Testimonials

Behind every three-minute dance piece, there can often be 30 hours of rehearsal. Behind every performance, there are hundreds of hours of office work to be done to secure grants, contact sponsors, submit applications, etc. Materials for the Arts has enabled me to create an office environment where I can manage my company on a competitive professional level.
-Anabella Lenzu (Artistic Director, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama)

Materials for the Arts has been a staple of our nonprofit art gallery throughout the years. Nearly half of the art shows featured yearly at our gallery utilize materials from MFTA, donated by their generous contributors. This is an innovative organization, one that nearly every artist I've come in contact with in New York City, at one time or another has made good use of. The arts scene in New York would have a very different face - the same --without MFTA. Our thanks to everyone who has kept it going.
-Steve Cannon and Chavisa Woods (Director and Coordinator, A Gathering of the Tribes)

On behalf of all of us at the Mark Morris Dance Group, I am pleased to enthusiastically endorse the significant work of Materials for the Arts.
Materials for the Arts is a wonderful and crucial organization, one that has had a great impact on the Mark Morris Dance Group and many other New York City arts organizations. MFTA has served as an excellent resource for MMDG since the opening of the Mark Morris Dance Center in 2001. We have continued to make at least two annual trips to MFTA to collect donated supplies; one organization’s junk is truly another’s treasure. Throughout the Dance Center, MFTA acquisitions are interspersed in nearly every room, lounge, and conference space. Contributions have ranged from practical office supplies and furniture, chairs, shelving units and a mini-fridge, to decorative objects like the silk flower bouquet adorning the staff bathroom and the gilded golden mirror that takes its place as one of the centerpieces of Mr. Morris’s office. MFTA resources are literally around every corner.
The benefits will be reaped for years to come as dancers, students, parents, staff and visitors from the surrounding community enter the Dance Center and make use of the wares we obtain at MFTA.
Thank you for your dedication to the New York City arts community.
-Nancy Umanoff (Executive Director, Mark Morris Dance Group)

We can't do what we do without Materials for the Arts.
-Heather Cunningham (Artistic Director, Retro Productions)

I cannot think of the Arts Cure: Dance Project Sequence without thinking of the materials we received from Materials for the Arts. When we finished our renovations, we received 76 metal chairs to put in our hallways, dressing rooms, and informal studio spaces. We also received a refrigerator and microwave oven through a Direct Donation. In the refrigerator, we keep a variety of beverages, which students can purchase. The microwave oven is used to reheat student lunches. On our last visit to MFTA we picked up 12 plywood boards and several rolls of black fabric. We used the plywood to construct a dance floor and the black fabric to cover the wall of our performance space (a renovated karate dojo and our space partner) in order to turn it into a black box theatre. Of course the chairs, mentioned above, are now audience seats in this hand-made theater. I just don't know how to thank MFTA, without their materials we would not be able to run our center. Please feel free to visit us and see how many items, in our facilities, are from your organization. Thank you and best regards.
-Eri Misaki (Director, Dance Project SEQUENCE, Inc.)

Thank you for allowing us to be members of Materials for the Arts. Our Troop Leaders and Service Unit Managers are all volunteers. The materials we collect are used for troop/program activities with the girls. From time to time, our program staff visit the warehouse and the materials they find are used in our full-scale programs, typically at our Summer Camp. Last year we used fabric from MFTA as part of the decorations at a Fright Fest celebration that was held for our older girls up at our Camp. Thank you again for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful resource.

-Charmaine Chung (Senior Director, Membership & Volunteer Recognitions, Girl Scout Council of Greater New York)

Socrates Sculpture Park offers free community events such as the popular Summer Solstice Celebration and Halloween Harvest Festival. These wonderful community events include special artmaking workshops and live performances by artists and musicians. The free education and community programs at the Park are constantly expanding to accommodate our growing constituency and without the help of Materials for the arts, this would not be possible. Our Halloween Harvest Festival draws a crowd of 2,000 people and thanks to Materials for the Arts, children can create Halloween costumes using fabric, trim, elastic, beads, buttons and other wonderful things that you find at their warehouse. Materials for the Arts is a wonderful organization that allows Socrates Sculpture Park to continue to provide exciting, creative programming to children from all over the city.
-Tara Sansone (Director of Education, Socrates Sculpture Park)

We are so grateful to be a member of Materials for the Arts. At the NYS Office of Mental Health (Bronx Psychiatric Adult Rehabilitation Services) we have been able to be more creative and have had a greater impact on our clients thanks to the ample materials which we were not able to afford before.

Here are some examples of how we use your materials:

1. Posters: to decorate the activity area where our clients can enjoy creative activities.

2. VCR: used as a part of Music Therapy sessions in rehabilitation services.

3. Yarns: crochet and knitting program conducted for female trauma clients.

4. Craft Items and fabrics: Used as part of art therapy sessions.

5. Books: As a reference to art making and learning life skills.

6. Frames: Framing artwork of clients and organizing exhibition.

-Toshiko Kobayashi (Senior Art Therapist, NYS Office of Mental Health - Bronx Psychiatric Adult Rehabilitation Center)

We would like to thank Material for the Arts for giving -BAAD!- The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (located in the poorest congressional district) here in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, the gift of keeping our theatre pristine, simple and elegant.

Sending Love from the BAAD! CREW!

Over the years, Materials for the Arts has saved Prospect Theater Company thousands of dollars. It is an amazing resource to have access to. Perhaps my favorite item we received through the years was bolts of brightly colored upholstery fabric, which we sewed into a giant, 30' x 30' patchwork quilt. For two of our shows we carried this giant quilt into Central Park, spread it out, and performed Shakespeare plays on top of it, with the audience gathering around the edges of the patchwork "stage." After making it through two summers, it's still in our storage unit, waiting for it's next day in the sun.

-Cara Reichel (Producing Artistic Director, Prospect Theater Company)

Thanks to Materials for the Arts, Palladia has been able to provide enriching art instruction to over a hundred men and women receiving treatment in our residential facilities in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. As they struggle to overcome the addictions that have trapped them for years, many of these residents have found art to be a vehicle for confronting issues from their past, as well as their hope for the future. Many have discovered undeveloped talents that they never knew existed. The generosity of Materials for the Arts has helped change lives. We thank you for your continued support.

-Jane Velez (President/CEO, Palladia, Inc.)

Materials for the Arts is a beacon of hope for the Arts in New York City. The generosity of its donors and organization of its staff deliver critical assistance to Yanira Castro + Company, without which this theatrical work couldn't happen. Every donated treasure becomes a powerful tool, facilitating creative visions and making our site-specific performances possible. We've created a trio of illumined cubes in an abandoned office space, a pair of respiring cocoons in an industrial basement, and diaphanous counter-rotating veils within an old factory; all of these environments were created with MFTA donations.

-C. Merritt Houghton (Installation Designer, Yanira Castro + Company)

Everytime I come to Materials for the Arts my mind is blown. Occasionally they might not have exactly what I am looking for (though they often do)...but there will always be plenty of something much better that I hadn't even thought of. Visits to MFTA have changed the course of some of my work...like when a discovery of colored Plexiglas became central to Symphonie Fantastique, or when a boxload of artificial flowers became the defining, copious, luxurious accessories for 17th century puppet costumes. A visit there is a never ending abundance of ideas and inspiration for an artist like myself where the "stuff" is THE thing.
-Basil Twist (Puppeteer, HERE Arts Center)

Materials for the Arts donations have not only helped the Alcoholism Clinic and many other Bellevue Hospital-based treatments, but also enhanced our patients' lives. Without MFTA our programs would be drastically cut back and in some cases eliminated."
- Dr. Annatina Miescher (Psychiatrist, Bellevue Hospital)

Materials for the Arts is a godsend. One of the city's true treasures in more ways than one."
- Rome Neal (Artistic Director, Nuyorican Poets Cafe)

MFTA,quite simply eases our already tight budgetary constraints by providing us with the kinds of raw materials necessary to complete our artistic goals.
-Chad Beckim (Co-Artistic Director, Partial Comfort Productions)

Materials for the artis is spectacular, and we are in awe of their daily physical work and technological skills of cataloguing the donations.
-Annie Leffingwell (Art Director, Costume Cultural Society)