At the Colorscape Fete, a thank you event for Colorscape volunteers, donors, sponsors, and partners held at the Colonia Theater in May 2019, Board President Melissa DeCordova offered thanks to so many who make the Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival happen.
Gratitude…
“We are grateful that you are here. You, our valuable volunteers and foundation and business partners, are the reason we are here to tonight. Thank you. Without you, without your dedication with financial and in-kind support, we wouldn’t be able to do this for a quarter of a century.
Not only have you enabled us to bring nationally recognized musicians, poets, and other performance artists to three stages; to provide creative, hands-on arts activities for all ages; and allowed us to showcase in Norwich’s beautiful downtown parks the best fine artists from all over, you’ve also allowed Colorscape to offer it for free.
You are giving people of all ages the opportunity to be inspired by a painting, a piece of music, a piece of pottery or jewelry, a dancer, a juggler, or a drummer. Even if you are like me and can barely tell the difference between a watercolor, an acrylic, or an oil, nor even pronounce that awkward pottery word, Roku, you know how art can pull someone’s mind away and allow them to breathe new, fresh, and different air. I think it is at that present moment–when nothing else matters except what’s right in front of you, when you are seeing with your eyes or hearing with your ears or sensing with your soul–that art moves one to consider, to compare, to laugh, to cry, to love, to get angry, to dream, and quite possibly, to hope in in an entirely new direction.
As one of our founding partners, Mark Golden of Golden Artist Colors, so aptly explains for us, “Art Can Change the World.”
Thank you volunteers and partners for doing that, even for one person at a time. That’s all it takes.
In addition to grants from our loyal foundations mentioned in the film (previewed at the event), plus grants from the Thomas M. and Esther C. Flanagan Charitable Trust and those administered by Chenango Arts Council and Chenango County Tourism, please join me in honoring Colorscape’s major corporate partners: Golden Artist Colors, NBT Bank, Chobani!, UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital, Preferred Mutual, The Raymond Corporation, ACCO, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, The Label Gallery, Rentals To Go, Bagnall Electric, Price Chopper Supermarkets, Kerry Bio-Science, Benedict Corporation Subaru GMC & Pre-Owned, Mirabito, Unison, Laral Management, Byrne Dairy, New York Pizzeria, Visions Federal Credit Union, The Parson’s Daughter, @Wells Fargo, Norwich Implement Inc, GHS Federal Credit Union, Blueox, Pro Tel, New York Century Mutual, Frontier Communications, Sidney Federal Credit Union, and Stewart’s Shops. Plus we have media sponsors: The Evening Sun and Pennysaver, Hourglass Media, WSKG Public TV & Radio, WCDO, and a whole host of partners who donate time, manpower, and services, all of which are listed in our program every year and on our new Attendify app for mobile devices.
Thank you!