COVID crippled Connecticut’s arts scene. Will over $1 million in Supporting Arts grants bring it back?

The Connecticut Office of the Arts has awarded over $1 million in Supporting Arts grants to 220 organizations around the state still getting back to normal following the COVID shutdowns of 2020 and ‘21.

The funds awarded are designed to be used wherever they are most needed, including programming, general operating costs or other work that supports an organization’s artistic mission. Individual grants ranged from $1,000 to $10,000.

Hartford-based organizations receiving Supporting Arts grants include the 25-year-old Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival ($6,655), the Amistad Center for Art & Culture ($7,281), Ballet Hartford ($8,496), Charter Oak Cultural Center ($6,118), Cinestudio ($4,220), Connecticut Guitar Society ($3,015), Hartford Artisans Weaving Center ($5,162), Hartford Chorale ($3,370), Hartford Gay Men’s Chorus ($6,466), Hartford Performs ($4,921), Hartford Symphony Orchestra ($6,779), Journey Writers ($1,000), Justice Dance Performance Project ($7,746), New World Trio ($1,583), the Night Fall outdoor autumnal pageant ($2,316) Sonia Plumb Dance Company ($1,899) and TheaterWorks Hartford ($4,869).

West Hartford recipients include the Ballet Theatre Company ($4,003), the Music at the Red Door jazz series ($5,907), West Hartford Arts League ($5,517) and the Women Composers Festival ($1,344).

Other recipients on the list included many small theaters such as Capital Classics, which runs the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival, Little Theatre of Manchester, Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret, ACT Connecticut in Ridgefield, the Castle Craig Players and New Haven’s Elm Shakespeare Company.

Some of the music-based organizations that were awarded funds are 10selden (formerly the Amity Teen Center), Connecticut Folk Festival, the Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, Fairfield Theatre Company and the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook. Among the symphony orchestras that received grants are the Nutmeg Symphony, Connecticut Valley Symphony and East Connecticut Symphony.

The New Haven-based art galleries Artspace and Creative Arts Workshop also both received grants.

A complete list of the recipients is available at https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DECD/Arts_Culture/Recent-Grants/FY23-Grant-Recipients/FY23-Supporting-Arts-Grant-Recipients.pdf.

The Connecticut Office of the Arts is part of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, which is concerned with the economic health of the local arts industry. It is co-funded by the state and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Supporting Arts grants are awarded to not-for-profit arts organizations and municipal arts departments that have their own 501c3 tax status. Organizations that receive funds through line items or directed carry-forward funds in the state budget, or that received funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, were not eligible for this year’s grants.

The Connecticut Office of the Arts has already announced that it intends to change how it evaluates its Supporting Arts candidates starting in 2024, with independent panels scoring responses to the dozen questions in the application’s section on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Reach reporter Christopher Arnott at carnott@courant.com.