The NTL Foundation announced its annual grants for the arts and environment.

This year’s grants portfolio awarded grants to both the best and least known organizations in Boston, Cincinnati, and Mid-Coast Maine.

A major theme of this year’s grants was education and outreach.

Grants will support the following projects:

Arsenal Center for the Arts
Watertown, MA
$2,500 for free art exhibitions and receptions, concerts and other events such as Text and ConText, a symposia series where visual artists talk about their work and engage audiences in lively discussions about the creative process.

The Art Connection
Boston, MA
$7,500 to cover costs of placing original art at community services organizations, such as health clinics, battered women shelters, and rape crisis centers offering artists a way to give back to their community and enhancing the lives of clients and staff of the organizations.

Charles River Conservancy
Cambridge, MA
$5,000 to support the work of volunteer environmental stewards who perform vital maintenance work and improvements to protect and preserve parklands between Boston Harbor and the Watertown dam.

Cincinnati Nature Center
Cinncinnati, OH
$7,500 for the Habitat Restoration Project to restore an abandoned agricultural field to native prairie grasslands, creating much needed habitat for grassland nesting birds. A research and educational component will be shared with the local academic community.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Boothbay, ME
$7,500 for the Environmental Interpretation Project to install an interactive kiosk in the Gardens’ new Education Center for on-site visitors and through the Center’s website to monitor real-time energy and water use on touch-screen displays and for interpretive signage about the native plant landscape

Maine Fiberarts
Topsham, ME
$2,500 for art exhibits and residencies for fiber artists, gallery talks and art classes at the Midcoast Maine gallery whose mission is to expand awareness for the quality and enjoyment of Maine fiber work.

Manifest Creative Research Gallery & Drawing Center
Cincinnati, OH
$2,500 towards support of personnel costs associated with free public exhibits for Season 8 Exhibitions at the neighborhood gallery aimed at providing museum-quality experiences of visual art and design to a diverse residential population.

MidCoast Printmakers, Inc.
Jefferson, ME
$6,000 to purchase an etching press for the promotion, education and advancement of art of original printing, including traditional and innovative printmaking

Natural Resources Council of Maine
Augusta, ME
$2,500 to support grassroots outreach for environmental stewardship and protection of natural resources in communities in Midcoast Maine. Funds will support educational events and public presentations and expansion and enhancement of the Council’s online presence to educate, engage and mobilize members and supporters working to protect Maine’s natural resources.

Save the Harbor / Save the Bay
Boston, MA
$5,000 for the Better Beaches Program offering free events and programs to stimulate interest and use of the Boston Harbor and the region’s public beaches. The program includes development of communication strategies to advocate for protection of marine environment.

Sebasticook Regional Land Trust
Unity, ME
$5,000 to help cover cost of a Farmland Project Coordinator and conservation efforts in the Unity Wetlands Focus Area, enhance wildlife habitat, provide low-impact recreational opportunities and increase farm viability in Waldo County

Taft Museum of Art
Cincinnati, OH
$2,500 towards the Third Sunday Fundays, offering free admission to families on six Sundays through the year to the museum’s exhibits and educational events.