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