New York State Council on the Arts Annual Report 1988-89. Reports by Film and Media Programs

Total Aid to Localities: $51,511,000, Media: $1,659,655 (1988-89)

MEDIA PROGRAM

Director: B. Ruby Rich

Acting Director: Arthur Tsuchiya (until January, 1989)

Program Analysts: Linda Gibson, Jerry Lindahl

In 1989-90, the media program awarded a total of $1,659,655 to 102 organizations for a total of 255 projects in the areas of video, audio, radio, or television. It was a year marked by difficulties, both economic (as Albany struggled to meet the budget deficit and the Media Program's budget changed over the course of the year) and structural (as the Council proceeded with a plan of merging the Media and Film Programs, with an implementation set for the start of the next fiscal year). Despite these difficulties and challenges, the Media Program carried out the funding of a number of notable initiatives, sustained the growth and stability of its exhibition and organizational development categories in particular, and helped a number of important new productions see the light of day.

One landmark event that catalyzed the field was the opening this year of the Museum of Modern Art's major retrospective of the work of video artist Bill Viola, made possible with the Media Program's support. Incorporating both installation work and the exhibition of videotapes, the exhibition marked the first time that the Museum has presented a retrospective of a video artist and only the second time that any New York museum has so favored the field. In this sense, it was a coming of age both for the Museum and for the field as a whole.

This museum attention to video installation was paralleled by the Media Program's concern with finding broader outlets for such work and developing sites throughout the State with an interest in the exhibition of installation work. To that end, funding went to Parabola Arts for the first phase of a new touring initiative for audio and video installations, in conjunction with the Gallery Association of New York State.

Meanwhile, on Long Island, the Inter-Media Art Center in Huntington received funds to tour a program of video art on the Island. And the Museum of the American Indian was funded to tour a new program, "Video Native American," around the State. The touring and distribution of original video works to reach new audiences has been a particular emphasis this year. The "Icono Negro" will be circulated to sites in New York State by Camera News, while Buffalo-based Hallwalls is circulating "Infermental 7," an international compilation of video art curated by Hallwalls. The Black Filmmaker Foundation was awarded funds to distribute videotapes by black makers statewide. Extending further the accessibility of new video works to the public, Upstate Films in Rhinebeck got first-time funding to begin showing video.

Radio and television play an important role in the dissemination of independent work to a broad audience. The Committee on Poetry, Inc. received funding to distribute a pioneering radio series exploring international poetry, beginning with a survey of the radio stations in New York State with an interest in innovative programming. The Educational Broadcasting Corporation (WNET-TV) continues its "New Television" series premiering innovative video, while at the same time continuing to dispense production funds that makes the completion of such work possible. A first-time grant to Staten Island Community TV is providing the public with television access as producers rather than mere consumers, through a series of production workshops to be held at its sophisticated new facilities. To enlarge awareness of audio art, the Archive for Contemporary Music has been funded to create and distribute both a catalogue and a computerized listing of its large collection.

For the field to develop, service organizations that serve the artist as well as the public are crucial. First-time support went to the Latino Collaborative, the first artist-service organization for Latino makers. Also in the category of institutional development was a special award to Camera News, enabling the hiring of a new administrative director to help stabilize this key distributor's operations. In the Buffalo area, greatly increased funding to Squeaky Wheel is intended to strengthen a young organization that has proved itself to be a vital stimulant to video production, exhibition, and training for both emerging and established talents. Artists will also get a boost from the award to Light Work Visual Studies in Syracuse, where the money will establish a video/computer studio for computer imaging. Finally, the Funding Exchange received a substantial award to regrant production funds to both women and minority producers working to create video documentaries on issues of social importance; as a condition of the grant, the Funding Exchange is committed to matching Media Program funds on a one-to-one basis thereby enlarging the pool of funds available to artists in New York State.

Although video is a relatively recent medium, its past is already endangered due to the lack of archival technologies thus far available. In order to preserve videotapes from even the recent past, more work must be done to transfer endangered tapes to the most currently stable materials and to conduct research into the viability of authentic preservation. Grants were made to both the Museum of Modern Art and Film/Video Arts to establish two different approaches to the problem. The Museum will be developing a sophisticated 1" restoration facility to restore early video art, while Film/Video Arts will be establishing a low-cost ½" preservation and recovery facility for artists.

If preservation of the actual physical medium is important, so too is the less tangible preservation of the values, intentions, and aesthetic complexities of the work that is produced. For this reason, writing on video art has been supported for several years as a category of funding aimed at strengthening a field still nascent in its own interrogation of itself. Two awards were made in this category: one to Coco Fusco on the promotion of Latino media in the late-80s market, and one to David Trend for an essay on the distinction between amateur and professional at a time of increasing sophistication in consumer products.

Finally, and of foremost priority for the Media Program, a quarter of the year's budget went to the support of video and audio production by New York State artists. See the listings in the Individual Artists Program section of this annual report for details on all the artist initiated projects that were funded. The significance of past funding was made clear by the success of "Inside Life Outside," a video documentary on the homeless that was completed this year and has been presented to wide acclaim, including a presentation at the Berlin Film Festival. In addition, this year the Media Program experimented with a separate category of funding for video, television, and radio projects that were organization-initiated. A total of 12 projects were funded out of 47 requests. Awards included one to WSKG-TV in Binghamton for a one-hour documentary on jazz great Slam Stewart; one to Pacific Street Film Project for a videotape on Caribbean culture in Brooklyn, slated for airing on WNET-TV; and one to the Seneca Nation in Erie County, for a documentary on snowsnake, an ancient Iriquois game of skill, and the turtle rattle, a sacred musical instrument used in ceremonies of the Longhouse tradition.

Artists-in-Residence:  
Bronx Museum of the Arts $5,000  
Hallwalls; Buffalo $3,500  
New York Hall of Science; Queens $8,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $2,500  
WSLU-FM; Canton $4,000

Distribution: 
Alternative Media Information Center; Manhattan $20,000  
American Federation of the Arts; Manhattan $7,500  
Black Filmmaker Foundation; Manhattan $6,000  
Camera News/ Third World Newsreel; Manhattan $3,000  
Committee on Poetry; Manhattan $3,000  
Electronic Arts Intermix; Manhattan $32,200  
Film Art Fund/ Anthology Film Archives; Manhattan $2,000  
Giorno Poetry Systems; Manhattan $2,000  
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $5,000  
Hallwalls; Buffalo $5,000  
Women Make Movies; Manhattan $12,000

Equipment Purchase:  
Camera News/ Third World Newsreel; Manhattan $7,000  
Collective for Living Cinema; Manhattan $3,000  
Experimental Television Center; Owego $3,828  
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $1,200  
Harvestworks; Manhattan $5,600  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $1,500

Exhibition:  
55 Mercer Street Artists; Manhattan $1,500  
Alternative Center for International Arts/ Alternative Museum; Manhattan $3,000  
American Museum of the Moving Image; Queens $20,000  
Amigos del Museo del Barrio/ El Museo del Barrio; Manhattan $7,000  
Artists Space; Manhattan $12,500  
Asia Society; Manhattan $2,000  
Bronx Museum of the Arts $10,000  
Center for New Art Activities; Manhattan $4,500  
Center for Photography at Woodstock $3,500  
Channel L Working Group; Manhattan $8,000  
Collaborative Projects/ COLAB; Manhattan $3,000  
Collective for Living Cinema; Manhattan $7,500  
Cornell University/ Herbert F. Johnson Museum; Ithaca $8,500  
Council on the Arts for Cortland $4,492  
Crandall Library; Glens Falls $4,000  
Dance Theater Workshop; Manhattan $1,000  
East End Arts and Humanities Council; Riverhead $6,000  
Educational Broadcasting Corporation; Manhattan $25,000  
Exit Art; Manhattan $7,000  
Fund for the Borough of Brooklyn/ Rotunda Gallery $5,200  
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $28,500  
Hallwalls; Buffalo $15,000  
Inter-Media Art Center; Huntington $7,000  
International Agency of Minority Artists; Manhattan $2,500  
International Center for Photography; Manhattan $10,000  
Jewish Museum; Manhattan $10,000  
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Manhattan $7,500  
Mid-Hudson Library System; Poughkeepsie $4,500  
Museum of the American Indian; Manhattan $12,585  
Museum of Modern Art; Manhattan $20,000  
New Radio and Performing Arts; Brooklyn $3,000  
New York Hall of Science; Queens $8,000  
New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; Manhattan $3,000  
Niagara Council of the Arts; Niagara Falls $1,250  
Port Washington Public Library $17,175  
Public Art Fund; Manhattan $3,000  
Raindance Foundation; Manhattan $4,000  
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy $3,000  
Tompkins Square, Arts Festival; Manhattan $2,000  
Upstate Films; Rhinebeck $2,275  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $11,000  
Western New York Artists Gallery; Buffalo $7,075  
White Plains Cable TV Access $3,500  
Whitney Museum of American Art; Manhattan $19,700

General Operating Support:
Asian Cine-Vision; Manhattan $17,700  
Downtown Community Television Center; Manhattan $57,200  
Experimental Television Center; Owego $36,400  
Experimental Intermedia Foundation; Manhattan $14,000  
Global Village Resource Center; Manhattan $22,000 
Harvestworks; Manhattan $30,000  
Locus Communications; Manhattan $35,000  
Media Alliance; Manhattan $34,000  
Media Bus; Woodstock $6,000  
WSLU-FM; Canton $5,000

Institutional Development:  
Camera News/ Third World Newsreel; Manhattan $13,000  
Latino Collaborative; Manhattan $8,750

Organizational Production:  
Black Filmmaker Foundation; Manhattan $9,000  
Charas; Manhattan $8,000  
Crown Heights Youth Collective; Brooklyn $5,000  
Improvised Music Collective; Manhattan $6,000  
Livewalk; Brooklyn $4,000  
Metro Act of Rochester $5,000  
Pacific Street Film Project; Brooklyn $5,000  
Seneca Nation Education Department; Irving $5,000  
Syracuse Alternative Media Network $2,500  
Vivian Beaumont Theatre; Manhattan $4,000  
WSKG Public Telecommunications Council; Binghamton $5,000  
Wooster Group; Manhattan $8,000

Preservation/ Archival Conservation:  
Film Art Fund/ Anthology Film Archives; Manhattan  $1,500  
Film/Video Arts; Manhattan $7,860  
Museum of Modern Art; Manhattan $2,500

Regrant Program:  
Checkerboard Foundation  $12,000  
Educational Broadcasting Corporation; Manhattan $22,500  
Funding Exchange $20,000  
Niagara Council of the Arts; Niagara Falls $6,665  
Oswego Art Guild $2,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $5,000  
Writers Guild of America East; Manhattan $15,000

Services to the Field:  
Alternative Media Information Center; Manhattan $7,000  
Archive of Contemporary Music; Manhattan $4,000  
Association of Independents in Radio; Manhattan $10,000  
Center for Photography at Woodstock $1,000  
Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library; Jamestown $1,000  
Cornell University/ Herbert F. Johnson Museum; Ithaca $8,000  
Crandall Library; Glens Falls $2,000  
Danceworks/ Pentacle; Manhattan $3,000  
Ear; Manhattan $4,000  
Electronic Arts Intermix; Manhattan $10,000  
Film News Now Foundation; Manhattan $7,500  
Film/Video Arts; Manhattan $7,300  
Foundation for Independent Video and Film/ FIVF; Manhattan $34,100  
Haleakala/The Kitchen; Manhattan $44,500  
Hallwalls; Buffalo $6,000  
International Film Seminars; Manhattan $5,000  
Mid-York Library System; Utica $4,000  
National Alliance - Media Arts; Staten Island $3,000  
New Int'l Telecom/ Info Ctr.; Brooklyn $5,000  
New Radio and Performing Arts; Brooklyn $8,000  
New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; Manhattan $9,000  
Pacifica Foundation; Manhattan $5,000  
Parabola Arts Foundation; Manhattan $12,500  
Raindance Foundation; Manhattan $36,500  
Squeaky Wheel; Buffalo $21,800  
Staten Island Community Television $9,000  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $9,000  
Women Make Movies; Manhattan $6,000

Workspace:  
Center for Electronic Music; Manhattan $1,200  
Electronic Arts Intermix; Manhattan $8,300  
Film/Video Arts; Manhattan $60,000  
Light Work Visual Studies; Syracuse $3,700  
Local TV; East Hampton $5,000  
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Troy $3,500  
Roulette Extramedia Resources; Manhattan $1,500  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $7,000 

Writing on Media Art:  
Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester $1,600  
Women Make Movies; Manhattan $2,000

Advisory Panelists:
Ms. Linda Blackaby, Director, Neighborhood Film and Video Project; Philadelphia, PA

Ms. Trisha Dair, Executive Director, Staten Island Community TV; Staten Island

Mr. Bart Friedman, Director, Media Bus; Woodstock

Mr. Ralph Hocking, Director, Experimental Television Center; Owego

Ms. Annea Lockwood; Crompond

Ms. Maxine Delores Moffett; Brooklyn

Ms. Ellen Rocco, Station Manager, WSLU-FM; Canton

Mr. Edin Velez; Manhattan

Ms. Robin White Owen; Manhattan

Mr. Tony Whitfield; Brooklyn

Mr. Reginald Woolery; Brooklyn

Ms. Julie Zando, Director, Squeaky Wheel; Buffalo

Alternate Panelists:
Mr. Stephen Cellum; Manhattan

Ms. Shu Lea Cheang; Manhattan

Mr. Robert Doyle, Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester

Ms. Lucinda Furlong, Assistant Curator, Film & Video, Whitney Museum of American Art; Brooklyn

Ms. Lori Zippay, Executive Director, Electronic Arts Intermix; Manhattan