Several Windham County artists and organizations will share in more than $311,000 that the Vermont Arts Council has distributed around the state.
Fifty-four awards totaling $215,243 will be funding Arts Learning, Community Arts, and Creation projects across Vermont. In addition, eleven organizations will each receive $7,000 and three organizations will receive $6,300 as the first installment in the multi-year Arts Partnership Grant program.
Arts Learning grants fund in-school and out-of-school educational programs that enhance student learning through the arts. The 13 grants awarded total $50,233.
Community Arts grant projects support participation and engagement in the arts. The 28 Community Arts grants total $126,010.
Creation grants support the development and presentation of new work. Thirteen artists were awarded a total of $39,000.
Arts Partnership Grants, totaling $95,900 for this year, provide operating funds over a three-year period to help local arts service organizations maintain, develop and/or strengthen relationships in their communities.
Competition for funding remained as stiff as ever; in the Creation Grant category requests were seven times greater than the resources available. Of the 91 applicants, only 13 received funding. Of the 60 applicants for Community Arts grants, 28 received funding, and 13 of the 23 applicants for Arts Learning Grants were approved.
Applications were reviewed by peer panels of professional artists, educators, arts administrators, community leaders and others with specialized knowledge in each grant category.
Windham County recipients included:
• Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, a $7,000 Arts Partnership Grant to support a series of public exhibitions, lectures with film screenings, concerts with artist talks, family events, and school-museum partnerships.
• Building a Better Brattleboro, a $2,500 Community Arts Grant to support expenses for travel and lodging, venue rentals, and marketing of the Brattleboro Literary Festival.
• Friends of the Brattleboro Music Center, a $5,000 Arts Learning Grant to support the Music in the Schools program.
• Vermont Performance Lab, Guilford, a $4,650 Community Arts Grant to support a residency with choreographer Victoria Marks for underserved girls in Bellows Falls.
• In-Sight Photography Project, Brattleboro, a $7,000 Arts Partnership Grant to support its programs and partnerships, providing photography education in schools and in the community.
• Main Street Arts, Saxtons River, a $1,800 Arts Learning Grant to support the after-school Creative Arts Program.
• New England Youth Theatre, Brattleboro, a $7,000 Arts Partnership Grant to support theater programs and educational services to youth of all ages and abilities.
• Rockingham Art and Museum Project (RAMP), Bellows Falls, a $7,000 Arts Partnership Grant to support artists' activities and to support activities that create healthy communities.
• Sandglass Center for Puppetry, Putney, a $5,000 Community Arts Grant to support the Puppets in the Green Mountains Festival.
• Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, a $5,000 Community Arts Grant to support monthly exhibitions in 2011 and 2012.
• Vermont Jazz Center, Brattleboro, a $5,000 Community Arts Grant to support the Center's concerts and educational programming.
• Julia Zanes, Saxtons River, a $3,000 Creation Grant to support the creation of puppets for the “The Green Gold Tree.”
Since 1964, the Vermont Arts Council has been the state's primary provider of funding, advocacy and information for the arts in Vermont. For more information, visit www.vermontartscouncil.org.