ASI will award 32 Give for Greatness grants—up from 25 in 2018—of $1,000 each to 32 arts and cultural nonprofit organizations based in Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany counties. The 32 organizations were selected from 78 total applications by a panel of local leaders in the arts and cultural sector.

Recipients

  • 1891 Fredonia Opera House
  • Allegany Arts Association
  • Amherst Bel Canto Choir, Inc.
  • Amherst Chamber Ensembles
  • Art for Rural America
  • Beaver Alley Studios Inc.
  • Brazen-Faced Varlets
  • Buffalo Choral Arts Society
  • Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art
  • Buffalo International Film Festival Inc.
  • Buffalo Is Creative
  • Buffalo Jazz Collective
  • Buffalo Opera Unlimited
  • Buffalo Society of Artists
  • Carnegie Art Center
  • Cynthesis Studios
  • Devi Bollywood Performing Arts
  • El Museo Francisco Oller y Diego Rivera
  • Fountain Arts Center, Inc.
  • Lock City Glee Club, Inc.
  • Lockport Public Arts Council
  • North Shore Arts Alliance, Inc.
  • Nusantara Arts Inc.
  • Olean Theatre Workshop
  • Pappy Martin Legacy – Masten Jazz Festival
  • Second Generation Theatre Co.
  • Starlight Studio and Art Gallery
  • Starring Buffalo
  • Unique Theatre Company
  • Verve Dance Studio
  • West Falls Center for the Arts
  • WNY Book Arts Center

The recipients will be presented with checks at a ceremony on Thursday, December 12 at 10 AM at the Buffalo History Museum (1 Museum Ct.). The ceremony is free to attend and open to the public.

Give for Greatness is a program administered by ASI every December in anticipation of year-end goals and the holiday season. Since its inception in 2014, ASI has distributed more than $100,000 through the program to over 100 regional arts and cultural organizations.

“Give for Greatness awards grassroots cultural organizations for their important work by providing support for their general operating efforts,” ASI Executive Director Jen Swan said. “These organizations serve as critical cultural hubs across Western New York’s urban and rural communities, often operating on an annual budget of less than $20,000 and with nearly all-volunteer staff.”

Give for Greatness is funded by money that ASI raises throughout the year and is supported by Fund for the Arts, Lawyers for the Arts, Lawyers for the Arts: Classical Edition, and The Rupp Family Foundation.