October 20, 2021

The Robert Frost Stone House Museum at Bennington College has received a $5,000 COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Grant from the Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities to support its operations during the pandemic.

This grant will support the Robert Frost Stone House Museum’s general operations and arts and humanities programming. 

The Vermont COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Grant Program is a partnership between the Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities to provide funding to arts and humanities organizations facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Grants are made possible with federal funds distributed through the American Rescue Plan.

“We are so thankful to Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Arts Council for this additional support to the Robert Frost Stone House Museum after such a difficult year,” said Erin McKenny, Director of the Robert Frost Stone House Museum. “We are grateful for their advocacy for our wonderful cultural institutions in Vermont.”

Since Bennington College began managing the Frost Stone House in 2017, the College has worked hard to celebrate Frost’s legacy and to become a gathering place and resource for the Southern Vermont community through lectures, workshops, concerts, free poetry readings, and public events. 

However, the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for the Robert Frost Stone House Museum, particularly restricting programming and admission to the Museum during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. 

Since Vermont eased COVID-19 restrictions in summer 2021, attendance has once again been on the rise at the Museum, and a variety of programming—including an exhibition of Erasure poetry from Vermont State Poet Laureate Mary Ruefle ’74, poetry readings, and outdoor workshops—have resumed.  

Supporting the Community Amid a Pandemic

With an eye toward the local community’s needs during this time, the Museum has also served as the collection site for the Grow a Row program, where local gardeners drop off their produce, which is then delivered weekly to two food pantries. In 2020, the Museum also co-sponsored a series of free gardening webinars for those who wanted to start their own gardens. Both of these programs are part of the College’s Mellon Foundation-funded initiative to address local food insecurity. 

The Museum has also made education a priority, and has been working with the Southwestern Vermont Supervisory Union on future programming to bring more students to the Robert Frost Stone House Museum. In August 2021, as an extension of the exhibition Mary Ruefle: Erasures, the Museum partnered with the McCullough Public Library in North Bennington to offer free erasure poem kits for kids, which included free vouchers to see the exhibition. 

Finally, visitors are always welcome to visit the Museum’s grounds for free. Recently, the Museum added an installation by artist Margaretha Haughwout titled Food Forest Futures, and a poetry trail featuring four of Frost’s poems integrated with the landscape that inspired them.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those of the Vermont Humanities.