PHOTO: Karen Newell, grade 2, gets creative during Wintergreen’s After School Arts Lab.
Presque Isle, Maine—Wintergreen Arts Center recently received a $10,000 donor-advised grant from the Maine Community Foundation for general support. Earmarked from The Ollie Fund, this grant supports Wintergreen’s proposal to the 2025 Maine Expansion Arts Grant program.
Wintergreen’s mission of stimulating creativity and curiosity through the arts in Aroostook County, coupled with its strategy of intentionally serving economically challenged families met grant criteria for expanding access to the arts.
The arts center’s flagship programs, After School Arts Lab and Summer Arts Camps, are directly supported by this grant.
Since 2010, Wintergreen has partnered with the City of Presque Isle to provide affordable, quality after-school and summer arts programming for local children in grades K-8. Thanks to donors like the Maine Community Foundation, these programs are not only offered at a deep discount to all students, but no child is turned away due to inability to pay. Families in need are offered a sliding scale and scholarships are available.
Beginning in 2017, Wintergreen entered a 50/50 partnership with the Presque Isle Housing Authority (PIHA) to provide Art with HeART, a unique relationship-building summer arts camp located in a PIHA neighborhood. Through gifts including this grant from the Maine Community Foundation, Art with HeART is a FREE program for all area youth.
About Maine Community Foundation: The Maine Community Foundation brings people and resources together to build a better Maine through strategic giving, community leadership, personalized service, local expertise and strong investments. To learn more about the foundation, visit www.mainecf.org.
About Wintergreen Arts Center: The Wintergreen Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2006, and located in Presque Isle, Maine. Wintergreen is an organization based on the idea that creativity, advocacy, and community can produce great things. Our mission is stimulating creativity and curiosity through the arts in Aroostook County.