History of The Smith Center for the Arts

The Smith Center for the Arts, Inc. was formed in November 2008 through the merger of two organizations, the Finger Lakes Regional Arts Council, Inc. (which owned and operated the Smith Opera House) and the Geneva Arts Development Council, which had determined that they could accomplish their missions more effectively by working as one.

The Finger Lakes Regional Arts Council has had excellent accomplishments in the presentation of live events and film, garnering national praise. It operated the ArtSmart arts in education regrant program, and the Smith Opera House Gallery and Gift Shop. The Geneva Arts Development Council conducted arts development activities by providing a forum in which all the local arts organizations could meet and work on shared initiatives. Accomplishments have included hosting summer festivals and special events series, building an online arts events calendar and weekly email, and leveraging marketing of all arts initiatives.

All of these activities will be continued by The Smith Center for the Arts. The joining of these two organizations insures a focused, unified approach to future arts programming in and out of the Smith Opera House, a stronger, more vocal, more inclusive arts presence in the community, and an overall healthier arts environment in which our community can thrive.

The Geneva Arts Development Council had been formed out of a subcommittee of the Finger Lakes Regional Arts Council in 2000 in order to incubate new activities and explore the growth potential for the arts in downtown Geneva.   Here are the results of two studies conducted at that time:
 
Cultural/Tourism vision for downtown Geneva
 
Cultural Center Preliminary Report