Robert R. Chapman Fund

Five local nonprofit organizations have been awarded grants from the Robert R. Chapman Fund totaling $4,950.   Funding priority is given to organizations that promote and/or help provide international and cultural learning experiences for youth.  The committee reviewed 10 grant requests totaling $24,000.

Fall 2009 Awards

Dutchess County Arts Council
$500

Funds to support Sacred Tables, an interactive project involving youth from several different faith communities in Dutchess and Ulster Counties and is conceived as a cross-cultural, inter-faith conversation exploring food as symbol of cultural/religious identities.

Mid-Hudson Children's Museum, Inc.
$1,450

Support for the Museum’s Folk Arts Series, which celebrates cultural diversity of New York State and the Hudson Valley.  Children and their families are introduced to the arts, customs and traditions of people who settled here from other countries.  The audience is engaged in a cultural learning experience and local artists from varied ethnic groups are highlighted that have energized lives throughout the Hudson Valley.

Mill Street Loft, Inc.
$1,500

Funds will support a trip in summer 2010 for The Art Institute of Mill Street Loft to visit Mexico.  The trip will include working sessions with artist teachers and students from the Arts Institute of Tlaxcala (in Mexico) in what has developed into a continuing cultural exchange begun in 2007.

Webutuck High School
$500

Students of Webutuck High School’s French Club will travel to Paris, Normandy and Brittany.  A custom itinerary is built around key elements of the French III and French IV curricula and students have on-site assessment tasks of French architecture, art, iconography, medieval history and prehistory.  Grant money will reduce air-fare payments to offset the cost of the trip

World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley
$500

Funds will be used to support Academic World Quest, a flagship program of the World Affairs Council of America, which is a competition testing high school students' knowledge of world affairs, geography, history, culture, current events, international organizations and other related topics.