ArtsWestchester Awarded $75,000 REDC Grant from New York State to Fund “Suffrage Now!” Contemporary Art Exhibition in 2017

Westchester’s Arts and Culture Sector Recognized as Important to State’s Economic Development with REDC Grants

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (January 3, 2016) – ArtsWestchester announced today that it has been awarded a $75,000 grant as part of New York State’s Round Six of the REDC (Regional Economic Development Council) Awards.  Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the grant as part of more than $700 million in economic and community development funding awarded throughout the state through this initiative.

“With ten other grants awarded to Westchester organizations and municipalities to focus on arts and cultural efforts, it is clear that New York State recognizes the importance the arts have on economic development,” said Janet Langsam, CEO of ArtsWestchester. “We are thankful to Governor Cuomo for this grant that will fund a very important exhibition in 2017.”

The REDC grant awarded to ArtsWestchester will fund their 2017 Fall Exhibit, Suffrage Now! Next year will mark 100 years since New York State signed women’s suffrage into law, three years before the United States passed the 19^th Amendment. ArtsWestchester joins other REDC-awarded arts and culture organizations that plan to focus on women’s suffrage next year to mark its centennial anniversary.

Langsam explains, “With the recent presidential election, concerns about overall voter turnout in both local and national elections, concerns about disenfranchised populations, this exhibit and its corresponding public programming is especially relevant.”  She continues, “Area artists will explore a variety of contemporary barriers to the ballot and engage Westchester residents and visitors in a dialogue about women’s political equality and the ongoing story of America’s evolving democracy.”

Suffrage Now! is a contemporary art exhibition celebrating New York’s historic role in the path to the 19^th Amendment while reinforcing the relevance of the women’s suffrage movement today.  ArtsWestchester will commission up to ten New York artists with diverse artistic practices to produce new work that considers the power of the ballot and what the right to vote means to Americans. Some artists will be given an actual voting booth as the basis of their work.

At the center of the exhibition will be an installation by a Westchester artist that will visually narrate the story of New York suffragettes including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Gertrude Foster Brown.

Suffrage Now! exhibiting artists will be provided with honorariums, material stipends and in some cases, a working space. Invited New York artists include: Philippe Safire (digital), Sable E. Smith (conceptual), Mary Ann Lomonaco (mixed media) and duo Lise Prown and Curt Belshe (mixed media.) Images from an ad-campaign designed by For Freedoms (founded by Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman) will also be included. Additional artists will be invited to participate in the 2017 exhibition via an open call.

The exhibition will be presented in ArtsWestchester’s downtown White Plains Gallery that is open free of charge to the public Tuesdays through Sundays from noon – 5pm. The two story gallery is located in ArtsWestchester’s historic nine story building that serves as home to the arts council and more than 20 professional artists and creative businesses.  ArtsWestchester’s Gallery is located at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, New York. For more information about ArtsWestchester, visit artswestchester.org.