Acra, NY—Wave Farm announced today fifteen grantees for the Fall 2025 round of the Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) for Organizations, a regrant program with the New York State Council on the Arts. MAAF for Organizations grantees are: Adirondack Film, CultureHub, EMPAC at RPI, Film Forum, Harvestworks, Institute for Electronic Arts (iea) at Alfred University, The Flaherty, LiberArte, Life Stories, Maysles Documentary Center, MITU, New York International Children's Film Festival, Roulette Intermedium, The New Festival, and UnionDocs.

The Media Arts Assistance Fund supports electronic media and film organizations, as well as individual artists, in all regions of New York State. For organizations, MAAF provides funds to support technical strategies for online development as well as to hire outside consultants to support organizational and professional development. MAAF prioritizes organizations that have missions specific to the media arts or dedicate the majority of their programming to technology as an art form. Multi-disciplinary organizations are considered on a case-by-case basis. All applicants must be current NYSCA grantees. Organizations are eligible to receive a maximum of $2,500 for each application opportunity. The biannual application due dates are May 1 and October 1.

FALL 2025 GRANTEES AND PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
Adirondack Film (Essex County) - Solidifying CRM Technology
Adirondack Film will use MAAF funding for DonorPerfect, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform to build upon donor relationships, attain multi-year gifts, and diversify their fundraising portfolio in order to make a greater impact on the lives of their remote Adirondack community through the media arts.

CultureHub (New York County) - Interface Design for Live Broadcasting
CultureHub will use MAAF funding to support development of LiveLab Broadcaster, an open-source platform for interactive digital performance created in collaboration with creative coders at NYU/ITP. The platform allows an online audience to creatively intervene in the live environment, in a way that brings their presence into the physical space. MAAF support will allow CultureHub to work on designing solutions for edge cases, unexpected limitations, browser compatibility, and bugs that emerge in the testing phase.

EMPAC at RPI (Rensselaer County) - Venue Camera System development in 2025-26
EMPAC will use MAAF funding to support technical development toward online programming and public outreach goals as the organization shifts to a festival model. EMPAC’s goal is to maximize resources for diverse audiences, and to optimize their calendar and expand reach, increasing engagement across all programming. This project will prepare EMPAC for the implementation of a venue camera system, media production, and online publication in order to foster a more inclusive learning community of artists, academics, technologists, and enthusiasts.

Film Forum (New York County) - Capacity Interactive Boot Camp 2025
Film Forum will use MAAF funding to support members of their marketing team in attending the annual boot camp hosted by Capacity Interactive, a digital marketing and consulting firm for the arts. This engagement will help Film Forum continue to guide audience engagement strategy, clarify digital accessibility needs, and keep pace with changing audience expectations and new digital marketing strategies.

Harvestworks (New York County) - Rebranding and Digital Identity Initiative
Harvestworks will use MAAF funding to engage professional designers in the creation of a new brand identity for the organization. Harvestworks will work with outside consultants to develop a comprehensive set of branding assets that will serve as the foundation for public-facing communications. This updated visual identity will better align with their mission of supporting innovative work at the intersection of art and technology, while also attracting the next generation of artists who seek connection, mentorship, and opportunities in emerging media.

Institute for Electronic Arts (iea) (Allegany County) - Experimental Media Arts Guidance & Future Planning
Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University will use MAAF funding to support an engagement with Signal Culture, an organization dedicated to experimental media, tool-building, and artist support structures. The consultation will contribute to organizational and professional development, training for staff, improvements to IEA’s residency program structure, and guidance for the curation, collection, and physical layout of new media technology.

The Flaherty (New York County) - Development of Interactive Hybrid Global Programming
The Flaherty will use MAAF funding to engage an outside consultant in planning the online and hybrid aspects of future Flaherty Film Seminars. Through their hybrid model, the Film Seminars have so far enabled access to programs for people in 48 different countries in total. This technical consultation will help create sustainable, scalable solutions for an expanding global community while maintaining the intimate and impactful aspects of the program.

LiberArte (Queens County) - Strategic Planning Consulting
LiberArte will use MAAF funding to engage Evolution Management Consultants (EMC) to guide a pivotal strategic planning process that will strengthen capacity to create and present time-based and moving-image media art. EMC is a BIPOC-led consulting firm specializing in arts-centered strategic planning and organizational design. EMC will support LiberArte’s organizational and professional development by aligning leadership and infrastructure with an expanding media-arts mission.

Life Stories (New York County) - Consulting for Organizational Development and Expanding Educational Resources
Life Stories will use MAAF funding to engage an outside consultant to strengthen the Life Stories Learning (LSL) platform and expand its capacity to reach diverse audiences. This process will help Life Stories to build internal systems and workflows that enhance how staff curate, organize, and present collections as structured modules of documentary interviews designed for classrooms, researchers, and public audiences.

Maysles Documentary Center (New York County) - Marketing and Design Development Consulting
Maysles Documentary Center will use MAAF funding to support a development plan to improve marketing materials, branding, and overall public presentation. An outside consultant will help ensure consistency across the organization’s multiple platforms, focusing on brand assessment and recommendations, and the development of a style guide to support internal alignment and serve as a key resource as the organization continues to grow and bring on new staff and collaborators.

MITU (Kings County) - Digital Archive Support
MAAF funding will support technical infrastructure of a digital archive project which will allow MITU to preserve their 30-year history of physical texts, images, videos, and other source materials of creative work. Funding will support digitization, and the establishment of robust storage protocols for collection organization.

NewFest (Kings County) - Enhancing Digital Platforms for Virtual Screenings and Access
NewFest will use MAAF funding to enhance their digital infrastructure for online screenings, hybrid programs, and national access initiatives. In recent years, NewFest has launched robust digital programming to complement in-person events, including the Arizona Queer Film Access Initiative, which provided complimentary online access to LGBTQ+ films. NewFest will invest in technical strategies to improve both the artistic and audience experience of digital screenings, beginning with platform optimization, strengthened digital security, and archival infrastructure.

New York International Children’s Film Festival (New York County) - Sensory Inclusive Training and Accessibility Tools
New York International Children’s Film Festival will use MAAF funding to engage an outside consultant to help expand the Festival’s offerings to audiences with disabilities as well as heighten awareness of these offerings. The consultant will provide sensory inclusive training for staff, interns, and volunteers that support the annual Festival. The consultant will also assist NYICFF in creating a written and visual guide centered on accessibility offerings and devising a sensory station on-site at the Festival where accessibility information and sensory toolkits will be available for audience members.

Roulette Intermedium (New York County) - Improving Roulette Media Online
Roulette Intermedium will use MAAF funding to engage Other Means, a digital design firm to help redesign ROULETTE MEDIA. The outlined work will include a website analytics audit, updated user experience and visual design, and an eventual redevelopment of both the front and back end of Roulette’s website.

UnionDocs (Queens County) - Consulting for Organizational Development and Fundraising
UnionDocs will use MAAF funding to engage an outside consultant to guide fundraising strategies to support organizational growth and sustainability. Through research and analysis, professional development, and strategic planning, the consultancy will help UnionDocs engage more deeply with their community of artists and supporters to strengthen the organization’s long-term capacity.

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About the New York State Council on the Arts
The mission of the New York State Council on the Arts is to foster and advance the full breadth of New York State’s arts, culture, and creativity for all. To support the ongoing recovery of the arts across New York State, the Council on the Arts will award over $161 million in FY 2026, serving organizations and artists across all 10 state regions. The Council on the Arts further advances New York's creative culture by convening leaders in the field and providing organizational and professional development opportunities and informational resources. Created by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1960 and continued with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Council is an agency that is part of the Executive Branch. For more information on NYSCA, please visit www.arts.ny.gov, and follow NYSCA's Facebook page, on X @NYSCArts and Instagram @NYSCouncilontheArts.

About Wave Farm
Wave Farm is an international transmission arts organization driven by experimentation with the electromagnetic spectrum. We cultivate creative practices in radio and support artists and nonprofits in their cultural endeavors.

Based in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley, Wave Farm is a media arts center, media platform, and arts service organization. Wave Farm offers interdisciplinary outdoor installations, residencies and fellowships, and a research library. We operate FM radio station WGXC and host many online radio channels. Wave Farm provides fiscal sponsorship, consultation, and grants to artists and organizations. For more information, please visit https://wavefarm.org.