EDITOR’s NOTE: This fall, BAMirror is chatting with recently appointed leaders of local arts organizations. Today we talk with Rebecca Sheriff, the new executive director of the Art Mission and Theater in downtown Binghamton. Sheriff, it should be noted, is a former reviewer for BAMirror.
By George Basler
With gas prices being the way they are, film enthusiasts should tip their hats to the Art Mission and Theater in downtown Binghamton.
Located at 61 Prospect Ave., the small, two-screen theater — with a total of 78 seats — shows independent, specialized and foreign films that normally don’t show up at the AMC Loews and Regal multiplexes. “It’s a great organization because it means people don’t have to travel to Ithaca or New York City to see films that otherwise might not be shown here,” said Rebecca Sheriff, the theater’s new executive director. Read the rest of this entry »
By Barb Van Atta
The public is invited today (Nov. 1) to celebrate the recipients of the Broome County Arts Council’s Heart of the Arts and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The ninth annual presentation ceremony and celebration will begin at 6:30 p.m. in BCAC’s gallery space adjacent to its office on the fifth floor of Stephens Square, 81 State St., Binghamton. The theme of this free community celebration is “The Arts Connect … .” For more information, call the arts council at 723-4620 or e-mail information@bcartscouncil.com. Read the rest of this entry »
The Community Foundation for South Central New York and the Broome County Arts Council are collaborating on a new program to provide funding to individual artists. A two-year pilot called the Artists Fund will be unveiled at a joint news conference at 10:30 a.m. today (March 15) at the Community Foundation’s offices, 520 Columbia Drive, Johnson City. The Community Foundation will fund the grant program, and BCAC will administer it. Read the rest of this entry »
The Broome County Arts Council will announce $224,754 in United Cultural Fund grant awards for 2012 at 1:30 p.m. today (March 8) at BCAC’s downtown Binghamton office and gallery.
The United Cultural Fund, BCAC’s largest program, is an annual combined campaign for the arts that provides general operating support to established nonprofit arts organizations and project grants to other community nonprofits and individual artists in Broome County. Read the rest of this entry »
Local filmmaker Nat Bouman was the lensman for a new indie film that received a great review in today’s (Jan. 6, 2012) New York Times. Nat is mentioned in this Times article about the film “Co-dependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same”. Nat is a member of the ART Mission & Theater and was born and raised in nearby Brackney, Pa., where he lives with his wife, Katherine Bouman, and their daughter, Harper. Nat entered the film and television industry as a lowly production assistant after college. Since then, he has earned his M.F.A. in Film from Columbia University and worked on a wide variety of projects as both a director and cinematographer. Nat is currently an assistant professor at SUNY College at Oneonta, where he teaches courses in film studies and film production. Katherine Bouman, Nat’s wife, is on the board of directors for the ART Mission & Theater and formerly served as director of education at Roberson Museum & Science Center.
Broome County Arts Council’s United Cultural Fund opened its 2012 Campaign on November 3rd with “An Artful Evening with NPR’s Susan Stamberg, a fundraising event at the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel, featuring National Public Radio’s premier arts correspondent. UCF 2012 is the only combined campaign for the arts in the region and seeks to raise $308,325 for competitive grants to non-profit arts and cultural organizations, community non-profits and individual artists in Broome County. In a speech to Binghamton Rotary #64 yesterday (December 13th), BCAC’s Executive Director Sharon Ball explained how the UCF helps sustain arts non-profits for the benefit of the entire community.
Thank you very much. I’m grateful for the invitation to speak to you this afternoon. I know the good work that Rotary does all over the world and I commend you for the good work that Rotary does here in this community.
What a year it’s been for our community! First the economy, then the economy, then the economy, and then the second 100 year flood in 5 years. Another hit, another blow to the body of this already challenged region and the people who are determined to stay here, to do business here, care for their families and friends here, and maintain their neighborhoods – right here in the once renowned “valley of opportunity”. Read the rest of this entry »
As you probably know, the Broome County Arts Council is presenting NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg in an appearance here on Nov. 3. “An Artful Evening … with NPR’s Susan Stamberg” at the Riverwalk Hotel & Conference Center, 225 Water St., Binghamton, will begin with cocktails at 5 p.m. Dinner is at 6 p.m. followed at 7:30 p.m. by Stamberg’s speech, “Why The Arts Are Important.”
WSKG, the local NPR affiliate, is BCAC’s media partner in this event. Recently, WSKG’s Gregory Keeler interviewed Stamberg about her career and her upcoming visit to Binghamton. Here’s a link to that conversation.
The reservation deadline is Monday, Oct. 31. Ticket information is available at www.BCArtsCouncil.com or by calling (607) 723-4620. Proceeds benefit the Broome County Arts Council’s 2012 United Cultural Fund Campaign.
Just a quick reminder that the Broome County Arts Council’s 2011 Heart of the Arts Awards Celebration will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 29) in the recital hall of The Forum, 236 Washington St., Binghamton. Read the rest of this entry »
By Barb Van Atta
In a year that saw financial upheaval for even the nation’s most prestigious arts organizations, the Broome County Arts Council’s annual Heart of the Arts awards are going to people who have had the courage to guide established groups in new directions and the vision to launch new opportunities for artists and arts lovers in our community.
Three HOTA awards are granted every year. The 2011 recipients, announced today (Sept. 21) at a press conference at the BCAC office, are: Terry McDonald, executive director of the Roberson Museum & Science Center in Binghamton; Reed Smith, general director of Tri-Cities Opera, and, jointly, the founders of S.T.A.R. (Southern Tier Actors Read), Judy McMahon and Heidi Weeks. (See following article about Lifetime Achievement honoree Lance G. Hill.) Read the rest of this entry »
By Barb Van Atta
To pop music, it is Billy Joel, but in the Broome County classical community, the true piano man is Lance G. Hill, who has been a tuner and technician for more than 50 years. Hill, also the host WPEL-FM’s weekly broadcast Music and the Artist, is the 2011 recipient of the Broome County Arts Council’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. Read the rest of this entry »
Artist Mik Tulumello and her UCF-funded Clinton Street Mural Project
The Clinton Street Mural Project, funded by a 2009 United Cultural Fund Project Grant to artist Mik Tulumello, was dedicated Monday, Nov. 8, during a chilly outdoor news conference. The Broome County Arts Council awarded $2,000 to Tulumello to get the project started. She expected to complete it by June this year, with the help of another grant from the City of Binghamton, as well as the support and sweat equity of the Northside Neighborhood Assembly and a team of young helpers from BOCES. However, the project was delayed for awhile by the birth of Tulumello’s daughter Robin, who watched Monday’s dedication from a stroller. Also in attendance were Robin’s dad and big sister, Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan, BC Arts Council Director Sharon Ball, Neighborhood Assembly representives, people from the community, the media, and a freight train that rumble-bumped across the railroad trestle as the dedication began. Read the rest of this entry »
Binghamton artist Judy Salton
Windsor celebrated its third annual Window on the Arts Festival on Saturday (Sept. 18), and it was perfect. Painters, potters, jewelry makers, fabric and glass artists, farmers and food vendors plied their wares on the village green. Musicians played (Kelly Birtch was playing classical guitar when I arrived) and sang for the people who wended their way from tent to tent, table to table. Read the rest of this entry »
Because BAMirror has been up and running for a couple of months, Sharon Ball and I thought it was time to look at how it started, how it’s doing and, most importantly, what it can do for you. Last fall, when Sharon and I were planning the arts council’s entrance into the “blogosphere,” we envisioned your blog as an online salon, a place where people who know the arts could express their viewpoints and other people who know and/or care about the arts would be able to respond, to elaborate, even to disagree – politely, of course. The official stated mission: “provide a lively forum for informed, respectful conversation about and commentary on the arts experience in Broome County and Greater Binghamton.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Barb Van Atta
Sharon Ball
Broome Arts Mirror 
