Arts Council launches "30/30"

11/20/2007

By Patsy Nicosia

The Tri-County Arts Council is celebrating its 30th birthday in a big way.
Through its first-ever capital fundraising campaign, “30/30”, TCAC is hoping to raise $100,000 to create an arts center at its home on 107 Union Street , Cobleskill.
Total cost for the project, which will include buying the building, renovations, equipment and other expenses, is expected to top $500,000.
The difference, said TCAC’s Executive Director Mark Eamer, will come from grants, foundations and other sources. A $15,000 line item from State Senator Jim Seward is alreadyhelping to jumpstart the fundraising.
When it’s completed the arts center will include space for Gallery 107 as well as classroom and performance space.
Natural Food & More and ArtWorks, TCAC’s artists’ cooperative shop, will also remain there.
“We’re planning significant increases in our community programming,” Mr. Eamer said, “Classes, demonstrations, performances, workshops…And our goal is to offer all of it on a consistent schedule.”
Mr. Eamer and Niles Voyer-McGiver, TCAC executive assistant, said the project grew out of the arts council’s 2006 strategic plan and the realization that they needed to do more to make more low- or no-cost programs available.
“Also, anything you can do to attract people to downtown is a plus,” Mr. Eamer said. “The arts are important culturally, but they’re also important economically, not only for the artists, but for places like downtown Cobleskill.”
Mr. Voyer-McGiver said another thing they’re hoping the arts center will do is allow for more collaboration between other non-profits like the Iroquois Indian Museum, Landis Arboretum, and the Old Stone Fort, something they’ve all already been working on.
TCAC is envisioning “30/30” as a three-year project, but as soon as the money starts coming in, the work will begin as well, Mr. Eamer said.
In addition to local fundraising, they plan to apply to foundations and other grant sources using a 15-page document Mr. Voyer-McGiver put together as part of his graduate studies program, he said.
TCAC is working on a fundraising brochure that will be mailed to its 500-plus members—double what it was when it moved to Union Street just a couple of years ago, expanded into Fulton and Montgomery Counties, opened Gallery 107 and ArtWorks, and began drawing hundreds to its show openings.
“That’s why we feel we can make an arts center work,” Mr. Eamer said.
For more information on the project or contributing toward it, contact TCAC at 254-0611.