Smithtown Township Arts Council gets $10G grant
Main Street in Smithtown. (Feb. 20, 2012) Credit: Erin Geismar
The Smithtown Township Arts Council has received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The grant, through the NEA’s Arts Education in American Communities program, aims to extend arts education to communities throughout the United States, spokeswoman Victoria Hutter said.
The endowment gave 137 grants to organizations across the country in fiscal year 2012, including Adelphi University and Friends of Garvies Point Museum and Preserve in Glen Cove, Hutter said.
The Smithtown council was selected because the NEA was impressed by “the effort to extend the reach of their exhibits and to think of ways for people to interpret the works,” she said. Allison Cruz, the council’s executive director, was “elated” when she heard the news.
The council will launch a yearlong project in early spring to include hands-on family workshops and programs related to exhibits in its gallery at historic Mills Pond House. Participants of all ages will create works of art inspired by subjects and techniques encountered on gallery tours, Cruz said.
“I think they’ll find that this is a place to have fun and learn at the same time,” she said.
