Queens Council on the Arts
"The Queens Council on the Arts (QCA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1966. The mission of the Queens Council on the Arts is to foster and develop the arts in Queens County and to support individual artists and arts organizations in presenting their cultural diversity for the benefit of the community. QCA is now part of the Kaufman Arts District in Astoria, Queens.
Queens Council on the Arts was established in 1966 by leader organizations in the borough’s cultural community, with the guidance of Jeanne Dale Katz. The Queens Symphony Orchestra, Queens Opera Association, Queens Borough Public Library, Oratorio Society, Queensborough Community College, and Saint Johns University, among other visionary institutions, came together to form the Council as an umbrella organization to promote cultural growth and the development of the arts in Queens, and to help artists and groups present the borough’s diverse cultural resources to Queens residents as well as the larger community. QCA has kept alive this mission for over 40 years.
One of QCA’s first steps was to establish free concerts in the parks, in the 1960s. Over the next decade QCA fostered the development of the Queens Museum, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, and Colden Center, among other important institutions. In 1977 the Council began to administrate the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs’ Greater New York Arts Development Fund, to which it soon added the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program funds. Ever since, QCA has played a key role in directing city, state, federal, and private funds to emerging artists and organizations in Queens for the benefit of the community. In the 1980s QCA established the Arts Education, Queens Community Arts Fund, and Folk Arts programs and took on the management for the Queens Theatre in the Park, a role that extended until 1997. QCA remains committed to supporting programs and activities that directly serve the citizens of Queens and enhance the cultural and artistic climate of the borough.
QCA has grown into a wide-ranging arts service organization providing grants, professional development, and education services. In recent years, QCA has innovated a wide variety of programming and events, including Project Diversity Queens, the Individual and Teaching Artist Initiatives, and the Arts in the Schools grant program. Since its inception, QCA has awarded more than $2,000,000 in grants to artists and arts organizations; provided arts education to more than a million Queens schoolchildren; and produced and presented hundreds of exhibitions as well as guides, brochures, and maps of art sites in Queens. Currently, our workshops, our website, and our TV broadcasts reach more than 300,000 people every year.
QCA itself has won many awards, including the Arts and Business Council Award with the Queens Shopping Center Mall (1997), the Governor’s Award for the Arts (1999), the Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture (2006), and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award with the Queens Courier (2008). Its publication “The International Express – A Guide to Ethnic Communities Along the #7 Train” won a National Millennium Heritage Trail designation in 2000 and received a Municipal Arts Society Certificate of Merit in 2005.