Faculty in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) have received National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants to support their community-engaged creative arts programs.

The awards—$20,000 for a collaborative filmmaking production program aimed at Syracuse City youth and $18,200 for two years of artist residencies at a campus-affiliated cultural center—reflect the University’s commitment to connecting academic and creative work with the Central New York community.

Teens With a Movie Camera

Now in its third year, “Teens With a Movie Camera” brings about a dozen local high school students to campus each summer for a three-week media arts production collaboration. Working with film faculty and University students, teens ages 13 to 18 make original short films using smartphones and everyday objects and then present them publicly.

Their work has been shown at the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse Symposium and at ArtRage Gallery. It has also been screened in national and international film festivals, including the Thomas Edison Film festival, where “Chickadee Overcomes Gravity” won an honorable mention; and in the New Year/New Work Film Festival at The Film-Makers’ Cooperative in NYC.

The program is co-led by Mišo Suchý, associate professor in VPA’s Department of Film and Media Arts; VPA film program alumnus Evan Bode G’23 and Lida Suchy, a Guggenheim fellow and adjunct professor of photography at Onondaga Community College.

The trio is assisted by undergraduate and graduate film and media arts students. The program aims to empower teens by voicing their ideas through images and public presentation, according to Mišo Suchý. He says production relies heavily on improvisation “because it is undertaken as a zero-budget creative production based on the ethos of the tradition of independent cinema and low-budget experimental filmmaking.”

This summer’s program will explore themes of “defying gravity” and “overcoming the impossible.” Interested teens can apply on the program’s website.

Community Folk Art Center

A second NEA grant of $18,200 will support “Rooted & Rising,” an artist residency program at the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC), a University-affiliated cultural hub dedicated to promoting artists of the African Diaspora.

The residency is directed by Tanisha Jackson, executive director of CFAC and assistant professor of African American studies in A&S. The grant will allow a program beginning in summer 2026 continuing through the end of 2027 that will support four artists over the two-year period. In addition to interacting with students in A&S programs, the artists will develop workshops, exhibitions, talks and free public events.

Jackson says the residencies will create meaningful opportunities for Syracuse University students to engage directly with working artists while also expanding access to arts programming for the Central New York community. They also offer the artists “the time, space and institutional support to develop new work grounded in public engagement and cultural dialogue,” Jackson says.

The project reflects CFAC’s mission to bridge scholarship, creative expression and community wellness through support of multidisciplinary artists.

More information about NEA grants and their impact on communities is available on the NEA website.