VSC to Receive Federal Stimulus Funds

 NEA Grant to help fund creative industries

[JOHNSON, VT] — As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Program, a grant from the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) will provide support for two positions at Vermont Studio Center.  These stimulus funds will help the Center to maintain two key positions, that of Writing Program Director and that of Community Arts Coordinator.  At a time when funding for the arts is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, this NEA grant support will assure the continued vitality and success of the Writing Program and the Johnson Elementary School (JES) Learning in Art and Culture Program.

The VSC residency program for writers provides intensive working retreats for more than 175 writers each year. In the past year, the Writing Program has also inaugurated a program of Poetry in the Schools at the local Johnson Elementary School and has established programs for international writing residencies and translation forums.

The Learning in Art and Culture Program was launched in 1992 in response to the loss of state funding for the arts in local primary schools. VSC’s elementary outreach program in the arts enables more than 200 students at Johnson Elementary School to meet 1-6 Vermont curriculum standards in the arts through weekly hour-long hands-on instruction from VSC’s international community of visiting artists. In 2007-2008, 40 artists from Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam and all over the United States provided cultural and geographic enrichment for JES students.  Former Johnson Elementary School principal Brigid Scheffert said that without the instructional support of the Vermont Studio Center’s staff and visiting artists the school’s art program would suffer.

The direct grants program of the National Endowment for the Arts is part of the congressional economic stimulus recovery plan. The NEA will distribute $29,775,000 in direct grants supporting 631 projects nationwide, in all fifty states. In the United States, there are approximately 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations, which spend $63.1 billion annually. Without an economic stimulus for the nonprofit arts industry, experts expect about 10% of these organizations (ranging from large arts institutions like museums and orchestras to small community-based organizations in suburban, urban and rural areas) to shut their doors in 2009 – a loss of 260,000 jobs.  In a report released in mid-January, the National Governor's Association stated, "Arts and culture are important to state economies. Arts and culture-related industries, also known as "creative industries," provide direct economic benefits to states and communities: They create jobs, attract investments, generate tax revenues, and stimulate local economies through tourism and consumer purchases."

The Vermont Studio Center’s residency program employs 26 people and brings nearly 1,000 tourists to Lamoille County each year.  It celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.