Vermont Arts Council Awards $294,000 in Grants

Posted on June 16, 2011

This article was originally published on www.vtdigger.org.

For immediate release
June 15, 2011

Contact: Jen Pelletier, 828-5422

MONTPELIER - The Vermont Arts Council is pleased to announce fourteen recipients for Arts Partnership Grants in fiscal year 2012. Combined, these recipients will benefit from a grant award of $294,000 over a three year period.

Recipients include: Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center, Burlington City Arts, Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, Catamount Film and Arts Center, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Insight Photography Project, Lost Nation Theater, New England Youth Theater, Paramount Center, Pentangle Arts, River Arts Morrisville, Rockingham Arts and Museum Project, Vermont Arts Exchange and VSA Vermont.

Applications were reviewed by a peer panel of professional arts and non-profit administrators. Panelists evaluated applications according to the degree to which the applicant met the criteria outlined in the grant guidelines.

Arts partnership grants provide operating funds over a three-year period. The funds are intended to help arts organizations maintain, strengthen, and/or develop long-term partnerships in their communities. Organizations supported through this grant program must demonstrate that they provide a consistent presence in their community as service providers and that their programs and services reflect the Council's mission "to advance and preserve the arts at the center of Vermont communities."

Three major qualifying factors in being a recipient of an arts partnership grant are a commitment to:

· support arts organizations who are endeavoring to make the arts a part of the fabric of Vermont community living;

· ensure broad access to the arts through associations and partnerships within and beyond the cultural sector; and

· broaden the recognized value of creative enterprise and the creative workforce.

The Vermont Arts Council's primary sources of funding are the State of Vermont and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Council persistently works to raise awareness of the importance, value and benefit of Vermont's creative community in order to increase public and private sector investment in the arts.

About the Vermont Arts Council

Since 1964, the Vermont Arts Council has been the state's primary provider of funding, advocacy and information for the arts in Vermont. It strives to increase public awareness of the positive role artists and arts organizations play in communities and to increase opportunities for Vermonters to experience the arts in everyday life. The Council is the only designated State Arts Agency in the U.S. that is also an independent, not-for-profit, membership organization. For more information on the programs and services of the Vermont Arts Council, visit www.vermontartscouncil.org.