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Delaware Valley Arts Alliance details use of Sullivan County legislative grant, urges continued local funding
Summary
Ariel Schonberg, executive director of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, told the Sullivan County Executive Committee that the alliance used the county’s $40,000 legislative grant in 2024 to fund regrants, outreach and capacity-building that reached 11 projects across six legislative districts and seeded three first-time grantees.
Ariel Schonberg, executive director of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, told the Sullivan County Executive Committee on an executive-committee agenda item that the organization used the county’s 2024 legislative grant to support local arts groups, expand regranting and professional-development programming, and seed emerging projects across the county.
Schonberg said DVAA administered a Sullivan County arts and heritage grant program that distributed more than $15,000 to 11 projects across six legislative districts in 2024 and that, together with New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) “Arts for Sullivan” regrant funds, the programs reached organizations countywide. She named three first-time county grantees in 2024—Deepwater Projects, Mildred’s Lane Complexity and Catskill Public Theater—and said the grants helped support emerging groups as well as established ones.
Schonberg described regional professional development and convenings the alliance ran in 2024, including an “Artist as Entrepreneur” workshop presented in partnership with the New York Foundation for the Arts that drew artists from Sullivan and nearby counties. She said an alumna of a recent workshop is opening a Main Street storefront that DVAA helped incubate.
The executive director provided a high-level breakdown of the county’s $40,000 legislative grant, saying the majority of funds went to services: regrants, advocacy and outreach, and arts resources, with roughly 24% used for overhead to facilitate those services. She said demand for regrants rose sharply: DVAA reported a 65% increase in applicants to the statewide community regrant cycle since 2023 and that 2025 requests outpaced available funding (DVAA cited $155,000 in requests for $63,000 available in one statewide cycle).
Schonberg also noted DVAA’s ongoing work on a historic-structure report and adaptive-reuse plan for its Arlington Hotel property and said the organization is preparing for its 50th anniversary in 2026. She asked the legislature to continue local support, saying county funds can be leveraged to attract additional state and regional support and to expand grantee capacity in marketing, photography and video production.
The committee thanked DVAA for the presentation and for the distribution of county funds. Schonberg answered questions and said DVAA would follow up with legislators on program details.
Schonberg’s presentation and the legislators’ appreciation occurred during the committee’s public agenda presentation segment; no formal vote on arts funding was taken at that meeting.
