Project Spotlight: Connecting the Region’s Artists and Communities

Category: New England Presenting & Touring & MatchBook.org
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, and Castleton, Vermont

NEFA connects New England artists and communities by providing a dynamic system of support for performing arts touring throughout the region. Grants subsidize artists’ fees for venues ranging from theaters to libraries; the annual Idea Swap encourages collaborative project development and planning as part of the Expeditions program; and MatchBook.org, NEFA’s online cultural marketplace, connects artists and presenters via a searchable database of artist profiles and digital work samples.

Castleton State College in Vermont discovered Mango Blue, the Boston–based Afro-Latin jazz group, on MatchBook.org, and hired them to perform as part of its 2008 Jazz Week. Once the artist/presenter/community connection was made through MatchBook.org, fee support was secured from NEFA’s New England States Touring (NEST) program, making the multi-day experience for the Castleton community possible.

Mango Blue offered a cultural experience to Castleton “…that we would not be able to find easily in this small area…broadening our hor

izons and opening our minds to more than what we hear on the radio.” -a student participant.

Photo: Mango Blue performing live;
photo by Craig Bailey