Who We Are
The Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council (LARAC) was founded in 1972 to unify the arts community and establish a cultural identity for the region. LARAC is honored to support the local artistic tradition while challenging and inspiring the community’s vision of what art is and what it contributes to our lives.
LARAC hosts exhibitions, workshops, and other arts related events that are open to the public. Services for artists and arts organizations include professional development seminars, gallery and gift shop exhibition opportunities, arts festivals, grants for arts and cultural projects, and more.
LARAC is located in a beautifully restored Victorian carriage house in the historic district of downtown Glens Falls, NY.
The Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council’s mission is to enrich the quality of life in Warren, Washington, and Northern Saratoga Counties by supporting arts and culture through promoting, developing, sponsoring, networking, coordinating, and providing arts activities and services.
The Team
Phil Casabona
Executive Director, Gallery Curator, and Festivals Director
518.798.1144, ext. 2 | director@larac.org
As an admirer of the arts and the culture it breeds, as well as being an active practicing artist, I feel very fortunate to represent the arts and this community through LARAC. I have felt at home here at LARAC these past eight years and have been humbled by the constant support of the local artists and community. I am looking forward to continuing to do my best for LARAC, the artists we support and who support us, as well as this community as LARAC’s Executive Director. As the Gallery Curator I get to present work from artists that inspire me and I hope inspires our community. The Festival is one of the pillars that LARAC was built on and as the Festival Director I have the pleasure of continuing that tradition. As a resident of Glens Falls, living in the heart of the city and renovating a 100yr old house, I feel ingrained in the history of this little city. I am honored to have a position with an organization that is also woven into the fabric that makes up Glens Falls.
Alyssa O’Neill
Community Outreach and Grant Director
518.798.1144, ext. 4 | outreach@larac.org
The arts as a whole have always held a special place in my heart, which is why I love working for an organization such as LARAC that helps bridge the gap between the arts and its surrounding communities. While facilitating LARAC’s community driven grant program I get to meet and interact with many artists and non-profit organizations between Warren and Washington county and help them present public arts programming to their communities. I also have the pleasure of working with LARAC’s hard working volunteers and dedicated members, which are 2 important pillars in LARAC’s success as an organization. Outside of working at LARAC, I am also a member of the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Non-Profit Business Council.
Diane Swanson
Program Coordinator
programs@larac.org
I consider myself lucky to have witnessed the growth of our arts community as an artist, arts administrator and as a long-time resident of the area. We are fortunate to have such a thriving arts scene and I hope my work as an artist and experience in the non-profit world in some small way continues to be a part of that upward momentum. I’ve worked in the arts in a wide range of positions for a number of organizations over the years, and am delighted to come back to LARAC, coordinating workshops and programming. In addition to being a working artist exhibiting my work throughout the Northeast, I also enjoy volunteering with a handful of other local non-profits and currently serve on the boards of Crandall Public Library and Lake George Arts Project.
Board of Directors
Chair: Will Sawma
Treasurer: Anne Nelson
Secretary: David H.B Thomas
Carol Ann Conover
Liz Wilcox
Taylor Myers