POTSDAM -- The St. Lawrence County Arts Council named over a dozen North Country organizations and artists that will benefit financially from two different grant programs.

This year the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) released an additional 20 percent in funding, resulting in more support for North Country artists and cultural events.

Funding comes from the Decentralization Program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, and funds are administered locally by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

The Community Arts Grant offers $300–$5,000 to individual artists and organizations that create community art experiences through classes, performances, and other artist interactions. Those receiving grants include:

• Community Performance Series will produce two large-scale musical theater productions to be presented in July.

• The Ives Park Concert Series will present an inaugural series of nine Saturday concerts, that will feature a wide range of musical styles and include a children’s concert.

• The Massena Chamber of Commerce will present ten summer concerts at a local community park.

• The Morristown Gateway Museum will present a series of nine concerts, featuring musicians from the region, in July and August.

• The Morristown Public Library will host a three-dimensional chalk art event. An artist will create a work of art on the sidewalk near the library during the community’s two-day Plein Air Festival. On the first day, the artist will create the outline; on the second, children of all ages will be invited to fill it in.

• North Country Players will present a full-length Broadway musical during the month of July.

• Northern Lights Orchestra will perform six free, public concerts in St. Lawrence County during the summer of 2016. In addition, the orchestra plans to host two rehearsals that will be open to students at two St. Lawrence County schools in 2016.

• The Norwood Public Library will offer workshops for children, ages 7–12, led by ceramicist Sara Lynch. Kids will draw images and render them in clay, and Sara will choose one design to make as a professional sculpture to be displayed in the library.

• The Town of Colton will present a series of five summer musical performances.

• Colton Historical Society will present the musical I Do, I Do. Quilts, on the theme of “The Fabric of Our Lives,” will be displayed as an integral part of the performance.

• The DeKalb Historical Association will present three spring concerts, featuring traditional fiddle music, bluegrass, and popular songs from the ’20s through the ’70s.

• Clifton Fine Economic Development Corporation will present six summer concerts with a variety of musical genres.

The 2015-16 Teaching Artists’ Fund will award $300-$5,000 grants to artists, working in partnership with K–12 public schools, to actively engage students in arts education and appreciation. Those receiving grants include:

• Liza LaBarge will teach graphic arts students from Parishville-Hopkinton Central School on the use of observational drawing techniques to transform their initial sketches into works of art with an emphasis on hyper‐realistic rendering.

• Bill Newman will be working with students in Canton Central’s Technical Theater class to design and create backdrops to be used in the school’s two 2015–2016 theatre productions.

• Patricia VanPatten will instruct students in grades 8–12 at Madrid-Waddington Central School on the techniques used to build and paint moveable sets and backdrops for the school’s two annual theatrical productions.

SLC Arts has been distributing these funds locally since 2008 to artists, municipalities, public libraries, and other not-for-profit organizations. For more information on grants offered by SLC Arts, visit www.slcartscouncil.org/grants/ or contact Alicia Murphy, at 265-6860 or arts@slcartscouncil.org.