
1960
Governor Nelson Rockefeller and New York State Senate and Assembly establish the New York State Council on the Arts as a temporary body with a study grant of $50,000. NYSCA becomes the first modern-day state arts agency in the country.
1961
- NYSCA initiates its Touring Program – the precursor to today’s performing arts programs – to ensure that venues all over the state have access to high quality culture.
- Traveling exhibitions program begins with seven American Federation of the Arts exhibitions touring the state
1965
- National Endowment for the Arts and National Council on the Arts established by U.S. Congress, making federal funds available to state arts councils
- More than 225,000 visitors to the New York World’s Fair visit the Council’s exhibition “The City – Places and People” – in the New York State Pavilion including artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Willem de Kooning and Edward Hopper
- The Council begins a program supporting educational presentations in schools around the state by companies such as the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and New York City Ballet
1966
- NYSCA presents the first New York State Awards to the Buffalo Festival of the Arts Today, Judson Memorial Church, New York Shakespeare Festival and others.
- NYSCA creates the Film Project, under the guidance of Peter Bradley, setting national precedence for the recognition of Television and Film as an art form, later the Film Program, now the Electronic Media & Film Program
1967
- NYSCA launches the precursor to what is now known as the Special Arts Services Program
NYSCA tours The Erie Maid -- a two-deck Canal-workers’ boat converted into a movable art exhibition hall featuring a calliope --to 30 canal communities with exhibition entitled “The Erie Canal: 1817-1967” to commemorate the 150th anniversary of beginning of Canal construction. The exhibition is viewed by 138,250 people

1971
- NYSCA begins a new program, now known as State & Local Partnerships, to support community and regional arts councils, multi-arts centers and interdisciplinary service organizations
- Literature Program established to support the creation, publication and dissemination of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and drama
1977
- A study by Louis Harris polling organization concludes that the arts account for nearly half of the state’s tourism
- A study by Yankelovich, Skelly and White of the Metropolitan Museum’s “Treasures of Tutankhamun” shows that the exhibition generated more than $1 million a day into the city’s economy spent by out-of-town visitors
1978
- Decentralization (DEC) pilot program expands the Council’s capacity to respond to cultural needs at the grassroots level, reaching into small or insulated communities to increase cultural opportunities
- Presenting Program established to help bring high-quality performing arts companies and artists to large and small cities across the state

1980
1981
1984
1985
- Arts In Education Program created to develop sustained partnerships between the educational and cultural community for students pre-K through grade 12
- Folk Arts Program created, devoted to sustaining New York State’s living cultural heritage of folk arts
- NYSCA awards first multi-year grants, providing funding stability for grantees in good standing
1987
1989
- Initial investment of $50,000 has grown to a budget of over $50 M
- Film Program hosts “Show The Right Thing: A National Conference on Multicultural Film and Video Exhibition” for 300 participants
- Special Arts Services Program supports Western New York Migrant Multicultural Arts Festival, serving 650 migrant farm workers from 12 counties

1994
1995
1997
1998
- NYS Littree.org is created in collaboration with Bright Hill Press in Treadwell, showcasing New York State’s literary heritage
- NYSCA Museum Program hosts “[email protected]: The Arts in a Digital Age," in collaboration with the New York Foundation for the Arts, a conference exploring applications of technology for art-making, communication, networking and marketing

2000
- The publication Changing Places: 25 Years of Architecture, Planning and Design at the New York State Council on the Arts was produced and a celebratory event was held at the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor 25 years of NYSCA’s architecture and design support
- NYSCA Electronic Media & Film Program establishes the NYSCA Memory Archive, preserving thirty-three years (1967-2000) of seminal NYSCA grantee media and film materials, in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum and the New York Public Library
2001
2004
NYSCA’s Visual Arts Program spearheads the creation of the New York State Artist Workspace Consortium, a networked peer group of 10 organizations that share and promote the purpose of providing workspaces to create new work and dialogue.
2007
- Through special legislation, NYSCA implements the Stabilization Program initiative which offers critical grants for creating cash reserve funds for nonprofit arts and cultural institutions to be used as working capital
- The Museum Program convenes children’s museums in the State to discuss strategies for stability, collaboration, and growth.
2008
NYSCA initiates Cultural Blueprints sessions across the state. These sessions built upon the Empire State Development Corporation’s Regional Blueprints to identify regional and statewide arts-based growth strategies, still active today through the REDC initiative.
2009
NYSCA distributes $399,900 of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) economic stimulus funds through the National Endowment for the Arts to save jobs of employees with significant impact to the surrounding arts and cultural community threatened due to the economic downturn

2011
2012
2013
2016
NYSCA’s Music and Arts Education Programs host the first of three Diversifying Orchestral Music convenings, leading to the creation of REDC workforce investment opportunities for members of communities underrepresented in the arts
Since 1985, more than 4,000 artists have received unrestricted support through the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, funded by NYSCA and administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Alumni include Spike Lee, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Lynn Nottage, Julie Taymor and Billy Collins.
2017
- NYSCA partners with Empire State Development on an unprecedented $20M capital funding opportunity available through REDC funding
- NYSCA partners with the NYS Canals Commission to celebrate the Erie Canal Bicentennial. Through NYSCA’s REDC Program, NYSCA helps to fund projects that commemorate the canals, such as the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s WaterMusic and the Corning Museum of Glass’ GlassBarge
- The National Endowment for the Arts in collaboration with the Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the first report of state-by-state data relating to the economic impact of the arts, showing that New York State’s cultural industries provide 459,942 jobs and $45.5 billion in compensation