Amberations will expand their hands-on educational programming in 2026, including summer camp sessions, seasonal nature and arts workshops, animal-care learning experiences, and guided trail programs on their 40+ acre preserve in Marietta, NY. Funds will support instructor fees, art and nature supplies, animal-care materials, and modest support to keep programs accessible.

Approaching its 40th anniversary season, the Auburn Chamber Orchestra (ACO) has grown into a 60-member ensemble of dedicated volunteer musicians performing three to four diverse concerts annually. This remarkable growth has inspired the organization to officially rebrand as the Auburn Symphony Orchestra—a name that better reflects its expanded size and ambition.

SKARTS has been a valued partner in this journey, having supported the ACO with a music stand light grant a decade ago. As the orchestra prepares to step into this new chapter, it is seeking funding to upgrade and expand its collection of instrumental music folders to meet the needs of the full ensemble. The goal is to present each musician with a professional leather folder embossed with the orchestra's new name, marking the occasion with a lasting, practical keepsake.

As a small performing arts nonprofit governed entirely by a volunteer board of directors, the ACO depends on the generosity of community partners like SKARTS to fulfill its mission. This funding will help ensure that as the Auburn Symphony Orchestra celebrates 40 years of bringing free, live musical performances to our community, its musicians are equipped to represent that legacy with pride.

The Downtown Auburn Saturday Market is a free, weekly outdoor community event hosted in the courtyard of the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center. Now entering its eighth year, the summer series has grown into one of Auburn's most valued traditions, bringing together local artisans, live music, theatrical performances, children's programming, and food trucks in the heart of the downtown district. The event is designed to be fully accessible—free of charge and open to all—ensuring that residents and visitors of every age and socioeconomic background can experience high-quality arts and cultural programming in a welcoming public setting. Funds requested through the SKARTS Grant will provide vital programmatic support to fund public musical performances and children's theater entertainment throughout the season.

Auburn Players Community Theatre has been presenting quality non-professional theater to the community for nearly 65 years. Shows are financed through ticket sales and fundraising but sometimes that income is not sufficient to cover expenses.

This project will focus on youth arts education. Since 2006, Auburn Public Theater (APT) has run year-round arts education programs for rising 3rd graders and up. Our summer musical theater program has proved to be one of the most popular. This program has been offered as “pay-what-you-can or at no cost to all families that need financial assistance. Students will participate in theater games, acting, singing, and dancing. Students will then attend a professional production of "Annie" at Cortland Repertory Theatre on Friday July 31st at 2pm and will each be given an extra ticket for their parent or guardian to join them.

The Auburn Regional Media Access (ARMA) podcast project seeks to create a podcast/audio recording suite for Auburn area residents to use at no cost to them. This will also allow ARMA to offer free beginner’s podcasting and audio recording courses to help podcasters and musical artists in the Auburn area.

Provide a four-session ceramics workshop for senior citizens that will marry nature with the creating of useful objects for the home and garden.

Thanks entirely to the generosity and efforts of the Skaneateles community, The Barrow Gallery continues to grow and enjoy a thriving spot within the CNY art scene. Last year we began offering access to the museum 7 days per week with expanded hours during our May-December season. Tourists have regularly left glowing reviews about their experience and we have had the opportunity to start to partner with other local organizations to offer Barrow-inspired programming. We are proud to say that these visible external achievements have been matched with essential behind-the-scenes efforts. Staff have quickly learned and implemented the latest technology and museum best practices to help keep our 126-year-old organization running efficiently. These updated tools are critical to our success, but also require ongoing funding to remain sustainable. We are seeking help from our generous friends at SKARTS to help stabilize this solid foundation with the right tools in place, so that we may continue to grow.

Our project titled “Brushstrokes & Progress: Fine Motor Development Through the Arts” will allow preschool students to improve their fine motor skills, and have access to the creative arts.

Glee camp is a musical theater camp for kids ages 6-18 that teaches the fundamentals of musical theater in disciplines of singing, acting and dancing. Children are given the unique opportunity to write a musical which they perform at the culmination of camp. Hope and Harmony PAC artistic director, Amy Bellamy, writes all of the music for the camp tailored specifically for that particular cast based on a different theme each season.

This program will engage up to 10 middle school kids (ages 8-12) in creating artwork that highlights native plants and plant–insect interactions. The artwork will be used to create educational bookmarks that will help raise awareness about the importance of native ecosystems.

December 2026, Off The Dock Chamber Festival is planning to produce their first ever Holiday Radio Hour. This multidisciplinary program, modeled after beloved programs such as Prairie Home Companion and Vinyl Cafe, will feature a series of holiday-themed stories, skits and sketches, original musical compositions, and foley sound effects. Through a partnership with the producing company of the Dickens Christmas Festival, this project will feature local musicians and actors and will blend storytelling and musical innovation specifically programmed for the Skaneateles Community, while furthering Off The Dock’s mission of providing performance opportunities to emerging artists.

The REV Theatre Company’s Summer Outreach Tour provides free, high-quality live theatre performances to families and communities across New York State during the summer months.

The vision of the Summer Outreach Tour is to ensure that all families—regardless of geographic location or financial means—have access to meaningful arts experiences.

Our primary goals are:

• To provide free, professional live theatre to communities with limited access to the arts

• To create opportunities for families to gather, connect, and engage in shared cultural experiences

• To expand the reach of the program into new communities while maintaining long-standing partnerships

To engage teens from Skaneateles and Auburn in a weeklong art camp that will help them learn problem solving skills while sparking their creativity. We plan to hire Dusty & Dott Co. to teach up to 12 teens (age 11 to 15) puppet making and storytelling skills.

Seward House Museum aims to continue their partnership with Syracuse Shakespeare-in-the-Park this summer, bringing the Bard's prose to the Museum's gardens.

The Middle School Laker Club and Skaneateles High School’s chapter of Morgan's Message will establish a cross-district partnership with Syracuse City School District students to foster community cohesion and emotional resilience. Through a collaborative art initiative, students from Skaneateles and Frazer schools will engage in one-on-one creative sessions. These partnerships will culminate in the production of personalized magnets featuring affirmations of strength, directly reinforcing the Frazer mission statement and promoting shared values across diverse student populations.

We recently had West Lake Conservators come to the Museum and survey 19 paintings. What we learned about each painting and the efforts that need to be undertaken to restore them was invaluable.

Our vision is to start restoration with our Bowdish paintings to be able to display for the public.

Several years ago, Skaneateles Nursery School (SNS) created and implemented a new program for all of its students called the Kindness K.R.E.W. (Kids Rock Everyone's World through art). SInce its inception, the KREW has completed many projects including handing out artwork and art supplies to coommunity members, fundraising efforts for surrouding orgnanizations, built a kindness art rock garden on the grounds of the school and donated birthday kits to the Food Pantry.

From Pulp to Preservation: A Community Paper-Making Workshop with Westlake's Conservators

Westlake Art Conservation Center will host a hands-on paper-making workshop open to the community. Led by Westlake's paper conservator Geneva Iklé and Chief Paintings Conservator Chiara Kuhns, the workshop will introduce participants to the centuries-old craft of hand papermaking — the same practice Geneva uses in the lab to fill and stabilize rare works on paper — and invite the community into Westlake's new state-of-the-art conservation facility.