There are so many incredible arts organizations in Western New York and we wish that we could provide funding to all of them! This year’s Give for Greatness grant was highly competitive due to the limited amount of funding that we had available but these organizations shone so brightly that we had to feature them in this month’s video spotlight.
 
We’re excited to have you meet Frani from Buffalo Society of Artists, Matt from Nusantara Arts, Dawne from Stitch Buffalo, and Beth, Suzie and Chris from Unique Theatre as they show you behind the scenes of what they’ve been working on.
 
We’ll be continuing to feature Give for Greatness grant winners throughout the coming weeks so keep an eye on our social media. We have more videos to share from Buffalo Girlchoir, Chautauqua Regional Youth Orchestra and more!


FRANI EVEDON (Buffalo Society of Artists): I’m Frani Evedon, current president of the Buffalo Society of Artists. Buffalo Society of Artists is just over 13o years old this year. Last year was our 130th birthday. We have been an integral part of Buffalo’s history; general history and the history of visual art. We have partnered with Peter Hunt to open a gallery that will feature our exhibiting members. The opening is April 14th and features Bunni Leighton and Susan Copely. We hope you can all attend. We thank ASI for awarding us $750 to help us furnish our office. We are about to hire somebody in the fall to help us with resources and fundraising; this is what the office is for. We need to furnish it and also get some technology for it. We thank ASI!

MATT DUNNING (Nusantara Arts): Hi, my name is Matt Dunning and I am the executive director of Nusantara Arts. We are an Indonesian music and culture organization here in Buffalo. We play the music of gamelan from Indonesia. We have a bunch of educational classes, we have introductory classes and performances that we do in our community. You can see us play all around the city of Buffalo. We received the Give for Greatness grant through ASI for 2022 and we’re super happy because it will enable us to improve our capacity by funding a strategic planning process that’s going to lay the groundwork for everything that we do for the next 3-5 years. We’ll be able to plan for our future sustainably and make really good plans for our future.

DAWN HOEG (Stitch Buffalo): Hi, I’m Dawn Hoeg the founder and executive director of Stitch Buffalo. Stitch Buffalo is an organization on the West Side on Niagara Street in Buffalo and we serve immigrant and refugee women in the textile arts either through educating them in textile techniques so they can produce items for sale in our shop or supporting them in a skill they already have and providing them with materials so they can produce products. When we applied for the Give for Greatness grant, we applied with the intention of upgrading our e-commerce which is so essential for our business now. When we shut down for the pandemic, we really boosted our e-commerce through our Etsy site and have quickly learned that it’s time to move our e-commerce onto our own website. So that’s what we’re looking to do with our Give for Greatness grant.

BETH GEYER (Unique Theatre): Hi, my name is Beth Geyer and I am one of the co-founders for Unique Theatre Company. We are a company of artists and we offer true theater experiences for anyone who wants to give theater a try and we welcome individuals of all abilities. We’re so happy that we got the Give for Greatness grant because we are in dire need of ramps.

SUZIE HIBBARD (Unique Theatre): And I’m Suzie Hibbard, I’m the current artistic director of Unique Theatre. This is my first year as artistic director and we’re really excited to make the theater space we use more accessible and inclusive so with your gift, that’s really going to help our actors feel included on the stage and not have to struggle.

CHRISTOPHER DEVEALT (Unique Theatre): My name is Christopher Devealt. Unique Theatre is a great company, I’ve been working with Beth for three or four years now. It matches my acting skills and everyone else’s acting skills as well.