By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — The mill that spurred the Industrial Revolution was a fitting location to announce funding for two Pawtucket-based arts organizations that are also credited with fueling the local economy.

The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts has awarded $12,000 to the Old Slater Mill Association and $30,000 to the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre to support general operations.
These two grants are part of $147,731 in total grant money for fiscal year 2008 that RISCA has provided to Pawtucket artists, arts organizations and arts education projects.
At a press conference on Wednesday at Old Slater Mill, Randy Rosenbaum, Executive Director of the RISCA, praised city officials and the awards recipients for being successful competitors “for an increasingly competitive pool of funds from the state pof Rhode Island.”
Rosenbaum said that RISCA received 585 applications totaling almost $4.5 million in funding requests statewide. Of this, the organization was able to fund 248 projects with $1.8 million in state and federal funds.
In noting Pawtucket’s much-publicized growth as an arts community, Rosenbaum said that in 1983, the arts organizations received $5,925 in grant support. This year’s award totaling $147,731 marks a “high point” in RISCA support to the city’s artists, arts organizations and arts education projects.
Rosenbaum credited Pawtucket Mayor James Doyle, state Rep. Peter Kilmartin, and Herb Weiss, the city’s Economic and Cultural Affairs Officer, as contributing to the city’s growing reputation as a model arts community.
Mayor James Doyle said that the arts “have become a huge economic engine in Pawtucket and the state has been a loyal partner in the city’s efforts to promote the arts as an economic force.”
He noted that each production, performance and gallery exhibit generate the potential for additional spending in restraunrts and other local businesses.”
Doyle further noted that, without the various artists and arts organizations, “You’d be looking at a lot of empty mill buildings. The arts have been an economic savior--an economic engine,” he added.
Rep. Peter Kilmartin also noted that the arts “are not only good for us culturally, but economically.” He noted that in the current dire budget times, when “everything is on the chopping clock,” it is important that RISCA be viewed as “a positive.” He said the arts should be looked at as “an investment in small business--not an expense in our budget.”
Yvonne Seggerman, managing director of the Gamm Theatre and president of the Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts, said that, according to a recent study on New England’s creative economy from the New England Council, a regional business chamber of commerce, the arts contributes “close to a half-billion dollars annually to the state’s economy.
“A thriving cultural community such as what is growing here in Pawtucket generates income, jobs and tax revenue,” she stated.
Other Pawtucket-based artists and art organizations receiving RISCA grants in the current fiscal year were: All Childrens Theatre ($5,000), Aurea ($3,000), Blackstone Valley Tourism Council ($5,000), Thomas Doran ($5,000), David F. Eliet ($5,000), Gateway Healthcare Inc. ($2,000), Lauren Holt ($3,000), Mixed Magic Theatre ($4,500), John Monteiro ($2,000), Pawtucket Armory Association ($5,500), Jaqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing & Visual Arts ($4,900), Popular Theatre of Rhode Island ($1,800), VSA Arts of Rhode Island ($25,431).