A surprise gift of $2.5 million in 2021 is a game changer for the arts in rural communities and for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) as MaineCF's Maine Expansion Arts Fund celebrates its 35th year.
"This gift will have a large positive impact on the arts in Maine for years to come," said MaineCF Senior Program Officer Leslie Goode, who oversees the program.
The contribution from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, has tripled the budget for grants from the endowed fund, which has awarded 455 grants totaling $1.4 million since 1997.
The new budget allowed grantees in 2021 to submit grant proposals for a maximum of $10,000 rather than $5,000. More changes are in the works. The gift will also allow the grant program to define more distinctly its two goals: funding for small, rural organizations and funding for BIPOC-serving organizations that support the arts and artists.
"This enables us to expand the BIPOC aspect of the program and create options in a way we couldn't with a more limited grant budget," Goode said.
Maine artists and others in the arts community review grant proposals and make funding recommendations.
In 2021, the fund awarded 17 grants totaling $139,090 to organizations and projects ranging from hands-on workshops to cultural preservation and community art events. Here are a few Expansion Arts grantees; view a full list here.
Belfast Creative Coalition
Visual and performing arts were some of the "nonessential" services upended during the COVID-19 pandemic. With theaters and galleries closed to the public, Belfast Creative Coalition decided to bring the arts to the public.
The coalition's solution: "Betty the Art Van," a 1970s Toyota camper the coalition turned into a traveling art studio, gallery, theater, and music venue.
The van travels around Waldo County and stops in public spaces to provide live music, performances, and visual arts. Betty has hosted banjo and fiddle performances, dance, rap, and interactive art projects throughout the area.
The Maine Expansion Arts Fund awarded the art van project $10,000 in 2021.
Traditional Wabanaki basketmaking blocks. Hudson Museum photo
Hudson Museum
The Wabanaki art of brown ash and sweetgrass basketmaking has been a shared tradition for centuries of Micmac, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Penobscot people in Maine.
Now a new generation of basket makers will have additional access to wooden basket forms. The Hudson Museum at the University of Maine has collaborated with the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance to create a lending library of basketmaking blocks to carry on the art form.
The museum has 160 historic wooden blocks used by Wabanaki basketmakers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The blocks were traditionally passed down through families, but over time many were lost. Replicas of the original blocks are now in use at the lending library for those who do not have family blocks or for people interested in learning the art.
A donor-advised fund at MaineCF awarded the University of Maine's museum $6,500 for the lending library.
The Tear Cap Workshops campus in Hiram, Maine. Brianna Soukup photo
Tear Cap Workshops
The site of a former sawmill is the perfect setting for Tear Cap Workshops in Hiram. Its 19 acres and 11 buildings offer ample space for woodworkers, timber framers, and other artists to rent workbenches. Community members can also learn hands-on crafts such as woodworking, bookbinding, basketmaking, and more at Tear Cap's classes.
Founded in 2016 by carpenter Henry Banks and his daughter Sarah, who grew up learning skills at her father's work sites, Tear Cap Workshops is named after the mountain peak that rises above the campus.
The property is always bustling with professionals working on their trades and novices learning to carve wooden spoons or make wooden benches during one of the guided workshops.
"We are an educational organization and so it's been so great to have people come together and learn a new skill," said Henry Banks. "Our residents bring a great energy to Tear Cap and are really beneficial to us."
Tear Cap Workshops was awarded $10,000 from Maine Expansion Arts Fund in 2021.
To learn more about the Expansion Arts Fund, please contact Senior Program Officer Leslie Goode at (207) 472-2002 or lgoode@mainecf.org.
