Good News from The REDC

Please Stop by James Tyler

There was good news for the arts in Westchester in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent announcement of Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) grants. The Music Conservatory of Westchester was on the list for a $500,000 grant for a piano technology lab, recording studio, percussion studio, and new studios for jazz, ensembles and music therapy. The new technology-based classrooms and programs will be eagerly awaited, as will the expansion of and improvements to the Westchester Children’s Museum which was awarded $824,000 to expand its exhibit and operational space in Rye Playland’s National Historic Landmark North Bathhouse. Bravo to both.

For years, many of us have driven past the Glenwood Power Plant in Yonkers. The good news is that a developer will embark on preserving and redeveloping this iconic turn of the century structure into a cultural destination and performance space for members of the Yonkers community. The project was awarded $1,000,000. The Village of Sleepy Hollow on the Hudson and Pocantico Rivers has its eye on the Headless Horseman Statue which they will enhance with an installation of landscaping and public amenities with their $195,000 REDC grant. The Picture House Regional Film Center education grant will assist more students to learn through film.

Finally, ArtsWestchester is excited by its grant for an exhibition called Brick by Brick: The Erie Canal and the Building Boom. It is an interdisciplinary contemporary visual arts project that celebrates and illuminates the shared history of the Canal and the New York State brick industry, its impact on the Hudson Valley and its continued relevance today. The $75,000 REDC grant will allow ArtsWestchester to mount the exhibition and commission artists to create work inspired by the once significant Hudson Valley brick industry which in its heyday was comparable, according to some historians, to the growth and impact of IBM. So they say!