Winter 2026 Project Grant Awards

Arvin A. Brown Public Library—Public Library Lego Club
Richford
$2000 to support a Lego Club that will offer a creative, social program for local youth at this rural library. Participants will build, problem-solve, and collaborate each week.

The Bully No More Foundation—Bully No More! An Elementary School Health and Welfare Musical
Newport Center
$4500 to help with royalty and production costs to qualifying schools for a musical where animal characters teach kindness, acceptance, and inclusion.

Catamount Access Television—Youth Voices in Video: Community Storytelling Through Media Production
Bennington
$5000 to help host three free video workshops for youth in southwestern Vermont, focused on storytelling and media literacy while creating short, community-based videos.

The Dyslexic Positive Libraries Initiative
Montpelier
$5000 to strengthen foundational literacy support in libraries with accessible tools for library use, designed to empower library workers with free programming, actionable strategies, and cultural competency skills applicable within their own communities.

Gallop to Success—Inclusive Youth Weekend
North Bennington
$5000 for a humanities-based, trauma-informed program for immigrant and refugee youth that creates access to outdoor learning and centers reflection, connection, healing, and belonging.

Good Samaritan Haven—Seeing Home: A Community Art Installation
Barre
$5000 to support a project that invites the Haven’s guests, local artists, and community members to explore and interpret homelessness through creative expression. Public installations will create space to reflect on home, belonging, and shared civic responsibility.

Greensboro United Church of Christ—Earth Adventure Camp: Humanities-Centered Creative Learning for Rural Youth
Greensboro
$3750 for a week-long, interdisciplinary humanities and arts camp for rural elementary-age children integrating music, storytelling, art, and place-based exploration to foster creativity, cultural understanding, and community connection.

The Lost Mural Project—“Intersections:” An interactive map of Burlington’s immigrant communities
Burlington
$5000 for a project that uses technology to capture cultural history and to explore the dynamics of immigrant groups in Burlington.

New Suns Community Center—Summer Celebration Collaboration with the Junction Dance Festival
South Royalton
$5000 to support workshops, a studio showing, community conversations, and a meal celebrating five years of The Junction Dance Festival, held at New Suns Community Center.

The Outpost Foundation—Outpost Vermont Fellows Barnstorming Tour
North Bennington
$3000 for barnstorming tour with new fellow Leslie Sainz and two past fellows (Nico Amador and Rage Hezekiah) to bring awareness to their books and to the work of Outpost.

Potash Hill—In Conversation: A Writers Speaker Series on the Campus at Marlboro Music
Marlboro
$5000 for a new public humanities program developed in partnership between The Campus at Marlboro Music and Word House, led by Vermont writer Robin MacArthur.

Rajnii Eddins Enterprises LLC—Vibrant Lives Project
Burlington
$5000 to support an intergenerational storytelling initiative with local Black voices through youth-led interviews, multimedia exhibits, and community gatherings—preserving history, identity, and strengthening beloved community for generations to come.

Rural Arts Collaborative—Racial Stress Relief
Greensboro
$5000 for a year of training, workshops, and community conversations aimed to relieve racial stress among children in grades K-6 attending youth arts enrichment programs.

South Londonderry Free Library—Creating Community through Art and Books
South Londonderry
$5000 to support a program designed to have the entire community read and learn about an historic figure or event every month, then come together across all age groups to make art that reflects the theme of the monthly book.

Sundog Poetry—Vermont Youth Poetry Initiative: Cultivating Civic Leadership and Artistry
Williston
$5000 for an initiative designed to empower young writers through creative writing and civic leadership. The Youth Poetry Summit and Vermont Youth Poet Laureate contest will create a flywheel of engagement, utilizing statewide partnerships to transform poetry into a tool for change.

Windsor Public Library—Better Together
Windsor
$5000 to examine how work for justice can thrive with music, theater, art and discussion. This timely, insightful program includes justice speakers, a second line band, giant puppets, parade, freedom songs, theater, book discussions and more.

Vermont Humanities 250th Project Grant Awards

$46,250 was awarded to commemorate our nation’s 250^th anniversary, using funds from the Vermont 250^th Commission and private donors.

Ethan Allen Homestead Museum—Historical Reenactments for the 250th
Burlington
$5000 for Ethan Allen Homestead Museum’s special living history programming from May through October 2026, partnering with over 30 different cultural organizations.

Highland Center for the Arts—A Journey of Freedom: Songs of Slavery and Emancipation
Greensboro
$5000 for a project led by Dr. Kathy Bullock and Mat Callahan, designed to connect voices of the past with the present. Throughout the history of slavery, enslaved people organized resistance, escape, and rebellion. Sustaining them in this struggle was their music.

Norwich Historical Society—Whispers from the Past
Norwich
$4250 for an exhibit that sheds light on people in Norwich’s past who were barely visible, highlighting the importance of recognition, as well as a portrait project at Marion Cross School where students interview community members and share stories they have learned.

Opera Company of Middlebury—OCM Fall Festival 2026: Music in Troubled Times
Middlebury
$2300 for OCM’s Fall Festival 2026, Music in Troubled Times, reflecting on music’s role in processing and recounting history. Focused around Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Rappahannock County,” the festival includes lectures, discussions, chamber music performances and film.

Peacham Historical Association—Step into History: Celebrate Peacham’s 250-Year History
Peacham
$4700 for a project that commemorates America’s and Peacham’s 250th anniversary. Planned events include a historical map exhibit, a cemetery ghost walk focused on Peacham’s Revolutionary legacy, a series of four lectures, and several community-wide celebrations.

Town of Isle La Motte—Isle La Motte Celebrates Our Independence
Isle La Motte
$5000 to support three days of history and heritage: Declaration, Commemoration, and Celebration. Re-enactments, lectures, and music will bring the legacy of the era to the Isle La Motte community.

Town of Waterbury—Revolutionary Era Interactive Walking Tour
Waterbury
$5000 to develop a free, self-guided, QR code walking tour connecting Revolutionary War burials, historic sites, and landscapes in Waterbury with engaging digital stories that bring local experiences of the Revolution to life.

Vermont Historical Society—50 for 250 Interactive Gallery
Barre
$5000 to help create an interactive gallery for children aged 7-14 with three stations focused on objects in the 50 for 250 exhibit. The gallery provides visitors with strategies to examine themes between object-based stories in the exhibit.

Weathersfield Proctor Library—Weathersfield 250 Play We Most Ardently Desire
Ascutney
$5000 to support a play based upon the Association Pledge, a handwritten document dated July 31, 1775 that records the votes of the 24 heads of household in Weathersfield who met on the Town Lot.

Winooski School District—We the People Project
Winooski
$5000 for Winooski students PK-12 to examine democracy and belonging through artist-led residencies in visual art, poetry, music, and theatre, culminating in public performance and community dialogue as we approach America’s 250th anniversary.

Vermont Arts Council 250th Project Grant Awards

The Vermont Arts Council awarded an additional $12,700 to three organizations using funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont 250^th Anniversary Commission to commemorate our nation’s 250^th anniversary. Although these projects came through our Project Grant application process, they will be administered by the Arts Council. 

Opera Company of Middlebury—OCM Fall Festival 2026: Music in Troubled Times
Middlebury
$2700 for OCM’s Fall Festival 2026, Music in Troubled Times, reflecting on music’s role in processing and recounting history. Focused around Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Rappahannock County,” the festival includes lectures, discussions, chamber music performances and film.

Saint Albans Museum—Centennials: The Gilded Age & The Disco Era in Vermont’s Rail City
St. Albans
$5000 to support a five-month programmatic arc, building momentum toward a city-wide commemorative 250th event on July 5th: The Centennials Picnic in the Park. Lectures, workshops, cultural events, and an original exhibition will interweave with the Downtown 250th plan.

Town Hall Theater—America 250: Expressions of Liberty
Middlebury
$5000 to launch a statewide poetry and school outreach project in partnership with Vermont Poet Laureate Bianca Stone on constitutional liberty, culminating in a multi-disciplinary Constitution Day celebration at Town Hall Theater.