Maine Expansion Arts

2023 Grants

Rural Track

• 207 Film Works, to produce and premiere “Down East Hardcore,” a documentary about the influential music venue The Kave in Bucksport: $5,000
• ArtVan, to provide valuable mental health and artistic resources to under-resourced youth who may otherwise not have access: $10,000
• Barn Arts Collective, to extend the Village Classroom program to Lincoln County: $8,600
• Bayside Arts, to acquire a sound system for music performances: $4,500
• Belfast Flying Shoes, for a dance and instrumental music lesson program with incarcerated men at the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center: $5,000
• Bethel Area Arts & Music, to expand existing programs and plan future programs: $7,500
• Boreal Theater, to plan new programs to ensure sustainability: $10,000
• Create and Collaborate, for material to provide art/science classes: $8,200
• Cultural Resources, to support the Working in Wood Apprenticeship Program that will support traditional forest-based culture of Maine's Northern Forest region: $9,000
• Eastport Arts Center, to help subsidize free and low-cost arts programming for the community: $10,000
• Gateway Milbridge, to expand Milbridge Theatre and Community Arts Center programming: $5,000
• Halcyon Music, to support public performances of "Make Way for Ducklings" on three of Maine’s unbridged islands in summer 2024: $4,500
• Lights Out Gallery, to continue building creative community and connecting artists across the state: $7,500
• Tear Cap Workshops, to expand hands-on learning opportunities across woodworking, traditional arts, and new media: $10,000
• The Arts Institute of Western Maine, to bring affordable, local and world-class live performances to the Farmington area: $5,000
• Veterans Writing Project, to provide creative and performing arts education and performance opportunities for veterans, family members, and the community: $2,500
• Wintergreen Arts, to grow Wintergreen Kids News Network into a monthly broadcast: $10,000

From donor-advised funds:

• 207 Film Works, to produce and premiere “Down East Hardcore,” a documentary about the influential music venue The Kave in Bucksport: $5,000

BIPOC Track

• Djiboutian American Community Empowerment Project, to support Sewing Project, a free, weekly program to prevent and reduce social isolation among women: $6,000
• Fourth Friday, to provide safe spaces for the Black Diaspora to engage in fellowship, networking and community building and to document oral histories: $10,000
• Gateway Community Services, for a three-part project that tells a story of art creation, art awareness, and art celebration for the BIPOC and immigrant community: $10,000
• Khmer Maine, to build capacity for its arts and culture programming, including Khmer social dance classes and the Khmer New Year Festival: $8,675
• United Youth Empowerment Services, to use the visual arts as a medium to unfold, honor and celebrate the stories by refugees and asylum seekers in the Lewiston area: $10,000
• Wabanaki Cultural Preservation Coalition, to support traditional arts workshops for members of Wabanaki communities: $10,000

2022 Grants

Rural Track

• Aroostook Arts and Education Center, to educate staff on engaging the arts to support mental health of students: $10,000
• Barn Arts Collective, to expand its Vintage Classroom program: $6,500
• Belfast Flying Shoes, to provide social dance and music programs for grades K-2 in RSU 71: $10,000
• Creative Norway, to increase access to free or reduced-cost arts/movement programming for youth in western Maine: $10,000
• Eastport ArtWalk, to support inclusive, interactive art activities, music, performance, dance, storytelling, and more: $5,000
• Halcyon Music, to perform “Wonderful World” on Maine’s outer islands: $4,000
• Maine Highlands Senior Center, to continue developing a regional arts center to connect people to the arts: $10,000
• Threadbare Theatre Workshop, to strengthen communities through participatory theater: $10,000
• Veterans Writing Project, to provide creative and performing arts education, and performance opportunities for veterans, family members, and the community: $10,000
• Waldo Theater, to support its youth theater education program, InterACT: $10,000

From donor-advised funds:

• ArtWaves, to expand programming for middle schoolers interested in art/handcrafts and to match artist mentors with rural high school students: $7,800
• Ellsworth Community Music Institute, to increase teaching artist salaries to align with regional norms: $5,000
• Heart of Ellsworth, to host a free downtown summer concert series by local and other Maine artists: $5,000
• Rangeley Friends of the Performing Arts, to retool and rebuild the Rangeley Community Chorus: $3,000
• Stage East, to expand access to the theater in Washington County: $10,000

BIPOC Track

• Hudson Museum, for workshops led by and for members of the Penobscot Nation and Wabanaki guests: $5,000
• Indigo Arts Alliance, to continue to grow as an incubator for professional development and amplification of BIPOC thought leadership, artistic vision, and practice: $10,000
• Intercultural Community Center, to foster the artistic and creative development of immigrant, refugee, and first-generation Westbrook students grades 3-8: $10,000
• Maine Inside Out, for its arts and advocacy-based leadership development programs for youth of color: $10,000
• New England Arab American Organization, to engage an artist from the Arab community to lead workshops and projects that explore Arab and Muslim art and calligraphy: $9,500
• Portland Ovations, to feature artist Chris Newell in its Wabanaki Stories: $6,000
• Speedwell Projects, to feature Indigenous artists in an upcoming exhibition featuring an animated film of Donna Loring's play, “Mary & Molly”: $7,500
• Wabanaki Cultural Preservation Coalition, to fund four traditional Wabanaki art workshops to further support Wabanaki artists and arts: $5,000

From donor-advised funds:

• Gateway Community Services Maine, to teach BIPOC youth how to use art for community building and self-healing: $10,000
• Mayo Street Arts, to convene a traditional arts network gathering for immigrant artists living in Southern Maine: $10,000
• Tree Street Youth, for emerging local BIPOC artists to provide arts programs for young people: $10,000
• United Youth Empowerment Services, for its youth Creator Space and to bring awareness to environmental health challenges among the immigrant and newcomer refugee communities: $10,000

2021 Grants

• Belfast Creative Coalition, to support Betty The Fantastic ArtVan is Joy Riding in Waldo County, which brings art supplies, music, dance, theater, painting, poems, information, resources, and fun: $10,000
• Center for the Advancement of Rural Living, for staff to expand and implement 2022 cultural arts programs: $7,800
• The Playhouse, for a marionette company to complete the puppet stage with sound and lighting equipment and create and rehearse "Les Petits Amis": $3,000
• Cultural Resources, to sponsor an annual Wabanaki traditional arts mentorship gathering for mentors and their students: $8,000
• Eastport Arts Center, to expand the Children's Theater Workshop for underserved youth in rural Down East Maine: $10,000
• GATEWAY: Milbridge, to design/build a year-round stage inside the arts center that will increase access to the arts for residents and hiring opportunities for artists: $9,500
• Heart of Ellsworth, to install downtown Ellsworth’s first outdoor mural through a community engagement process: $10,000
• High Peaks Creative Council, to enrich schoolwide creative programming through construction of four toboggans with a teaching artist/craftsman for pre-K through eighth grade at Phillips Elementary School: $5,000
• Leaps of Imagination, to support art inspired by the natural environment for children ages 5 to 10: $5,000
• Lights Out Gallery, to feature artists from across Maine focused on rural communities to illuminate art in conversation: $10,000
• Maine Fiberarts, to visit, photograph, document and publicize fiber artists and destinations in Western Maine through a tour map, website, and printed travel postcards: $10,000
• Maine Highlands Senior Center/Central Hall Commons: to build the capacity of the Maine Highlands Arts Council and launch the Commons Winter Concert Series: $10,000
• Project Freewill, to repair and reopen as a community venue and resource for low-income underground artists in rural Maine: $6,500
• Rangeley Friends of the Performing Arts, for 24 seminars and 12 performances of local storytelling in the community: $4,290
• Reversing Falls Sanctuary, to fund free art workshops that explore media appropriate for a broad range of ages and skills: $10,000
• Tear Cap Workshops, for general operating capital to support emerging craft education programs, artisan workshop spaces, and a creative woodworking makerspace: $10,000
• Waldo Theatre, to support an in-school theater arts education program: $10,000

From donor-advised funds:                       

• History House Association/Skowhegan History House: to create an oil painting mural that depicts an authentic view of Wabanaki existence during the past, present, and anticipated future: $9,000
• University of Maine System/Hudson Museum: to collaborate with Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance to create a lending library of basketmaking blocks to support the perpetuation of brown ash and sweetgrass basketmaking: $6,500