The Verge Artist Fund supports independent artists, artist collectives, and informal creative organizers with grants between $2,500 and $7,500 from Chittenden, Addison, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties who are developing experimental, public-facing projects outside traditional institutional structures.
The Verge Artist Fund prioritizes artist-led initiatives that foster artistic exchange, encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, and expand the definition of contemporary art in Northwestern Vermont. With a total granting fund of $60,000, the program anticipates selecting between 10 and 16 grants in its first year.
The program seeks to support projects that originate from pure artistic inquiry and creative impulse, to accentuate the artistic activity that takes place outside traditional arts venues—in temporary spaces, community gathering places, libraries, studios, publications, digital platforms, among others—and promote the development of experimental practices that bring artists and audiences together in new ways.
Though funded projects must be rooted in the visual arts, the program welcomes interdisciplinary approaches that engage performance, film, publishing, social practice, technology, installation, sound, community-based collaboration, and other emerging forms of artistic expression.
Projects may be temporary or ongoing, but must have a culmination and/or at least one public engagement during the project period that does not occur within a BCA regular program, or as part of another organization or institution’s regular programming. While funded projects may intersect with social, cultural, or environmental concerns, competitive proposals should be driven primarily by artistic vision and the desire to create meaningful public engagement with contemporary art.