BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) presents the 12th B.E.A.N. Micro-Grant Dinner on Sunday, June 1, at 6 p.m. For $12, guests are invited to enjoy dinner and live music at the museum and to help decide which community-oriented art projects will receive the proceeds of the event.
To be eligible for funding, applicants must submit brief project proposals at www.brattleboromuseum.org by Wednesday, May 28, at midnight.
Individuals, groups, teams, businesses, schools, nonprofit organizations, and others may submit proposals. The only criteria are that the proposed projects contribute to the vitality of art and artists in our community and will benefit from a small grant of just a few hundred dollars.
According to BMAC Director Danny Lichtenfeld, B.E.A.N. (Brattleboro Essential Arts Network) Micro-Grant Dinners are fun gatherings that provide artists and others with financial support and encourage dialogue and collaborative decision-making around local art projects.
BMAC has hosted 11 such dinners over the past four years, which have raised over $12,000 for a variety of community-oriented art projects. Previous B.E.A.N. micro-grants have supported local theater productions, documentary films, art and music lessons, and artists' supplies.
Over the course of the Sunday, June 1, buffet dinner and dessert at BMAC, guests will review and discuss funding requests submitted in advance. These include a collaborative photography and writing project called “Perfect Imperfection,” the creation of a website for a new cooperative printmaking studio, and the publication of a book on family farms.
At the end of the evening, guests will vote for one or more proposals to receive 90 percent of the proceeds from the event. The remainder will be given to another applicant selected at random. The total amount to be awarded depends on how many people show up for dinner.