During its first decade, an NEH challenge grant helped the Vermont Folklife Center raise $525,000 to expand its educational programming and ability to engage communities throughout the state. Today, the center offers the public a wide array of educational programs—from engaging podcasts, to digital media production workshops, apprenticeships with traditional artists, and training in documenting cultural traditions. The center serves Vermont’s schools through its place-based learning training for educators and its multicultural education curriculum, which was developed and updated in consultation with educators in the state.

The center is also home to a nationally-renowned archive, which holds thousands of recorded interviews, images, manuscripts, and other documentation. In the early 2000s, NEH funding supported the center’s digitization process to allow for online archival access. This advancement enabled the center’s partnership with the American Folklore Society to participate in the National Folklore Archives Initiative—an effort to create a digital union catalogue of collections maintained at organizations across the country and a pivotal advancement in American folklore studies. And more recently, NEH funding helped the center again advance their archival practices and approach to digital preservation, positioning the organization for more robust future support and ensuring access to Vermont’s heritage for generations to come.