The Arts Council for the Northern Adirondacks and the ArtsNorth Coalition has provided support services, grants through the Essex County LIFT/CIP/CAP, NYSCA Decentralization (DCA) Program and NYFA Strategic Opportunity Stipends and/or collaborated with all of these organizations below since 1980. Click on the link below and take a look at the very large number of organizations that have received ACNA support over the years.
Judith has been a wonderful volunteer for us over the years. She has put many, many hours into helping us out with everything from mailings to working on many of our various events. She is also a great supporter of the arts and has purchased many wonderful pieces from our traveling shows. A special artistic aspect of her life that you may not realize is that she is a wonderfully gifted and published poet. Please enoy the wonderful epistolary poem below entitled "Dear Samuel" that Judith has written.
About Judith Dow Moore
Judith Dow Moore has lived in Westport, NY for 43 years and loves it. She was born and educated in Montreal and taught a few generations of Westport children as an English teacher at Westport Central School.
In 1980, seven Champlain Valley Cultural Organizations gathered to form an organization to work jointly promoting the Arts in the region. The “Boquet Valley Arts Project” grew over the next three years to nineteen groups throughout Essex County and began to publish the Arts Directory. We compiled a master arts calendar which has now become the Northern Adirondack Arts Directory. In 1983, the group, with help from New York State Council on the Arts and the Essex County Board of Supervisors, declared itself the Essex County Arts Council and incorporated as a not-for-profit. The arts services expanded to include a regrant program, Arts Festival and a clearinghouse of Arts information. Over the years the Arts Council has grown to incorporate art exhibits, a performance series, along with arts services for individual artists and organizations. In 1994, with the unfortunate demise of the Franklin County Arts Council, ECAC began providing programs and five regrant programs beyond Essex County and renamed itself the Arts Council for the Northern Adirondacks. One year later the ArtsNorth Coalition was formed, a network of Arts Centers and Councils in the seven county North Country region, headed by ACNA. With our original mission of marketing and promotion of the arts, we now provide services to 140 organizations in Essex and Franklin counties and network with over 300 in the Adirondack North Country
What We Do
The Arts Council for the Northern Adirondacks is a cultural organization whose primary goals are to encourage, develop, promote and sustain the cultural life of our local and regional communities. It is our belief that the arts help build stronger communities and enrich personal experience. By promoting education and history, encouraging creation and interaction, the knowledge of work and spirit, both past and present, art promotes and celebrates the richness of creative expression and human endeavor. Our efforts are varied and far-reaching and provide support and services, not only to artists and organizations, but individuals, constituents and tourists alike.
Our New Location
Our New Location was Newly renovated by the Town of Westport and Westport Chamber of Commerce, the old "White Churchand Beebe Hall", in the Historic District, is now an Art and Community Center renamed the "Westport Heritage House". Sitting on a hill overlooking Ballard Park and Lake Champlain. The Heritage House will be the new home for the Arts Council for the Northern Adirondacks, a Performance Space and Information Center for Residents and Visitors.
