B.E.A.N. Micro-Grant Dinner
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and the Elliot Street Café are teaming up to empower our community to take arts philanthropy into its own hands!
Based on similar programs happening all around the world, B.E.A.N. Micro-Grant Dinners enhance the vitality of art and artists in our community by providing artists with much-needed financial support and encouraging dialogue and collaborative decision-making between artists and the general public.
B.E.A.N., which stands for “Brattleboro Essential Arts Network,” also aims to change the face of arts funding — from a top-down model with limited interaction between funders and recipients to one that features direct, personal contact between donors and their beneficiaries, allowing virtually anyone to become a philanthropist.
The next B.E.A.N. Dinner is scheduled for Sunday, September 16 at 6 p.m. Funding requests are due Monday, September 10 at 5 p.m.
HOW IT WORKS, PART 1: Eat, Listen, Discuss, Vote
For only $12 anyone can attend a Mexican dinner catered and served by the Elliot Street Cafe, with live music by local musicians. Over dinner, guests will review and discuss funding requests for local art-related projects. At the end of the night, guests will vote for one or more proposals that deserve to receive the proceeds from the event.
“The Weekend Reformers,” a free-spirited improvising combo featuring Ruth Garbus, Ron Schneiderman, and Chris Weisman are going to perform at the 9/16 B.E.A.N. Dinner. They bring it cool, casual, and sincere, in a cocktail-jazz style — bright enough to light a room, while keeping things subtle and sublime…
HOW IT WORKS, PART 2: Apply for a Micro-Grant
To apply for a grant (probably no more than $500, depending on how many people show up for dinner), take a few minutes to answer three simple questions about your project.
To apply online for a BEAN Micro-Grant click here. (Hard copies of the application form are available at the Elliot Street Café, open Wed-Sun, 8:30-2:30.)
Not sure what to apply for?
Maybe you need to buy supplies…
… or frame some paintings
… or install an exhibit
… or hire acrobats
… or produce a video of a performance
… or advertise an art event
… or rent a harpsichord
… or skip a shift at work to complete a project
… or develop informational resources of use to artists in our area
… or pay to keep the heat on in your studio…
In a nutshell, any project that contributes to the vitality of art and artists in our community and would benefit from a small grant of just a few hundred dollars might fit the bill. Individuals, groups, teams, businesses, schools, non-profit organizations and others are welcome to apply. (And applicants and their friends are welcome to attend the dinner and cast votes, too!)
Questions? Call Margaret Shipman at 802-257-0124, ext. 103
PREVIOUS BEAN MICRO-GRANT RECIPIENTS
$300 to NEYT alumni for a traveling production of Romeo & Juliet
$300 to In-Sight Photography Project for a portable digital projector
$200 to Cyndal Ellis for supplies for early childhood dance classes
$255 to Neighborhood Schoolhouse for art studio classes for kids
$250 to Vermont Theatre Company for original music for Shakespeare in the Park
$245 to Marlboro Elementary School for printing student Collage Books
$300 to Alicia Hunsicker toward marketing expenses for a gallery exhibition
$8,000+ to artists who suffered damage in Tropical Storm Irene
$375 to Mollie Burke for “Art in the Neighborhood”
$350 to Patty Meyer for “A Trip for Odyssey”
