In 2023, we funded 54 Project Grants projects totaling $246,250. We funded 42 Rapid Response Grants totaling $40,100, almost double that of 2022. We also allocated $400,000 in Flood Relief Grants to 41 community organizations and awarded $65,000 for the first year of our 3-year Partnership Grant to 8 core organizations.
2023 Partnership Grant Recipients
Abenaki Circle of Courage
Organization Location: Swanton, VT
Awarded $10,000 to support the re-establishment of their annual Memorial Day weekend Abenaki Heritage Celebration.
Burlington History & Culture Center
Organization Location: Burlington, VT
Awarded $10,000 annually to support the development of a center aimed at capturing, sharing, and celebrating the diverse cultural history of the city of Burlington.
Clemmons Family Farm
Organization Location: Charlotte, VT
Awarded $10,000 annually to support their Windows to a Multicultural World initiative which aims to develop curriculum modules which incorporate art and teach history focused on the multicultural diaspora of Black people.
Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival: One Strings
Organization Location: Burlington, VT
Awarded $5,000 annually to support the One Strings program which provides violins and music lessons to school children from predominately immigrant and refugee families. The program fosters community and belonging among the students and families, who come from varying ethnic backgrounds and speak different languages.
Retreat Farm
Organization Location: Brattleboro, VT
Awarded $7,500 annually to support the farms partnership with the Atowi Project to develop place based programming centering Abenaki history and the natural landscape.
Rutland Pride
Organization Location: Rutland, VT
Awarded $7,500 for this emerging organization’s public programming supporting Rutland County’s LGBTQ+ community.
Vets Town Hall
Organization Location: Richmond, VT
Awarded $7,500 to support annual statewide Vet Town Halls that offer veterans a platform to share their experiences both in and out of the military, fostering understanding and acceptance amongst veterans and civilians.
Windham World Affairs Council
Organization Location: Brattleboro, VT
Awarded $7,500 to support their America250: Examining America’s Identity and Leadership in a Changing World project which aims to provide opportunities to pause and learn from our nation’s past, empower youth and marginalized groups whose rights are currently under attack, and build understanding and support across divides.
Flood Relief Grants
Adamant Community Cultural Foundation– Quarryworks
Ainsworth Public Library
Barre Historical Society – Old Labor Hall
Barre Up
The Bread and Puppet Theater
Bryan Memorial Gallery Foundation, Inc.
Calef Memorial Library
Capital Region Community Media– The Bridge Newspaper
Central Vermont Adult Basic Education, Inc.
Circus Smirkus
The Civic Standard of Hardwick
Clemmons Family Farm, Inc.
Elevate Youth Services
Ethan Allen Homestead Museum
Everybody Wins! Vermont
Ilsley Public Library
Intervale Center
Jaquith Public Library
Jeudevine Memorial Library
Johnson Public Library
Kellogg-Hubbard Library
Kinhaven Music School
Montpelier Alive
North Branch Nature Center
The Preservation Trust of Vermont
The Rainbow Bridge Community Center
Rural Arts Collaborative
Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary
Strafford Historical Society
Studio Place Arts, Inc.
Swanton Public Library
Tunbridge World’s Fair – Union Agricultural Society
Vermont Abenaki Artists Association
Vermont Arts and Culture Disaster and
Resilience Network
Vermont Ethics Network
Vermont Granite Museum
Vermont Historical Society
Vermont Studio Center, Inc.
Weston Community Association
Weston Theatre Company
Woodstock History Center
Rapid Response Grants
BarnArts Center for the Arts
The Villalobos Brothers Global Music Residency Celebration Concert
$1000 to conclude a week of Global Music Residency school workshops with a public concert by the Contemporary Mexican group.
Blake Memorial Library
Edith Wharton Book Discussion Series
$550 for a free community book discussion series, held in-person and via Zoom.
Burlington City Arts
Ethical Implications of AI
$1000 for a free public program to explore AI’s ethical implications through a moderated panel discussion.
Catamount Arts
Fall in Love Ball
$1000 to support the FALL IN LOVE Ball. A collaboration connecting Rutland County and Northeast Kingdom communities through a traditional drag show with our queens, followed by a dance party with time for people attending to catwalk, vogue and show off their drag.
Clemmons Family Farm
Vroom! Music Video Storyboard Contest for Vermont K-5 Classrooms
$1000 for a state-wide contest for K-5 students, classrooms, and their local communities to develop storyboards for a music video about Bessie Stringfield and Bessie Coleman.
Conversation Compass LLC
The Art of Gratitude
$1000 to fund Conversation Compass to host artisits Sophia Domeville on November 18 -19th. Domeville will have an art show and lecture at Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society in Middlebury VT on November 19th.
Craftsbury Public Library
Broadening our Book Discussions to Include Hearing and Deaf Participants
$1000 for ASL services for a discussion about the book True Biz, led by a member of the deaf community, and ASL interpretation for an additional book discussion.
Deborah Rawson Memorial Library
Poetry Workshop with Canto Cutie Zines
$450 for an event with Canto Cuties Zine staff for part of their Vermont Reads project. The presentation will incorporate a poetry reading and talk about racism through the experiences of artists and Cantonese folks’, followed by a Q&A and then a hands-on poetry-writing workshop.
Education Justice Coalition of Vermont
Reimagining Schools Connecting Communities
$1000 for a free statewide education and social justice conference.
Epsilon Spires
FLEE: Afghan Film, Cuisine, and Discussion
$1000 for a free screening of the film Flee presented with Afghan cuisine and a panel discussion about LGBTQ rights.
Jake Blount: Afrofuturist Spirituals
$1000 toward an event with Jake Blount. Blount is inspired by the Afrofuturist novels of Octavia Butler, and will explore the African American roots of music of the past to imagine how Black Spirituals will sound after a future climate catastrophe.
Full Circle Theater Collaborative
Arts Integration – Acting Out Shakespeare
$1000 to support the collaborative’s interactive work with all 9th grade English students at Burlington High School as culmination of their Romeo & Juliet unit where students will chose scenes from the play to perform.
Generator
Reckless Ideas: This Changes Everything, a Panel Discussion of AI
$1000 for a moderated discussion with expert panelists on the role Artificial Intelligence plays in our society today.
Governor’s Institutes of Vermont
GIV’s 2024 Global Issues & Youth Action Institute
$1000 for GIV 2023 Global Issues and Youth Action Institute, whichgives students a safe environment to dig deep into the issues affecting our world and where they gain the skills, confidence and empathy to make a positive difference in their community and beyond.
Hinesburg Community School
The Most Costly Journey: Middle school students learn about the lives of migrant farm workers in Vermont
$1000 for for Hinesburg school to purchase and incorporate The Most Costly Journey into their middle school humanities curriculum.
Ilsley Public Library
How to Trust the People With Reproductive Rights
$1000 for 3 part series exploring the reproductive rights..
Junction Arts and Media (JAM)
A Night of Poetry and Black Music with poet Vievee Francis and musician Steven Johnson
$800 for a reading by poet Vievee Francis with live music by blues artist Steven Johnson, grandson of legend Robert Johnson.
Johnson Racial Justice and Social Equity Committee
2023 Juneteenth Celebration
$1000 for a celebration of Juneteenth in Johnson with music performances, food, readings. Unfortunately after being awarded the group faced an obstacle forcing them to cancel the event and decline the grant.
Lamoille North Early Education Programs
Social emotional learning at home
$1000 to support the delivery of bags for families containing social emotional books, learning and project materials, as well as parent information to build resiliency and hope to community members affected by the July flooding.
Leland and Gray Union Middle and High School
Summer Reading 2023
$1000 to offer students modern, relevant, diverse, and engaging books of their choosing to keep.
Lawrence Memorial Library
Talking Books for Lawrence Memorial Library
$1000 to assist with the library’s efforts to increase their talking book collection in order to bolster literacy and break down barriers for their patrons.
Main Street Museum
Joe Citro: Bard of the Bizarre
$350 to support the museum hosting Vermont author Joe Citro for a reading and lecture.
Richard Kemp Center
Trip to Washington, DC
$1000 for a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture for Vermont BIPOC students.
Rural Vermont
Agroecology, Seeds, and Biodiversity Workshops
$1000 for representatives from La Via Campesina and a farmworkers’ association in Nicaragua to offer workshops on agroecology.
South Burlington High School
Grade 9 Whole Class Reading Experience
$1000 to support South Burlington High School to purchase and have the full 9th grade school class read The Most Costly Journey at the start of school. The final project will be an interview so students can learn more about others’ experiences.
Southern Vermont Arts Center
Ashley Bryan: The Spirit of Joy Exhibition
$1000 for a panel discussion connected to SVAC’s exhibit featuring the work of illustrator and author, Ashley Bryan. He was widely respected for filling a void in children’s literature through centering stories of Black life and African folk tales.
St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
Sounds and Objects: The Importance of the Book
$1000 for 3 book related events at the Athenaeum in September including David Godine speaking about his 50 years of producing fine books. A member of the former Stinehour Press will introduce David.
Sterling College
Informal Community Book Club
$1000 to support The Informal Community Book Club which provides access to free readings materials to participants who meet to discuss the book and provide hands on community care.
Sundog Poetry Center, Inc.
AMP Night in the Upper Valley
$1000 to support their AMP Night in the Upper Valley. AMP or Art/Music/Poetry events bring together an eclectic, intergenerational group of performers including Djeli, Jolivette ‘the poet warrior’, Sydney Lea, Barbara Murphy, Nanai, & Diana Whitney.
Threshold Collaborative
Beyond Testimony: Tragic Spectatorship & Victims of Trauma as Agents of Change
$1000 for a free performance of monologues by the Voices of St. Joseph’s Orphanage Writers’ Group.
Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence
Backlash Film Screening and US Premiere
$1000 for a screening at the Vermont State House of a film about cyber-violence targeting female leaders, including former Vermont legislator Kiah Morris.
Vermont Rural Education Collaborative
Place-based Learning Seminar
$350 to support the museum hosting Vermont author Joe Citro for a reading and lecture.
Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network
In-person Student Meet-ups
$1000 in support of the network’s plans to bring their diverse group of youth members together in-person to discuss anti-racism, participate in workshops, talk with speakers, and brainstorm for the future.
Vets Town Hall
$1000 to help underwrite the cost of hosting a Place-Based Learning Seminar for teachers in November.
Project Grants
Art in the Neighborhood
Waterway(s) at Green Street
$5000 to support a two-week school residency in which 4th grade students will engage in a place-based historical, ecological, and cultural study of the Whetstone Brook in Brattleboro.
Atowi Project
Kchi Pôntegok Akiôtloka – The Land Speaks Its Story
$5000 to support Illustrations with GIS maps and library presentations for the pre-contact traditional cultural landscape along the Connecticut River between Skitchawaug in Springfield and Wantastegok Mskodal in Brattleboro.
Bennington Museum
Teacher’s Institute: Museums as Resources
$5000 to support an intensive, six-day academic professional development program on how to maximize the resources of the Museum’s collection to develop engaging new lesson plans.
Brattleboro Literary Festival
2023 Festival
$3000 for to support the 2023 Brattleboro Literary Festival. This year features established, award-winning authors and brilliant, emerging authors in unique pairings, sparking dynamic conversations about literature, and today’s most relevant issues.
Bradford Teen Center
2023 Teen Documentary
$5000 to support a teen driven community art project and group discussions around pressing topics.
Chandler Center for the Arts
Tidy Crimes
Panelist Discussion of Transgender Issues in Art. $4950 for a panel discussion to encourage community understanding of the visual art show, “Tidy Crimes,” which explores the experiences of four trans artists.
Corrine Yonce Studios
Longing is Just Our Word for Knowing
$5000 to celebrate neighborhood public spaces through a series of site-responsive paintings, audio interviews, and housing advocacy resources.
Definitely Gangster
An Animated Movie about Love and Friendship
$5000 for community screenings in underserved communities and cancer centers of a family-friendly magical adventure film about a child’s battle with cancer.
Education Justice Coalition of Vermont
Vermont Narratives for Change: A Storytelling Campaign against Harassment & Bullying
$5000 to support the coalitions efforts use community storytelling to shed light on experiences with harassment, hazing, and bullying in VT schools. We will raise awareness of impact and advocate for statewide school change.
Epsilon Spires
SIREN SUMMIT: a weekend conference liberating Mythology for Women and Non-binary Poets and Authors, led by Haleh Liza Gafori
$5000 for the SIREN SUMMIT: a weekend conference liberating Mythology for Women and Non- binary Poets and Authors, led by Haleh Liza Gafori, a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator of Iranian/Persian descent.
Friends of the Morrill Homestead
The Morrill Acts and HBCU’s: Libraries and Literacy
$1500 for Julius C. Jefferson to speak about the role libraries and librarians have had as keepers of African American culture and traditions at the Historically Black Colleges created by the 1890 Morrill Act.
Gedakina
One-Shelf Book Project
$5000 to support the One-Shelf Book Project which gifts books to schools and institutions that need appropriate books in the libraries on Native American literature.
Governor’s Institutes of Vermont
GIV’s 2024 Global Issues & Youth Action Institute
$5000 for GIV 2024 wich gives students a safe environment to dig deep into the issues affecting our world and where they gain the skills, confidence and empathy to make a positive difference in their community and beyond.
Heritage Winooski Mill Museum
Exhibit exploring Child Labor
$5000 to fund the museum’s efforts to update their exhibit on child labor to reflect more inclusive information and increase access to the information.
Inclusive Arts
Cycles Virtual Artist Talk Series
$5000 for a series of virtual artist talks featuring artists from the 5th biennial exhibition, “Cycles,” highlighting visual artwork by Vermont artists with disabilities.
JAM – Junction Arts & Media
2023 Public Programming
$5000 to underwrite a wide spread of public programming planned for 2024 including media art exhibits, poetry reading/slam, author readings, Pride Prom, and film festival.
Kellogg-Hubbard Library
PoemCity 2023
$4000 for displaying hundreds of original poems by Vermonters and presenting art, music, poetry readings, and exhibits in the Montpelier area in celebration of National Poetry Month.
PoemCity 2024
$3000 for PoemCity 2024, a community celebration of National Poetry Month, featuring a walk-able anthology of poetry by Vermonters and poetry programming.
Kingdom County Productions
Writers for Recovery Workshop
$5000 for a series of writing workshops focused on stories of addiction and recovery.
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
Collections Corners 2023: Providing Public Access to Humanities
$5000 for interactive guided programs that bring artifacts directly to visitors, featuring new archaeological research and stories that are not prevalent in LCMM exhibits.
Living History Association
A Remembrance of the Holocaust
$3500 to fund programming designed to illustrate the horrible effects of state-sponsored prejudice and racial discrimination.
Milton Artists’ Guild
Writing Series
$5000 for The Milton Artists’ Guild’s writing series, bringing in Vermont poets and authors of varied backgrounds and styles to present and teach at the Guild.
Montpelier Community Gospel Choir
2023 Black History Month and Juneteenth programming
$5000 to support concerts for Black History month and Juneteenth with anti-racism workshops.
Mountain Central Unified Union District
Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club Takes Last Night at the Telegraph Club to Boston
$4000 to fund a school field trip inspired by the current Vermont Reads, Last Night at the Telegraph Club. Students from Woodstock Union High School’s Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club will travel to Boston for Lunar New Year at the MFA and take a food walking tour in Chinatown.
New Vermont International Cinema
Thetford Arthouse Cinema Season 2023
$5000 for the Thetford Arthouse Cinema Season. The TAC exposes audiences — from Thetford, Strafford, Norwich, WRJ, Bradford, Vershire and Fairlee, VT, and Lyme, Orford and Hanover, NH — to “arthouse” films otherwise unavailable in the Upper Valley.
Orleans County Historical Society
Telling a More Inclusive Story/Listening Between the Lines
$5000 to develop a series of interpretive signs, a discussion toolkit, and inclusive language guide to tell a more inclusive story of the museum’s collections and to facilitate conversations.
Otter Creek Music Festival
Castle of our Skins Residency
$5000 to support the first year residency with Castle of our Skins in collaboration the Clemmons Family Farm.
The Outpost Foundation
Outpost Vermont BIPOC Fellow & Outpost BIPOC Vermont High School Fellows
$4500 for Outpost Foundation’s Fellows project which supports and advocates for one established Vermont BIPOC writer and 3-5 Vermont BIPOC high school students committed to poetry and/or fiction.
PoemTown St. Johnsbury
Community Poetry
$1300 to lead community engagement activities at St. Johnsbury School and with the broader community during the Kingdom Maple Festival.
Pushcart Productions
Act 39
$5000 for a series of performances of Rob Mermin’s play Act 39, which confronts death with dignity and end of life decisions with humor, love and compassion.
Rokeby Museum
Continuing the Legacy Efforts
$5000 to fund the museum’s long-range project entitled Continuing the Legacy: Building Community Capacity at Rokeby Museum which aims to increase access and expand their exhibitions.
Rural Arts Collaborative
Outside in Vermont: A History of Some Vermont Artists
$5000 to raise awareness of Vermont artists with disabilities.
Shakespeare in the Woods
2023 Season
$5000 for Shakespeare in the Woods’ 2023 season productions of Hamlet and The Tempest in repertory, connecting audiences with some of the most urgent issues of our time in an area with no other professional Shakespeare.
Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union
Juneteenth Celebration/Commemoration
$5000 to collaborate with local partners to host a public Juneteenth event in Bennington County.
Shelburne Museum
Sensory Friendly Fridays at Shelburne Museum
$5000 for Sensory Friendly Fridays, created in partnership with Inclusive Arts Vermont, the program offers a positive museum-going experience for children, teens, and adults with varying sensory processing differences.
Stone Valley Arts
Celebrating Abenaki Art, Heritage, and Culture
$5000 for a multi-year collaboration with the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association including an art show and outreach events.
Sundog Poetry Center
Justice and Poetry For All
$5000 for an inclusive event that affirms the cultural and artistic contributions of Vermont’s LGBTQ+ communities through poetry workshops, readings, and community dialogue.
2024 Programs & DEI Initiatives
$5000 to support programs and internal DEI efforts including VT youth poet laureate, Justice-and Poetry for all, and multidisciplinary environmental focused events.
Sustainable Woodstock
Black Earth Wisdom: An Evening with Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm
$1500 for a presentation by food justice activist and author Leah Penniman exploring traditional farming, food sovereignty and efforts to end racism in the food system.
Swanton Arts Council
Gathering of the Realms
$5000 for a Renaissance fair that offers historical interpretations through reenactments, demonstrations, entertainment, and reflection on times past.
The Civic Standard
Strengthening Hardwick’s Civic Spirit
$5000 to strengthen and enliven Hardwick Town Meeting, through activities in the schools, community conversation, education, and play; and Town Meeting support, including childcare and food.
Threshold Collaborative
Agents of Change/Phase Two: Empowering Youth and Community Through Creative Expression in the Arts
$5000 to partner with arts and social service organizations to implement trauma-informed creative writing workshops, presentations, staged readings, and performances.
Theater in the Woods Vermont Co.
Beyond Testimony: Theater of Witness as a Vehicle for Restorative Justice
$5000 for the curriculum and content creation for their five weeks of summer theater camp with public performances, and development of a training manual for staff that can be shared.
Threshold Collaborative
Between the Lines: A Salon Series
$5000 to fund the production of a play interweaving writings by survivors of abuse at St. Joseph’s Orphanage with documentary materials from the failed lawsuits of the 1990’s brought against the Catholic Archdiocese.
Town Hall Theater
Between the Lines: A Salon Series
$5000 for BETWEEN THE LINES: A SALON SERIES, a collaboration of Town Hall Theater and the Vermont Book Shop, featuring local luminaries and facilitating important conversations built around books.
Two Daughters Production
The Afghan Women of Brattleboro
$5000 to support a series of audio stories that follows Afghan women who fled their homes after the Taliban took over their country, were resettled in Brattleboro, and are now staking a claim in their new hometown.
University of Vermont Philosophy Department
Public Philosophy Week
$5000 to underwrite the 2024 Public Philosophy Week, which hosts a week of philosophy programs that happen in and with and for the public. Participants and presenters will be discussing, lecturing, listening, sharing, tasting, watching, and wondering.
Vermont Council on Rural Development
2023 Vermont Community Leadership Summit
$5000 for the 2023 Vermont Community Leadership Summit which brings community builders & non-profit, business, and government leaders together for skill training, solutions for local initiatives, and new connections.
Vermont Folklife Center
Vermont Country Store Ethnographic Research
$5000 to support the first year of an ethnographic research project with store owners who serve immigrant & refugee backgrounds that will expand understanding of the country stores in Vermont.
Vermont Rural Education Collaborative
Northeast Kingdom Heritage Education
$5000 toward the Collaborative’s work with seven regional supervisory unions/supervisory districts and Old Stone House Museum to develop and implement Northeast Kingdom Heritage Education.
Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network
Book Project Initiative
$5000 to support the organizations continued work in offering books and curriculum to Vermont schools dedicated to anti-racisim work.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra
Jukebox: Color Theory
$5000 for The Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s Jukebox quartet partnership with Haitian/Vermont painter Julio Desmont for three concerts exploring migration and the intersection of art, geography, and history.
Vets Town Hall
Fall Town Halls
$5000 to facilitate Vets Town Halls in Colchester, Rutland, and in the Northeast Kingdom.
