Photo / Jim Neuger
Kate Beever of Maine Music & Health says she and Emma Ivy look forward to continuing their "That's So Portland" project with funding from Coffee By Design's Rebel Blend Fund.
October 28, 2019
Coffee By Design unveils 2019 Rebel Blend Fund arts grant recipients
Photo / Tim Greenway
Coffee By Design co-founders and owners Alan Spear, front left, and Mary Allen Lindemann, front second from right, with Rebel Fund Grant recipients and representatives of Androscoggin Bank.
Coffee By Design, the Portland based coffee wholesaler and retailer that marked its 25th anniversary this year, will give $9,700 in grants to seven Maine art projects from its Rebel Blend Fund, it announced last week.
The company, co-founded in 1994 by Mary Allen Lindemann and Alan Spear, has awarded art grants to projects in Maine for 22 years through the Rebel Blend Fund for a total of more than $95,000.
“In sharing the Rebel Blend Funds we are able to help seed new Maine arts projects," Lindemann said in a news release. "Every year we hear about amazing projects across the state, and we are happy to be able to play a role in helping these projects come to life.”
Lindemann was honored as a Mainebiz Woman to Watch this year, 14 years after she and Spear were recognized as Mainebiz Business Leaders of the Year in 2005.
This year's Rebel Blend Fund Grant recipients are:
- Gateway Community Services, $1,200 to help fund a Portland Hub Youth-led Community Mural;
- Dignity Maine, “Pieces of Recovery: The Puzzle Project," $2,000;
- Maine Music & Health LLC, $850 to fund editing for its"That's So Portland" video project;
- Black Kid Joy, $1,000 to help fund transportation needs;
- STAGES Youth Theater, $2,500 to help fund their Building Empathy through Theater for Young Audiences Program;
- Figures of Speech Theatre, $1,150 to help fund TimeSlips Family Engagement & Celebration of Creativity, a project with The Park Danforth, working with memory loss; and
- Gulf of Maine Ecology Arts Project Anna Dibble, $1,000,
The Rebel Blend fund is supported through the purchase of the company’s popular Rebel Blend coffee, which combines beans grown in Asia, Americas and Africa.
For each pound sold or brewed at Coffee By Design locations, $1 goes into to the fund, and the total amount from yearly sales is awarded to the winners.
Besides a roastery and coffee house at 1 Diamond St. in Portland, the company has retail locations on Congress and India streets in the city, a location inside L.L.Bean in Freeport, and a private espresso and cold brew bar at IDEXX headquarters in Westbrook, as well as hundreds of wholesale accounts from Maine to Japan.
Rebel Blend winners are chosen every year by a team of employees from each of the coffeehouses, the roastery and management, who review all applications and determine where the grant money will be most beneficial.
To be considered for Rebel Blend funding, applicants must submit art projects within the state of Maine along with a detailed description of how their projects would benefit from the grant money.
Music therapist and entrepreneur Kate Beever of Maine Music & Health told Mainebiz that "That's So Portland" is a multigenerational, multi-genre musical web series dedicated to encouraging women of all ages in the music industry, with two episodes released so far on Youtube, four more completed and further ones planned.
She said that she and Emma Ivy are grateful to Coffee By Design for supporting their endeavor, and are thrilled to be able to continue their work, adding: "We hope to encourage women of all ages to participate in the music industry while we share the wonderful creative scene here in Portland, Maine, through our videos."
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments