Grantees

The Town School Theatre program currently offers free afterschool arts education to at least 50 students from local public elementary schools. Students from these schools are provided with transportation to NEYT, where they rehearse, and ultimately perform a play. NEYT staff coordinates efforts with principals, guidance counselors, and support professionals to understand students’ behavior plans and personal life circumstances. The program was piloted with Brattleboro’s three elementary schools in 2015 as a means of developing important life skills to help students succeed in both educational and social settings. For the upcoming three year grant period, NEYT will expand the program to include 50 more students from three more area schools.

All ages are invited to play, create and tinker in the Henry Sheldon Museum’s new kids’ makerspace. This space is designed to support and nurture museum visitors across various disciplines, from history to the arts & humanities to the world of technology. This Makerspace fosters community and family connections and provides a platform for creativity and innovation. From painting fun 3D animal pets to woodworking your own pixel art to learning to stitch a sampler, this VCTF grant supports hands-on learning and creative expression in the makerspace. The Henry Sheldon Museum aims to inspire kids, families and communities to engage, create, and connect right in the heart of Middlebury!

Lawrence Memorial Library Children's Theater is an 8-week immersive theater program run 4X per year and committed to fostering the growth of young people through the practice of theater arts in a welcoming, youth-centered community library. We are committed to the development of creativity, self-discovery, self-esteem and peer support through theater. Over the course of an 8-week program, the theater group will produce a theatrical performance for the community, demonstrating the value of arts education and community art projects to the participating children, families and audiences. Our first group will begin in July 2023 and the program will run until July 2024

Kingdom County Productions in collaboration with Centerpoint will produce the Listen up Project: an original musical based on the lives of Vermont teens. The Listen Up Project is an ambitious original musical based on 8 months of interviews, workshops, and listening sessions with more than 800 teens across Vermont. From the vast and diverse stories gathered over this time, a script was written with teens, youth were engaged in the song-writing process and the musical was created. In August the show will tour across the state with 9 live outdoor performances. In the fall live streaming of the musical will be available to schools and the public.

Town Schools Theatre was launched in 2015 as a way to bring accessible after-school arts education to our region’s elementary school students. Students join the program as cohorts of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders; and are guided through the process of devising, rehearsing, and performing a play. The program is offered free of charge to all participants. NEYT receives an annual contribution from our local supervisory union to help make this program possible. Through Town Schools Theatre, NEYT has built relationships with many of the elementary schools across Windham County. As the program continues to grow, NEYT serves more young people, adding more school partners, and expanding the program’s theatre technology track. Approved Grant Funding reallocation Feb 2021: In January 2021, NEYT was invited to launch a program in collaboration with the Boys & Girls Club of Brattleboro. We are thrilled to have this opportunity to cultivate a collaborative approach with a downtown neighbor whose mission aligns so closely with our own. Over the course of eight weeks from January 15th through March 5th, NEYT is providing free drop in sessions for young people at the Boys & Girls Club facility. Thus far, the program has been popular among the young people at the Boys & Girls Club, as it consistently attracts groups of 10 to 15 participants. This program is allowing NEYT to continue providing afterschool arts education to groups of young people in a format consistent with the way we run in-person Town Schools Theatre sessions.

Responding to requests from our students, NEYT is piloting a formal Leader-In-Training (LIT) program. We are launching this program to provide new educational opportunities to our Senior Company students, and improve the quality of instruction delivered to our Junior Company students. This program provides training to emerging student leaders at NEYT, offering them new competencies as teachers and formal responsibilities within NEYT programming. Leaders-In-Training will be embedded in NEYT’s Junior Company and Theatre Technology summer programming, working alongside NEYT’s staff in an instructional capacity. Funds will cover staff time for training student participants, as well as provide stipends for each Leader-In-Training.

rePlay Arts will coordinate and implement 32 Artcycle workshops with both new and existing partners. Launched in 2023, Artcycle teaches creative reuse artmaking skills using art supplies donated by community members. We plan to launch new partnerships with youth service organizations in Vermont’s Upper Valley towns. Artcycle workshops will be scheduled and tailored to enrich the activities available to the populations served by each partner. We will operate free of charge for any partner identifying cost as a barrier.

SafeArt will work with students at Oxbox High School for three years thorugh a multi-disciplinary arts program that includes sexual violence awareness and prevention programming.