Art Center Gets $15K Grant

The Windsor Art Center has been named the recipient of the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation’s Creation of New Work Grant for 2012.  The $15,000 award will fund a new multi-media piece entitled, The River. 

The River will focus on the Farmington River and its environs in Windsor. Kathryn Swanson, the composer, will create a new composition that will include music, dance and film. A first glimpse of the new piece will take place on Thursday, September 20th at the Windsor Art Center’s 5th Anniversary celebration with the finished composition premiering in May 2013 as part of the shad festivities in Windsor.

In speaking about the award Samuel Hinckley, the president of the board of directors of Windsor Art Center, said, “the board is very excited about the award and the creative work it will allow us to undertake. I believe this is the very first original composition focusing on the Farmington River in Windsor. We are honored and most grateful to the Roberts Foundation for this grant  and its ongoing support.”

The Roberts Foundation was established in 1964 by Edward (Ned) Constant Roberts and Ann (Sunny) Thorsen Roberts. The Roberts Foundation was established in 1964 by Edward (Ned) Constant Roberts and Ann (Sunny) Thorsen Roberts.  It donates approximately $300,000 each year to local arts organizations.  The Foundation board initiated its Creation of New Works Grant in 2003 in order to support local artists living and working in Greater Hartford, foster collaborations between artists and arts organizations that will benefit the community and further the Foundation’s mission to support and encourage excellence in the arts in Capitol region.  

The Windsor Art Center’s project was selected by an independent panel of local arts organization representatives.  “The panel was attracted to this project’s use of multiple genres,” explained
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Lisa M. Curran, Executive Director of The Roberts Foundation.  “We are delighted that we can support a variety of local artists with this grant.” 

Ned  Roberts was born in Hartford June 4, 1888. His father, Henry Roberts served as Governor of the State of Connecticut from 1905-1907. After graduation from Hartford High School and Yale, Class of 1910, Ned pursued a career as an insurance agent and owned a travel agency, but his first love was music. He was an accomplished musician and played with the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hartford String Orchestra.

Sunny Roberts was born in Black Rock, Connecticut, January 25, 1896 to parents who had recently emigrated from Denmark. After graduating from Hartford High School, she studied at The Hartford Art School and worked as a secretary and bookkeeper at an advertising agency. She and Ned married in July 1939. They had no children.

The composer of this new work - The River, Kathryn Swanson (b. 1977) has earned a number of degrees and certificates from schools across the country including The Hartt School, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and the UCLA Extensions program in film scoring. She has worked as a copyist, technical assistant, and arranger for composers on several Disney Channel movies and TV series, including Cartoon Network’s Samurai Jack and My Life as a Teenage Robot. In addition, she has orchestrated and conducted for the SONY Orchestra and pop singers, Evan & Jaron.

Currently, Kathryn is teaching at the University of Hartford Hartt School and the Greater Hartford Arts Academy while finishing her Doctor of Music Arts in Composition at The Hartt School.