; and by increased outreach efforts to emerging artists, upstate artists, and artists of color.

In addition, in extending its commitment to both artistic excellence and technical development, the Program will encourage the exploration of high quality small format equipment for artists' use, along with the development of systems to expand interformat compatibility, both to enhance the continuing role of media arts centers and to increase the flexibility and options of media artists in producing their work.

The Program, while continuing its tradition of supporting video and audio as distinct art forms, will begin to explore how they can combine with other arts disciplines, and how the media can expand the availability of the arts to more of the State's people. The Program will also continue to encourage the development of a comprehensive plan for preserving and archiving video and audio tapes, a need which is made especially urgent by the inexorable decay of important work which is vital to the history and heritage of the field.

ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE  
Bronx Museum of the Arts $8,000  
Earth Environmental Group; Manhattan $10,000  
Film/Video Arts; Manhattan $2,000  
Haleakala/ The Kitchen; Manhattan $10,000  
Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst/ Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center; Queens $5,000  
New York Hall of Science; Queens $8,000  
St. Augustine's Center; Buffalo $7,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $2,500  
WSLU-FM; Canton $2,000

Distribution:  
American Federation of the Arts; Manhattan $3,000  
Black Filmmaker Foundation; Manhattan $5,000  
Electronic Arts Intermix; Manhattan $31,000  
Haleakala/ The Kitchen; Manhattan $15,000  
New York Foundation for the Arts; Manhattan $7,500  
Women Make Movies; Manhattan $9,000

Equipment Purchase  
Black Filmmaker Foundation; Manhattan $1,689  
Exit Art; Manhattan $2,000  
Experimental Television Center; Owego $3,000  
Harvestworks; Manhattan $3,000  
Squeaky Wheel; Buffalo $2,500

Exhibition:  
Alternative Center for International Arts; Manhattan $10,000  
American Museum of the Moving Image; Queens $9,500  
Amigos del Museo del Barrio/El Museo del Barrio; Manhattan $2,500  
Artists Space $12,000  
Arts Council for Wyoming County; Perry $4,350  
Asia Society; Manhattan $1,500  
Black Filmmaker Foundation; Manhattan $2,000  
Bread and Roses Cultural Project; Manhattan $12,250  
Bronx Museum of the Arts $6,000                 
Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts (CEPA); Buffalo                 $2,500                
Center for New Art Activities; Manhattan $5,000                
Center for Photography at Woodstock $2,000  
Channel L Working Group; Manhattan           $8,000  
Collaborative Projects/ COLAB; Manhattan   $8,580   
Cornell University/ Herbert R Johnson Museum; Ithaca   $10,000   
Crandall Library; Glens Falls  $2,500  
East End Arts and Humanities Council; Riverhead $6,000  
Educational Broadcasting Corporation; Manhattan $25,000   
Exit Art; Manhattan   $4,000   
Fund for the Borough of Brooklyn/ Rotunda Gallery  $4,000  
Global Village Resource Center; Manhattan   $17,000   
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $30,000   
Hallwalls; Buffalo   $12,000   
Institute for Art and Urban Resources/ P.S. 1/ The Clocktower; Queens   $9,000   
International Center for Photography; Manhattan   $9,000   
Mid-Hudson Library System; Poughkeepsie  $4,000   
Museum of the American Indian; Manhattan   $5,540  
Museum of Modern Art; Manhattan   $18,800   
New York Hall of Science; Queens   $5,000  
New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; Manhattan $3,000  
New York University; Manhattan $3,000  
Niagara Council of the Arts Niagara Falls $2,500  
Olean Public Library $3,000  
Port Washington Public Library $16,575  
Raindance Foundation; Manhattan $8,000  
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy $3,000  
Staten Island Children's Museum $5,000  
Tompkins Square Arts Festival; Clayton $2,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $11,000  
WNYC Foundation; Manhattan $10,000  
White Plains Cable TV Access $3,500  
Whitney Museum of American Art; Manhattan $19,000

General Operating Support:  
Asian Cine-Vision; Manhattan $17,000  
Downtown Community Television Center; Manhattan $55,000  
Experimental Television Center; Owego  $40,000  
Experimental Intermedia Foundation; Manhattan $14,000  
Harvestworks; Manhattan $30,000  
Locus Communications; Manhattan $32,000  
Media Alliance; Manhattan $30,000  
Media Bus; Woodstock $13,000

Institutional Development: 
Black Filmmaker Foundation; Manhattan  $10,000

Preservation/ Archival Conservation:  
Arts Resources in Collaboration; Manhattan $1,120  
Electronic Arts Intermix; Manhattan $12,000  
Film Art Fund/ Anthology Film Archives; Manhattan $3,600

Regrant Program:  
Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts (CEPA); Buffalo $1,300  
Checkerboard Foundation $12,000  
Educational Broadcasting Corporation; Manhattan $22,500  
Funding Exchange $12,000  
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $12,000  
Niagara Council of the Arts; Niagara Falls $6,500  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $3,000  
Writers Guild of America East; Manhattan $15,000

Services to the Field:  
Alternative Media Information Center; Manhattan $6,500  
Association of Independents in Radio; Manhattan $8,000  
Cornell University/ Herbert E Johnson Museum; Ithaca $2,000  
Crandall Library; Glens Falls $2,500  
Electronic Arts Intermix; Manhattan $8,000  
Experimental Intermedia Foundation; Manhattan $2,000  
Film News Now Foundation; Manhattan $25,364  
Film/Video Arts; Manhattan $57,000  
Foundation for Independent Video and Film/FIVF; Manhattan $32,000  
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $30,000  
Hallwalls; Buffalo $7,000  
Local TV; East Hampton $4,500  
Media Alliance; Manhattan $10,000  
Mid-York Library System; Utica $3,000  
Museum of the American Indian; Manhattan $2,735  
National Alliance-Media Arts; Staten Island $2,500  
New Radio and Performing Arts; Brooklyn $3,000  
New Wilderness Foundation; Manhattan $5,000  
New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; Manhattan $12,000  
Parabola Arts Foundation; Manhattan $9,000  
Raindance Foundation; Manhattan $34,500  
Squeaky Wheel; Buffalo $12,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $8,000  
WAMC; Albany $19,000  
WSLU-FM; Canton $4,000  
World Institute of the Black Community/ CEBA/ Community Excellence To Black Audiences; Manhattan $4,000

Special Projects:  
American Museum of the Moving Image; Queens $5,000  
Women Make Movies; Manhattan $4,500

Workspace:  
Center for Electronic Music; Manhattan $1,200  
Roulette Extramedia Resources; Manhattan $3,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $7,000

Writing on Media Art:  
Experimental Intermedia Foundation; Manhattan $4,000  
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $8,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $2,500                 
Women Make Movies; Manhattan    $4,000

Advisory Panelists:
Ms. Joyce Bolinger, Executive Director, Center for New TV; Chicago, IL

Ms. Shu Lea Gheang, Artist; Manhattan

Ms. Linda Fisher, Artist; Brooklyn

Mr. Matthew Geller, Video Artist; Manhattan

Mr. Louis Daniel Giansante, Independent Radio Producer; Manhattan

Ms. Chris Hill, Video Artist, Video Curator, Hallwalls; Buffalo

Mr. Timothy Kennedy, Professor of Communications; Ithaca

Ms. Annea Lockwood, Audio Artist, Composer; Crompound

Mr. Thomas Lopez, Independent Radio Producer; Fort Edward

Ms. Maxine Delores Moffett, Independent Media Producer, Educator; Brooklyn

Ms. Rita Myers, Video Artist; Manhattan

Mr. Phill Niblock, Intermedia Artist, Experimental Intermedia Foundation; Manhattan

Mr. Joseph Steinmetz, Independent Producer, Lockport Community Cable Commission; Lockport

Ms. Helen Thorington, Independent Radio Producer, New Radio and Performing Arts; Brooklyn

Mr. Edin Velez, Video Artist; Manhattan

Ms. Robin White, Executive Director, Media Alliance; Manhattan

Mr. Tony Whitfield, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; Manhattan