GUILFORD — Vermont Performance Lab (VPL) is one of 817 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works grant this year.
VPL was recommended for a $30,000 grant to support the presentation of new works and/or works in progress by six nationally known artists: Ain Gordon, Beth Gill, Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar/Big Dance Theater, Victoria Marks, Carmelita Tropicana, and Pavel Zustiak.
Vermont Performance Lab has strategically addressed the unique limitations and opportunities inherent in the rural Southern Vermont region by taking artists beyond the studio and performance hall and situating their creative R&D processes squarely in the mainstream of community life through extended artist residencies.
VPL's Lab Residency Program is where artists have the opportunity to engage directly with residents of the small communities in the region to develop their work and form meaningful and lasting connections.
“We were thrilled and honored to be recommended for funding at this level,” said VPL Board President Robert McBride. “We see every day the extraordinary ways our artists touch lives and enliven the Vermont communities they work in. This grant will help sustain that work, and it gives national prominence to the artistic excellence and innovative thinking that are hallmarks of VPL's approach.”
In August 2012, the NEA received 1,547 eligible applications for Art Works grants requesting more than $80 million in funding. Art Works grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.
The 817 recommended NEA grants total $26.3 million and span 13 artistic disciplines and fields. Applications were reviewed by panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff, and each project was judged on its artistic excellence and merit.
Over the past five years, VPL has brought artists of regional, national and international stature to the grange halls, studios and classrooms of rural Vermont through its innovative artist residency program.
In 2012, VPL's community and education programs served more than 1,500 students, families, and seniors in Windham County through workshops, informal performances, and art-making experiences.