Thursday, October 1, 2026
A 25-year effort to expand arts programming in Sea Cliff took a significant step forward following the approval of a $10,000 Hotel Motel Occupancy Tax Fund grant awarded to the Sea Cliff Arts Council through Nassau County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton.
The grant, announced Jan. 2, is intended to support tourism and cultural development on the North Shore and will allow the nonprofit arts organization to invest in new film screening equipment and lay the groundwork for a potential Sea Cliff film festival.
The funding comes from a portion of county hotel and motel taxes that are earmarked for initiatives that draw visitors and stimulate local economies. Each county legislator controls a limited share of those funds for use within their district.
“There is a line in our budget, it’s called a hotel motel line,” DeRiggi-Whitton explained. “That money is specifically used to basically boost tourism and the arts.”
DeRiggi-Whitton said she has used the funding mechanism to support a range of cultural institutions over the years and described the Sea Cliff Arts Council as a natural fit. She said the application process took more than a year to complete and credited the council for its patience throughout the approval process.
“The Sea Cliff Arts Council is something that I hold dear to my heart,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “The Arts Council is really basically just a grassroots effort of people trying to come together to create a location where artists can exhibit their work, and they have done it successfully for years.”
The grant will fund the purchase of at least two mobile projection units, screens and speakers, with one having already acquired for use in the council building. The equipment will support the creation of a film program that brings films by local students and residents to a wider audience and serves as a first step toward establishing a film festival in the village.
The funds are not reimbursable, meaning the council will receive the full amount upfront rather than submitting expenses for repayment, a structure DeRiggi Whitton said makes the program more accessible for small nonprofits.
Mark Sobel, the Arts Council’s producer at large, said he submitted the grant application last year and framed it around the organization’s long-standing role in drawing visitors into Sea Cliff.
Sobel said the planned film festival, which could come as early as late spring, is intended to extend that impact by encouraging attendees to visit local restaurants and shops while also involving businesses. While the first iteration would be modest, he said the long-term goal is to establish an annual event.
“So, with the film festival, we we’re hoping to get the businesses not only involved in maybe being partial venues, but also for… getting more people to shop and go to their restaurants and stuff like that,” Sobel said. “Where we do a show, people will go to dinner afterwards, and that’s helping out the community.”
Sobel said the council already has a new projector, screen, and sound system at its space, which can accommodate about 40 to 45 people, and has previously screened films at St. Luke’s Church. The additional equipment funded through the grant will allow screenings to be held at multiple locations, with the library, Village Hall, and other community spaces under consideration.
He said the council is considering a mix of short films, documentaries, and features, with a focus on work connected to Sea Cliff and the broader region including student films and projects by local filmmakers.
The Arts Council has hosted several film-related events in recent years, including screenings of the local film “A Sea Cliff Story” in 2023 and a documentary followed by a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers in September. Sobel said those events helped demonstrate local interest in expanding film programming.
Heidi Hunt, the Arts Council’s public relations coordinator, said the grant provides the organization with new flexibility to plan programs previously out of reach financially.
“Knowing that we had applied for this grant, and now having the grant actually at our disposal, it changes the dynamic,” Hunt said. “Before there were ideas, but you can’t really flesh out ideas until you functionally can execute them.”
Hunt said past film events demonstrated strong community interest and helped shape the council’s vision. Beyond tourism, Hunt said a film festival would connect to Sea Cliff’s roughly century of history as a filming location and provide a gathering point for artists working in the medium today.
“Our hope is moving forward to kind of establish an ongoing program to bring a variety of film genres,” she said. “When you realize how rich the history is of Sea Cliff as a location for so many decades and all of these films, it actually makes more sense on why we would want to host a film.”
Sobel said the Arts Council views the grant as a turning point similar to when it first secured a permanent building years ago. While logistical questions remain, he said the organization is focused on building carefully and sustainably.
“We’ve always been talking about the film festival as the as the next step forward,” he continued. “People want that, people love that, and it’d be such an enjoyable thing for so many people out there.”
Hunt concluded that the village residents’ support and sense of community is what has sustained the Arts Council for more than two decades and what continues to drive its ambitions.
“Anyone who is an artist is a dreamer,” she said. “Now this financial support is able to make our dreams come true.”
