On Friday, October 16, Burlington City Arts announced the Verge Artist Fund, a new annual grant program supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program. Each year, the $60,000 fund will distribute between 10 and 15 grants ranging from $2,500 to $7,000 to local artists and artist groups.
Grants will be awarded to artist-led projects that foster collaboration and the exchange of ideas, and that, according to a press release, “originate from pure artistic inquiry and creative impulse.” Supported projects occur outside of traditional arts venues, in temporary spaces; places such as libraries, studios and community centers; or on digital platforms. Publications or event series are also eligible.
The Verge Artist Fund will join 41 other similar regional programs supported by the Warhol Foundation, including in cities such as Portland, Maine; Milwaukee, Wisc.; and Minneapolis, Minn. Those funds have supported programs such as the Soomal House of Art, an artist-led project that grew into an important cultural center for the Somali community in Minneapolis; Greenwood, a free shadow-puppet folk opera touring communities across western Wisconsin; and an exhibition of sculpture and installations made from seaweed and exhibited in a waterfront warehouse in Rockland, Maine. Other projects have included comedy festivals, art-review publications, traditional craft workshops and film series.
Eligibility will be limited to artists in Chittenden, Addison, Franklin or Grand Isle counties. However, informal groups may apply so long as the lead project organizer is from one of those counties. All projects must have a public component, such as an event or exhibition, and funding can support all kinds of project costs, including artist fees. Applications will open on January 8, after which BCA will offer several info sessions for prospective applicants; the application deadline is April 16. A three-person committee will select winning proposals.
In creating its broader regional regranting program, the Warhol Foundation’s aim was to spur the informal networks of projects that happen organically in creative communities — some of which lead to the establishment of the kinds of longer-term institutions that sustain the arts. That’s in alignment with Burlington City Arts’ history of investing in artists, according to executive director Doreen Kraft. The Verge Artist Fund, she said, “establishes a new place in our region’s ecosystem for contemporary artists, organizers, and creative thinkers.”
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