(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- Vanguard Theater Company has been awarded a $10,000 CARES Arts Organization Relief Grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF), the regional arts agency serving Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the US Virgin Islands, Virginia and West Virginia.
Vanguard was selected through a highly competitive review process, to support salaries for staff essential to the company’s ongoing work in 2020-2021, to change the narrative through theater dedicated to DREAM: Diversity, Reciprocity, Education, Activism & Mentorship.
MAAF received 1,022 applications requesting $10.7 million in support at the program deadline. Applications went through a rigorous review process that involved a diverse group of panelists to ensure an equitable distribution of funds. Panelists from across the region were selected for expertise in nonprofit arts management across various artistic disciplines and sectors. Vanguard is one of only 79 out of 1022 applying organizations to receive an award.
“We are pleased to pass along [from the National Endowment for the Arts] this important CARES Act funding to organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region in the hope that it offers some relief to an arts field struggling with the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Theresa Colvin, MAAF’s Executive Director. “We know the need is great, and will continue to look for ways to further support and strengthen the arts community during this challenging time.”
Vanguard Theater Company congratulates the other NJ grant recipients and is honored to be in their company: Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ, $10,000; Luna Stage Company, Inc., West Orange, NJ, $10,000; Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts, Inc., Montclair, NJ, $10,000; Trenton Education Dance Institute, Inc., Trenton, NJ, $5,000; and Union City Music Project, Inc., Union City, NJ, $5,000. (A list of all the grantees may be found here)
Vanguard recently received an additional award of $2000 from The Northern New Jersey Community Relief Fund to be used for COVID response. This grant allows Vanguard to hire a COVID safety consultant as Vanguard dips its toes back into small, social distant performances and classes.
“The joy of being able to create together, in person, though masked and socially distant, is so palpable, and a reminder that the arts are an important part of what makes life worth living,” says Janeece Freeman Clark, Vanguard Theater Company’s Founding Artistic Director. “At callbacks, the creative team and the actors were alternatingly laughing and crying at the poignancy of a bit of human contact.”
Upcoming programming includes Jason Robert Brown’s “Songs for a New World,” a song cycle about that “one moment” that changes your life forever; “Shrek, the Musical,” as part of Vanguard’s VTC Kids initiatives; and small in-person classes. Currently, rehearsals are being conducted at the First Congregational Church in Montclair. However, Vanguard anticipates that it will move to its new home at 180 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, in November. The renovations underway at 180 include a new HVAC and ventilation system, and the rehearsal studios will be configured to allow socially distanced arts education with limited numbers of students under strict social distancing and CDC guidelines.
Vanguard Theater Company is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit producing original, collaborative and re-imagined works of theater. Committed to changing the narrative through theater dedicated to DREAM: Diversity, Reciprocity, Education, Activism & Mentorship, Vanguard is committed to color-conscious casting, and professional artistic mentorship. Vanguard Theater Company's year-round programming is made possible through generous support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, TeeRico by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Investors Bank, collaborations with Montclair Film and other community partners, and the generosity of many individual donors.
