Lesser applauds local grant recipients

HARTFORD — State Sen. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) applauded local winners of the Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) fiscal year 2020 Connecticut Arts Endowment and Artist Fellowship grant. Four recipients are from Middletown and one from Cromwell. They are as followed:

Artists Fellowship Grant ($3,000), Toto Kisaku, Middletown

Endowment Winners: Artists for World Peace, Middletown ($27,442); Oddfellows Playhouse, Middletown ($1,368); The Greater Middletown Chorale, Cromwell ($769); Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center/North End Arts Rising, Middletown ($500).

The senator congratulated the winners for their contributions to the arts and expressed his gratitude to the COA for funding this important part of our culture.

Toto Kisaku joined 35 others as Artist Fellowship Grant winners thanks to his mastery of theatre, playwriting and social practice. Kisaku is an award-winning Congolese playwright, actor, director and producer, according to creativeground.org, New England's directory of creative enterprises and artists. Kisaku came to the United States in 2015 and resides in Middletown.

Artists for World Peace is a collection of artists who promote peace by feeding, housing educating and providing healthcare to those in need, lifting communities to a place of hope, according to their website. The Oddfellows Playhouse has been serving the community since 1975 and provides accessible performing arts programming to build skills, encourage creativity and strengthen community, according to their mission statement.

The Greater Middletown Chorale was founded in 1977 and is celebrated for its innovative symphonic choral presentations, and often performs with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles, per its website. Lastly, the Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center aims to support the creative endeavors of emerging artists, nurture personal development, educate, connect and enrich lives and uplift people of all ages through the arts, per their mission statement.

The Connecticut Arts Endowment Fund was established by the Connecticut State Legislature to stimulate the development of private sector funding resources and to ensure the long-term stability of Connecticut’s arts industry by providing funding to organizations. The Fund is managed by the Office of the State Treasurer and the program is administered by the COA.

Interest earned on the fund's principal is distributed annually to eligible arts organizations. Applicants do not specify a grant request amount. Grant awards are calculated on a formula which compares the amount of private sector (non-governmental) contributions received by the applicant in its two (2) most recently completed fiscal years.

Meanwhile, the Artist Fellowship Program provides competitive grants to encourage the continuing development of Connecticut artists. These grants provide support for artists to pursue new work and achieve specific creative and career goals. There are three grant designations awarded under this program based on reviewer assessment.