New York State Council on the Arts Executive Director's Subject and Correspondence Files

18913-98: Arranged according to executive director, in chronological order by term dates and therein by subject.

18913-99: Roughly chronological and therein roughly by subject.

18913-99A, 18913-01, 18913-02: Roughly by subject, then chronological.

18913-99B: Chronological or by subject.

18913-06, 18913-18: Chronological.

The position of executive director of the New York State Council on the Arts has been held by the following individuals: Laurence Roberts (1960-1961); John H. MacFadyen (1961-1964); John B. Hightower (1964-1970); Eric Larrabee (1971-1975); Kent Barwick (1975-1976); Robert A. Mayer (1976-1979); Theodore Striggles (1979-1980); Mary Hays (1980-1995); Al Berr (April, 1995-August, 1996); Nicolette B. Clarke (1996-2004); Richard Schwartz-acting executive director (2004-2007); Heather Hitchens (2007-2011); and Lisa Robb (2011-present).

The series consists of correspondence with state, national, and foreign arts-related agencies; appeals received from organizations that were not granted funds, and decisions on those appeals; budgets and budget allocation plans; legislative correspondence; long-range planning and policy documents for council program units; internal memoranda; staff and general correspondence; and speeches.

18913-99: This accretion consists of the "office correspondence" of Executive Director Mary Hays. Files deal primarily with the operations of the council's executive office. In addition, the accretion contains a number of board of director's meeting binders of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (1990-1996).

18913-99A: This accretion consists of correspondence with constituent organizations (1980-1995); panelist list and profiles (1990-1997); constituent appeals (1986-1993); and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation board of directors meeting materials and correspondence (1993-1996).

18913-99B: This accretion consists of constituent appeals (1990-1991, 1993-1995) arranged alphabetically by name of the organization, executive director's organizational files (1983-1994) arranged roughly by subject, and former council members files arranged alphabetically by member name.

18913-01: This accretion further documents the operations of the council's executive office under Executive Director Mary Hays. Files contain correspondence with state agencies, council committees, and the governor's office; reports to the governor, particularly in regard to the Musical Instrument Revolving Loan Fund (1984-1994); long-range planning documents; reports on foundations and fundraising organizations; appeals panel records, including decisions on appeals of funding denials; and correspondence with and legal documents received from the council's legal counsel (1982-1994).

18913-02: The bulk of this accretion provides additional documentation of the tenure of the council's longest sitting executive director, Mary Hays. However, smaller amounts of material spanning nearly the entire history of the council are also included. Particularly noteworthy are files documenting the appeals of funding decisions, files relating to the Upstate Challenge Program (1995-1996), Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) files, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) subject files, legislative correspondence, fiscal and policy materials, and program guidelines.

18913-06: This accretion consists of the subject and correspondence files of Nicolette Clarke, the Executive Director of the New York State Council on the Arts from 1996-2001. Included in the records are letters of correspondence with officials in state and local government and from organizations given grants in the preceding fiscal year. Also included are copies of budgets, Council meetings, and planning documents, reports, and fiscal related material concerning the development of budgets.

18913-12: This accretion contains the subject and correspondence files from the tenures of executive directors Mary Hays, Al Berr, Nicolette Clarke and Richard Schwartz (acting). This includes records relating to activities with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The records also document the operations of the executive office.

18913-18: This accretion contains budget related reference material. One binder provides a breakdown of NYSCA funding by county and grant applicant for the 2003 fiscal year. A second binder examines national, state, and agency budgeting between 1995 and 2003.

18913-99: Container list is available at the repository.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.