By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times
SAXTONS RIVER, Vt. — Main Street Arts in Saxtons River, Vermont has been the recipient of a pair of grants from the Vermont Arts Council recently, amounting to nearly $11,000 that will help the organization with paying employees and also installing heat pumps.
The Vermont Arts Council recently announced that it was awarding $375,000 in grants to public art projects across the state, and one of those was Main Street Arts in Saxtons River in the amount of $7,809. This was through the Fiscal Year 2025 Cultural Facilities Grant to install heat pumps on the first floor.
“We received the $7,809 as a cultural facilities grant towards paying for heat pumps,” said MSA Board Chair Susan Still. “It’s a 50/50 match, so we’ll be paying the other half. We also received a $3,000 general operating grant from the Vermont Arts Council this month. We will use this to support increasing the hours of our only employee to 30 hours a week starting in September.”
Still said Main Street Arts is very grateful for the Vermont Arts Council’s ongoing support.
According to a release by the Vermont Arts Council, 17 arts and community organizations have received $302,023 in funding through the Council’s Cultural Facilities grant program. This is for capital improvements to buildings like theaters, town halls, libraries, museums and community centers, as well as other places where people gather to celebrate the arts and culture.
The projects included energy efficient upgrades that were primarily heat pumps. There were 28 applications that requested more than $500,000 in funding. The program is part of the Building Communities Grant Programs through the Vermont Legislature, designed to assist communities in historic preservation and enhancing the facilities of buildings.
“Investing in our state’s cultural infrastructure and incorporating art into the public places where Vermonters gather provides many cultural, social, and economic benefits to a community,” Vermont Arts Council Executive Director Susan Evans McClure said in a release. “We are proud to support these important projects, which both demonstrate the power of art in humanizing our public places and reaffirm the richness of our cultural heritage.”
