Maine Theater Fund

Awards $76,000 in Grants

PORTLAND & ELLSWORTH—The Maine Theater Fund of the Maine Community Foundation has awarded 17 grants that total $76,829 to support professional and community theaters in the production and presentation of live theater.

Grace and Jenny of Bana Mboka lead the audience in Congolese dance during a 2019 performance at Mayo Street Arts. Photo Vanessa Marcoux, MSA

GRANT RECIPIENTS

• Everyman Repertory Theatre, Rockport, to present the 2021 season of plays that celebrate the arts in Maine and the state’s history
• Friends of St. Lawrence Church, Portland, to supplement operating funds for maintenance of the Parish Hall Theater
• Mayo Street Arts, Portland, to renovate the box office and concessions area to ADA standards
• Acadia Repertory Theatre, Somesville, to replace the theatre’s 40-year-old lighting system: $3,000
• Arts & Cultural Alliance of Freeport, for the purchase of a sound system for Meetinghouse Arts:  $5,000
• Chocolate Church Arts Center, Bath, to replace ticketing and donation system: $5,000
• Community Little Theater, Auburn, for the theatrical rights and expenses for the production of AR Gurney’s Love Letters: $4,000
• Crowbait Club, Portland, for “King of Crows IX,” the yearly production of the winners of the monthly Theatre Deathmatch for 10-minute plays: $2,000
• Dramatic Repertory Company, Portland, to fund the 2020-2021 season, including two Maine premier productions: $5,000
• Everyman Repertory Theatre, Rockport, to present the 2021 season of plays that celebrate the arts in Maine and the state’s history: $5,000
• Friends of St. Lawrence Church, Portland, to supplement operating funds for maintenance of the Parish Hall Theater: $3,000
• Marsh River Theater, Brooks, for new lights: $5,000
• Mayo Street Arts, Portland, to renovate the box office and concessions area to ADA standards: $5,000
• Midcoast Actors Studio, Belfast, to provide quality year-round theatre opportunities in the new performance space at the former Waldo County Courthouse    $5,000
• Ogunquit Playhouse Foundation, to help offset the costs of COVID-19 personal protective equipment and safety upgrades for the 2021 season re-opening: $5,000
• Portland Lyric Theater, to install an air purification system to improve indoor air quality, preparing for safe opening: $5,000
• Saco River Theatre, to complete construction of staff/performer restrooms in the basement of the building           : $5,000
• Terra Moto Inc., South Portland, to produce MAINEUSA: The History of Maine from the Ice Age till Now in July 2021 at Portland Players Theater followed by statewide performances: $5,000
• Theater at Monmouth, to produce TopDog/UnderDog by Suzan Lori Parks as part of TAM’s (R)evolutionary Season Redux: $5,000
• Waldo Theatre Inc., to purchase and install essential flame-retardant stage masking curtains and the required stage rigging: $4,829

An anonymous couple who recognized the connection between vibrant communities and support for the arts established the Maine Theater Fund in 2005 to strengthen and sustain theater performance throughout the state. 

Awards are typically between $2,500 and $5,000. The next deadline for applications is September 15, 2021. Guidelines, application and a list of recent grants are available at www.mainecf.org. The 2020 grants are also listed below.

If you have questions please contact Carl Little, Communications Manager, Maine Community Foundation.

Headquartered in Ellsworth, with additional personnel in Portland, Dover-Foxcroft, Rockport, and Mars Hill, the Maine Community Foundation works with donors and other partners to provide strong investments, personalized service, local expertise, and strategic giving to improve the quality of life for all Maine people. To learn more about the foundation, visit www.mainecf.org.

Maine Expansion Arts Fund

Maine Community Foundation

The Maine Community Foundation’s Maine Expansion Arts Fund is accepting applications from nonprofits for grants of up to $5,000 that support indigenous, ethnic, or rural arts programs or projects, particularly those that serve areas with limited access to arts events.

The deadline for grant applications is September 15, 2019. An online application, guidelines and a list of recent grants are available at www.mainecf.org.

The Maine Expansion Arts Fund is a collaborative effort of MaineCF, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lillian M. Berliawsky Charitable Trust, and the Maine Arts Commission to strengthen and ensure the future of these artistic traditions. Additional funding is provided through the Elizabeth Laughlin Anderson Memorial Fund.

A statewide organization headquartered in Ellsworth with additional personnel in Portland, Dover-Foxcroft and Mars Hill, the Maine Community Foundation works with donors and other partners to improve the quality of life for all Maine people

Traditional Maine Handcrafts Grant

Maine Community Foundation

The Maine Community Foundation seeks proposals to its Belvedere Traditional Handcrafts Fund for projects and organizations that promote traditional handcrafts in Maine.

An anonymous donor established the Belvedere Traditional Handcrafts Fund in 2007. Grant funding supports fiber arts, ceramics, basketry, jewelry, glass arts, woodwork, leather, metal crafts, and more. It also includes traditional Native American handcrafts.

Grants are available for new or expanding projects and capacity-building activities. Online applications are available through the Maine Community Foundation at www.mainecf.org. The application deadline is June 1, 2019. Only 501(c)3 organizations are eligible to apply.   

For more information, visit the foundation’s website, www.mainecf.org, or contact Leslie Goode, lgoode@mainecf.org, or by phone at (207) 412-2002.

Headquartered in Ellsworth, with additional personnel in Portland, Dover-Foxcroft, and Mars Hill, the Maine Community Foundation works with donors and other partners to improve the quality of life for all Maine people. To learn more about the foundation, visit www.mainecf.org.

Maine Community Foundation

Over 600 Scholarships Available

The Maine Community Foundation offers more than 600 scholarships that support students pursuing studies in music, journalism, teaching, horticulture, technology, the arts, and many other fields. The scholarships are available for students who attend secondary, post-secondary, and graduate schools, as well as non-traditional programs.

A complete listing of scholarships available for the upcoming school year is now online at the Maine Community Foundation website, www.mainecf.org.

In 2018, the community foundation awarded nearly $3 million in scholarships to more than a 1,000 Maine students attending schools in the state, across the country, and around the world.

Adult learners also can benefit from a number of scholarship funds that help them navigate the road back to school. About 200,000 Mainers who started college never completed their degrees. The Maine Community Foundation is focusing on this group as part of its goal to advance education in Maine.

MaineCF is a supporting member of the MaineSpark coalition, a 10-year commitment by education, nonprofit, philanthropy, and business leaders to ensure Maine’s workforce is productive and competitive. Its goal: By 2025, 60% of Mainers will hold education and workforce credentials that position Maine and its families for success.

MaineCF’s scholarship funds are established for a variety of reasons, from honoring a family member to carrying on the tradition of “giving back” that helped an individual through college. To establish a scholarship fund at the community foundation, call Liz Fickett, scholarship funds manager, toll-free at 877 700 6800, ext. 2015.

Headquartered in Ellsworth, with additional personnel in Portland, Dover-Foxcroft, and Mars Hill, the Maine Community Foundation works with donors and other partners to improve the quality of life for all Maine people. To learn more about the foundation, visit www.mainecf.org.

Interview with Carol Shutt

Maine Community Foundation

Recently Carl Little, communication director, from the Maine Community Foundation sent me a link to this wonderful blog post about art educator Carol Shutt. Many of you know Carol from Haystack and the fall Maine Art Education conference. With Carl’s permission I am reposting it. The original is found at THIS LINK.

Carol Shutt has been the K-8 art teacher at Mount Desert Elementary School in Northeast Harbor for the past 27 years. Over the years Shutt successfully applied for several Vincent Astor Incentive Awards from the Maine Community Foundation. In an interview in her classroom this past December, Shutt talked about her life in art and teaching and benefits of the Astor grants and art education.

How did you end up in Maine?

I was born in California, in a small town outside of Los Angeles. I grew up there and then left for college. I started at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and ended up at Syracuse University, which is what brought me east. I graduated in fine arts.

When I moved to Maine, I first was a self-employed craft person because after college I had worked for three years in a really nice craft gallery in Philadelphia, the Works Gallery, run by Rick and Ruth Snyderman. When I came to Downeast Maine in the mid-1970s, there were no galleries so I started making quilts, my own designs, many of them using Amish colors. I did that for about 12 years. And then I became a teacher.

Although my father had been a teacher, I didn’t really think that was going to be my path. I took a temporary position in Steuben and started getting my courses together. After one year at Steuben, I got the job here [at Mount Desert Elementary School]. That was 1991. So this is my 27^th year. I retire at the end of this school year.

I think being a K-8 art teacher requires a diverse skill set. Kids surprise you, they do amazing things. The art-making can be the pretext for socializing. This is the class where they can talk while they work.

Can you say something about the importance of art education?

We’re lucky this school and this island are very supportive. And you see how much [art] enriches lives. It’s such a holistic way of learning. You’re maybe getting ideas for imagery from an experience or feeling, but you also get stuck and have to problem solve.

Learning to think critically and creatively is so important. You might just brainstorm ideas. Or you might say, like I did, consider putting two dissimilar images together because that could be more exciting than just one that you might expect. So I feel like in all the arts you’re putting ideas together in new ways and going “Hah! I just thought of this.”

Art is a way to reach all students. I do some one-on-one work with students. It’s kind of amazing what you can do through the arts that you can’t do verbally, in other modalities. It’s powerful. Music is powerful. Dance is powerful.

And it’s also so experiential. It’s amazing how if you just jump in and you’re doing it, it’s so authentic.

In your 27 years at Mount Desert Elementary, you received 10 Astor Incentive Awards. What did they allow you to do?

It’s an amazing benefit for the staff at this school, at the Northeast Harbor Library and the Mount Desert Island High School. It’s amazing to me because the whole goal is to encourage teachers to do things that are self-enriching, with the premise that they will make you a better teacher. They really aren’t looking for people to apply and go take a methods course or go to a conference on curriculum. We already do that; it’s part of the professional development of the school.

The first few Astor grants I received in the 1990s allowed me to study with artists I really like. I studied with Rebecca Cuming, a wonderful artist from Southwest Harbor who now lives in Colorado. I also did a weeklong workshop with painter Louise Bourne. I love her work. I drove down to her studio in Sedgwick every day.

You have also traveled on Astor grants.

My first travel grant took me to Tuscany; there was a weeklong painting workshop there, two wonderful painters teaching it. Lunch was brought out to the fields and you painted outside. At night we’d critique. It was an enriching artistic experience. When the workshop was over, I traveled with my daughter Sarah to Florence and then to France. We visited Aix-en-Provence, where Cézanne painted, and then Arles and van Gogh. I did a lot of sketching in Provence.

How do think the grants have affected you as an artist and teacher?

I think the grants have made me more of an artist. And they have changed how I work with kids. Being a teacher but being an artist too, I am setting an example. The Astor grants gave me more of an identity: this is who I am, this is the kind of art I like to make.

So I think learning to be an artist and then just deepening what I know and what I do. Most of the grants that I did were art retreats. I went by myself and had a routine of working early in the morning and then going out and walking all day, having experiences and sitting and sketching and then coming back and working. There’s nobody there, nothing to distract you—it’s an amazing way to travel. That kind of experience deepens the way I do things with the kids.

Your last trip was to Cuba, in 2017. What was it like?

It was fascinating. I came home wanting to go back immediately. The people were so friendly. So much music, so much art. At the very end I discovered that they have an amazing ceramic museum in Havana. I had met a ceramic artist and he had a gallery and he told me about it. There are art schools in every province of Cuba and they’re very hard to get into, but if you do, you are really supported, you get all kinds of resources.

What do you plan to do in retirement?

I have an art practice so I look forward to having more time and traveling. My husband, Rocky Mann, is a clay artist so I’ve been preparing a part of our studio and I’ve been working on things that I might like to do in clay. I look forward to exploring.

Look for more about Carol Shutt in the spring edition of Maine Ties, MaineCF’s newsletter.

Grantwriting Workshops

Farmington and Fairfield – Maine Community Foundation

The Maine Community Foundation will hold two grantwriting workshops for nonprofits in central and western Maine on Wednesday, November 29, 2017 (snow date is Friday, December 1).

The Farmington session will be 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the University of Maine, Student Center Room CR123, 111 South Street, Farmington.

The Fairfield session will be 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Kennebec Valley Community College, King 245, 92 Western Avenue, Fairfield.

The sessions will include general information about Maine Community Foundation grant programs, tips to write a strong grant application, and an opportunity to ask questions. We will highlight our Community Building Grant Program, which has an upcoming deadline of February 15, 2018.

This meeting is free and open to the public. Please spread the word and RSVP to cwoods@mainecf.org if you plan to attend. Registration is required so we can contact you by email if the meeting is postponed due to weather.

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 Maine Community Foundation, 245 Main Street, Ellsworth ME 04605 | (877) 700-6800www.facebook/mainecf | info@mainecf.org

Belfast Mural

Fantastic sea creatures

Children paired with artists create fantastic sea creatures in downtown Belfast, Maine. The mural project was funded by an anonymous donor through the Maine Community Foundation’s Waldo County Fund.

In Today’s News

Funding available

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                              CONTACT: ANDREA NEMITZ
November 29, 2016                                                                                 1-877-700-6800

MINSKY FUND FOR ARTS EDUCATION OFFERS GRANTS
TO PENOBSCOT AND WASHINGTON COUNTY TEACHERS

ELLSWORTH—The Maine Community Foundation invites teachers at Penobscot County and Washington County public elementary schools to apply for support to bring the arts into their classrooms.

The Leonard and Renee Minsky Fund for Arts Education will grant up to six awards, up to $1,000 each, to teachers in grades 3 to 5 who want to integrate art into the standard curriculum.

The fund’s advisory committee is particularly interested in funding innovative and collaborative projects with professional artists from the visual and/or performing arts, including but not limited to film, video, and other media; theater arts, music, and dance; and creative writing.

Applications must be postmarked by December 15, 2016. Complete guidelines and applications are available at http://www.mainecf.org. For more information, contact Cathy Melio at cmelio@mainecf.org or by phone, toll-free, at (877) 700-6800.

A statewide organization with offices in Ellsworth and Portland, the Maine Community Foundation works with donors and other partners to improve the quality of life for all Maine people. For questions or more information, visit http://www.mainecf.org or call 1-877-700-6800.

Washington County Arts Ed Funding

Deadline: January 31, 2014

Grant Size: Five grants (maximum of $1,000 each)

General Information:
Recognizing the important role the arts can play in a school’s curriculum, the donors established this fund to encourage teachers in grades three through five to work with professional artists to bring the arts into the classroom and, in addition, to integrate a variety of art forms into the standard curriculum. The Fund challenges classroom teachers to explore innovative approaches to meet the following basic guidelines:

• The artist(s) work(s) with the all the students in the grade(s) participating in the project
• The artist(s) works with all the participating teachers to explore the integration of the arts into the standard curriculum. If agreed upon by the artist and teachers, other interested faculty may also participate.

Each year the Fund will award five grants, up to a maximum of $1,000 each. The application process involves a simple two-page project proposal, which addresses the following: anticipated benefits; timeline and milestones; possible barriers; and a use-of-funds budget. To further simplify the process, application submission and much of the communication will be completed by email.

Grant Guidelines:
Teachers will work with professional artists from the visual and/or performing arts, including but not limited to film, video, and other media, theater arts, music, dance and creative writing. Together, the teacher and artists will design a program in which teachers and students will learn through participating in the art form. The artist will also work with the teachers to develop a curriculum that will incorporate the arts in a meaningful way, helping the school to meet the Maine Learning Results.

Eligibility Requirements:
All public school teachers of grades three through five in Washington County in even years and in Penobscot County in odd years are eligible for consideration. Although not required, teachers of the three grades are encouraged to work collaboratively to present one project, and elementary schools with low enrollments (100 or less students) are encouraged to present one project for the school.

If there is an arts teacher in the relative field involved, that teacher should participate in the design and implementation of the project.

At least 75% of the funds awarded should be budgeted to artist’s fees.

Project Evaluation:
All grant recipients will be required to submit a project evaluation report upon completion of the project. The evaluation will describe how students and teachers have learned from the project, how the arts have been integrated into the curriculum, and how the project has helped the school further the Maine Learning Results.

How To Apply:
The grant application form can be downloaded here. Applications for grants should be forwarded by email to pcleghorn@mainecf.org or by fax to 773-8832.

When To Apply:
Applications must be submitted by 5:00 PM, January 31. Awards will be announced in mid-February. All applicants will receive notice upon receipt of the application and of the committee’s final decisions

If you have questions or would like to discuss an idea before submitting a proposal, please feel free to contact Pam Cleghorn in the Portland office via email or by phone at 207/761-2440.

Monhegan Island Artists Residency

Grants to support expanded programs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                CONTACT: Susan Danly
November 12, 2013                                                    (207) 775-6148

PORTLAND—The Monhegan Artists Residency Corporation is the recipient of three grants to support its programming. A $7,500 grant from the Quimby Family Foundation will cover operating expenses for the two annual five-week artist residencies. Grants from the Horizon Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission of, respectively, $6,400 and $1,900 are supporting the new two-week Artist-Educator Residency.

“The Quimby Family Foundation and MARC share a mission: to provide accessibility to art opportunities for Maine residents,” said Susan Danly, chair of the residency board. The five-week residency allows for creative exploration and experimentation “in the crucible of artistic tradition that is Monhegan Island,” Danly said, “in a time when an extended stay is beyond the financial reach of most Maine artists.”

The Monhegan Artist Residency was among a handful of organizations to receive full funding from the Quimby Family Foundation for the third year in a row. This summer Maine-based artists Kristen Fitzpatrick and Daniel Anselmi were the artists in residence.

“The Maine Arts Commission grant provided important seed money to launch our new artist-educator initiative this summer,” Danly noted; the Horizon Foundation grant will help maintain it over the coming summers. Melinda Campbell, a K-6 Art Specialist with the Auburn School Department, was the first artist-educator this past July.

The Monhegan Artist Residency, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2014, has hosted 44 Maine artists on Monhegan Island. The program depends upon the financial support of individual donations and foundation grants. For further information about the program, the application process and former artist residents, visit: www.monheganartistsresidency.org.