Clemmons Family Farm awarded $130,000 grant
Clemmons Family Farm is one of 112 organizations nationwide selected to receive an ArtsHERE grant of $130,000 as part of a new program from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The grant comes in partnership with South Arts. Founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts, South Arts is one six U.S. regional nonprofit arts service organizations working to increase access to creativity for all Americans.
The 112 organizations are recommended for non-matching grants of $65,000 to $130,000, totaling more than $12.3 million. The grants support projects that will strengthen the organizations’ capacity to sustain meaningful community engagement and increase arts participation for underserved groups and communities.
Ethnomusicologist Damascus Kafumbe, a professor of music at Middlebury College, gives a music presentation at the Clemmons Farm.
More than 4,000 organizations applied for ArtsHERE funding in late 2023 and early 2024. Applications were reviewed by multiple review panels based on criteria, including the applicant’s organizational capacity and their capacity-building project, alignment with ArtsHERE’s commitment to equity and engagement with historically underserved communities.
“Everyone should be able to live an artful life, and ArtsHERE is an important step in ensuring we are strengthening our nation’s arts ecosystem to make this a reality,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Historically underserved groups and communities, whose opportunities to experience the arts have been limited by factors such as geography, race, ethnicity, economics or disability, frequently report lower rates of participation in arts activities than other groups do. ArtsHERE aims to address disparities in arts participation through grants that help organizations better serve and reach their communities.
In 2023, Clemmons Family Farm, a Vermont 501c3 nonprofit organization, purchased the historic 138-acre Clemmons Farm in Charlotte and began improving venues on the farm for artist studios, residencies, retreats, workshops, arts and culture programs. The grant will support overall marketing research, strategies and promotion of the Clemmons Farm to artists and scholars, who are on faculty at New England universities and who have expertise in African diaspora cultures and art, to use their sabbatical time for residence, retreats and workshops at the farm.
“This partnership supports the third prong of our organizational mission, which is to build a loving multicultural community around African American and African Diaspora history, arts and culture”, said Rev. Co’Relous Bryant, member of the Clemmons Family Farm’s board of directors.
Susie Surkamer, president and CEO of South Arts, said, “The arts are essential to the fabric of our nation, and at the heart of this necessity, are the organizations and individuals who champion them.”
In addition to grant awards, ArtsHERE recipients will also participate in quarterly peer-learning workshops, monthly cohort sessions and one-on-one meetings with technical assistance coaches and field experts.
As a pilot program, ArtsHERE will be documented and evaluated by the NEA to better understand the project activities supported by this program and how grantees approached the work. These insights may inform the future of ArtsHERE and similar funding programs in the future.
Clemmons Family Farm and the other selected organizations will receive funding to support their projects, which will take place between October 2024 through June 2026. Find more information on all of the ArtsHERE recommended grants.