Empowering Individuals to Participate in the Arts
© Justin Bishop
The Battell Arts Foundation is a long-standing charitable arts organization in Norfolk, Connecticut. Founded originally as a community funding group for the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Foundation has grown to support a wide variety of individuals and groups participating in artistic enterprises throughout the community. Below is a brief outline of current Foundation initiatives.
Norfolk Chamber Music Festival
Since its inception, the Battell Arts Foundation has supported the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, an educational and performance program of the Yale University School of Music. The Chamber Music Festival provides opportunities for the most talented young instrumentalists, singers, and composers to collaborate as Fellows with internationally acclaimed musicians. A yearly grant supports the Young Artists Recitals, where Fellows in residence provide free concerts of chamber music to the community on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Attendance is free and open to all.
Yale Norfolk School of Art
BAF provides a yearly grant to the Yale Norfolk School of Art, an intensive six-week undergraduate summer residency program for 26 rising seniors. Through the grant, BAF funds community drawing classes, support for open lectures, and a collaboration with the residents in a community art initiative.
Grants to Local Schools
The Battell Arts Foundation provides grants to support initiatives of the Norfolk and Colebrook schools in the areas of arts education, appreciation, and performance. Examples in the past have been support for a recurring drama program, field trips to Connecticut museums, and for the purchase of musical instruments. Since we are interested in building community through the arts, BAF has been particularly supportive of joint initiatives of the two schools.
Grants to Youth
BAF is been strongly committed to enabling interested local young people to continue their study in the arts. We have done that by providing tuition support for local arts groups like the Nutmeg Ballet and Chorus Angelicus, helping to pay for arts supplies ranging from instruments to cameras, and providing support for summer educational programs, ranging from drama to music to ceramics. The Foundation advertises for these grants in a fall and spring cycle but continues to consider applications on a rolling basis.
Grants to Organizations
The Foundation is encouraging to local organizations and individuals that provide artistic educational or participatory opportunities in the local community. In the past, we have supported performances by the Litchfield County Choral Union, the Greenwoods Puppet Festival, the Norfolk Library One-Act play presentation, violin lessons for youth, and an array of one-off community art programs.
The Battell Arts Journal
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of BAF decided young people needed an avenue of expression about the major disruption that had occurred in their lives. The resulting publication provided writing and art that illuminated their unique experience, and was so well-received that it has become an ongoing initiative of the Foundation. Published yearly, it offers an opportunity for all local young people to express their feelings through literature and visual art.
