Under The Supervision of Penobscot Artist Barry Dana, Students Maddie Thorndike, left and Carly McCaabe Built a Wigman on the Skowhegan History House Campus, Last Summer.

MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett have announced a $2.5 milion gift to the Portland based Maine Community Foundation’s Maine Expansion Arts Fund. The endowed fund supports Indigidenous, ethnic or rural arts programs or projects in Maine, particularly those that serve areas with limited access to arts events.

This gift will more than double our annual grant budget,” said Maine CF Senior Program officer Leslie Goode, who manages the Maine Expansion Arts Fund.  “In recent years, we have been able to award grants to about half of the deserving proposals, so this will be a boost to those organizations whose good work and ideas would otherwise go unfunded.” Goode noted that the fund will expand its outreach to organizations led by Black, Indigenous and other people of color.

Maine Expansion Arts Fund was launched in 1988 as a collaborative effort of the community foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Maine Arts Commission and others to strengthen and ensure the future of Maine’s artistic tradition.

The next deadline for grant applications is September 15, 2021.  Guidelines, application and a list of recent grants are available at www.mainecf.org.  for information about applying for a grant contact Leslie Goode at jgoode@mainecf.com