MAINE, USA — The Maine Community Foundation (MaineCF) gives Maine arts organizations a boost to help them serve their communities.
MaineCF's Maine Expansion Arts grant program allocated $472,000 to 59 arts organizations in Maine. The focus is to expand access to the arts in rural areas and programs serving people of color and indigenous communities.
The executive director of the nonprofit arts organization Schoodic Arts for All, located on the Schoodic Peninsula, said receiving a grant like this helps people in his rural community have more access.
"It's important to have these things based a little bit further Down East, where folks can really get in and benefit from them without having to take on the added pressure of a huge drive and all the extra money that goes with doing that," Colt Neidhardt explained.
Schoodic Arts for All began 25 years ago with the help of a MaineCF grant, according to Neidhardt. More than two decades later, it's offering a plethora of classes for a variety of ages.
MaineCF Senior Program Officer Leslie Goode said arts are a way to express yourself and people often gravitate to the arts for their well-being. The art program, she said, is a way to help underserved communities have access to something that humanizes us all.
"To me, one of the real strengths of the Maine Expansion Arts program is it's a way of supporting professional artists doing their work as well as encouraging all of us in Maine to think of ourselves as artists," Goode stated.
These grants also help attract more people to towns, beyond taking an art class or two, Neidhardt said. These investments help drive more local business as well.
"When people come into town to take classes and workshops, they're also eating at our restaurant and staying at bed and breakfasts and using all the other facilities in towns," Neidhardt disclosed. "An investment from a grant into small arts organizations in rural areas really does help go a long way to adding to the quality of life for the whole region."