Todd Samara
Art Fund Project

Shortly after Todd could not live on his own, out of necessity his family moved him to a nursing home. They carefully packed and stored the contents of his studio, paintings and drawings left behind after decades of painting. In 2018 a group of local artists organized an auction of his work, part of a city-wide exhibition and celebration of the artist, that raised more than $30,000. At his family’s behest, the money was transferred into a fund overseen by a newly formed committee, which consists of a group of artists, friends and local business owners, and is administered by the Kingston Midtown Arts District (MAD). “Since Todd and most of his work had such a connection to Kingston and the people there, we, his family, felt artists’ stipends would be a great way to keep Todd’s presence alive in the art community and to offer a little help to other artists,” said Tom Samara, Todd’s brother. 

The fund is invested with Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, and in 2019 an annual $1,200 artist’s scholarship, which is funded by the interest from the fund, was launched. Kingston-based artists across a wide range of disciplines applied, with the winner announced in August in conjunction with MAD’s annual Celebration of the Arts event and Red Goat awards ceremony. The first award winner was The Matter Digest, a graphic newsletter keyed to the local community that was produced and distributed for free by Havarah Zawoluk and Ernest Goodmaw. In 2020, the second annual award was won by Patti Gibbons, a widely exhibited artist and art educator with a house and studio in Uptown Kingston.