The Council on the Arts is the successor to the New York State Council on the Arts, created as a temporary state commission by the legislature in 1960 (Chapter 313) to recommend ways of encouraging participation in and appreciation of the arts. In 1961 the council submitted a report to the legislature and subsequently received annual funding for the preservation and encouragement of the arts throughout the State. Four years later (Laws of 1965, Chapter 181) the council, composed of fifteen members, was elevated to the status of an agency in the Executive Department. During its first decade of exsistence the council sponsored performing group tours and visual arts exhibitions. It conducted special seminars and technical-assistance programs for cultural organizations and community arts councils. Since 1970 the council has also received annual local assistance budget appropriations for distribution as grants-in-aid to cultural organizations and institutions. In 1974 the council's membership was increased to twenty persons "broadly representative of all fields of the performing and fine arts" appointed by the governor. A chair is designated from among the members by the governor. An executive director and administrative staff carry out the council's programs, including fiscal and program reviews of applicants for local assistance grants.
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The Council on the Arts promotes and assists the study and presentation of the performing and fine arts by surveying and granting funds to nonprofit cultural organizations, local arts councils or consortia, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, which operates a revolving loan program for cultural organizations. The grants, allocated among the counties on a per capita basis, are distributed in program areas such as architecture and environmental arts, arts services, dance, film, literature, museum aid, music, theater, TV/media, visual arts services, special programs, and statewide service programs.
