MONTPELIER — Two creative Bristol residents were among the 26 artists who have won a portion of $155,000 in funding through the Vermont Arts Council. The money comes through the Creation Grant program, which supports Vermont artists in creating new work.
Among this year’s awarded proposals are works that will span visual arts, literary arts, dance, music, film, and multidisciplinary fields. Projects include a series of quilts exploring grief, relief, and comfort; an inclusive, graphic-illustrated human biology resource; and a series of paintings telling the story of a lost homeland.
The council this week announced that 21 grants of $5,000 were awarded to Vermont artists — including to Nico Amador and Mitra Samimi-Urich of Bristol — to pay for time spent on the creative process, buy materials or equipment, rent space, or hire services needed to complete the work.
Amador was awarded $5,000 to support the completion of a debut poetry collection, “Dream Another Animal.”
He is a writer, educator, and community organizer from San Diego, currently based in Addison County. Informed by his involvement in movements for social change, his poetry is interested in acts of radical imagination, place, and belonging. He holds an MFA from Bennington College and has been supported by the Lambda Literary Foundation, the Outpost Vermont Fellowship, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Amador is the author of the chapbook “Flower Wars” and a recent recipient of the Blue Mesa Review Poetry Prize, the Breakout Poetry Prize, and the Gregory Djanikian Scholars in Poetry Prize.
Samimi-Urich was granted $5,000 to support the creation of a series of paintings telling the story of a lost homeland.
She is a Vermont-based multidisciplinary contemporary artist and poet. Samimi-Urich’s paintings move fluidly between realism, abstraction and surrealism, exploring identity, displacement, memory, resilience and survival. Drawing on her lived experiences in Iran and America, her work reflects on the shared human desire for equity, liberty and peace.
Driven by compassion, Samimi-Urich creates a visual language that promotes cross-cultural understanding and human connection while rejecting discrimination, oppression, and the outdated, rigid, and dogmatic ideas that divide us.
Samimi-Urich spent her youth in Isfahan, whose rich heritage of art, poetry and architecture profoundly influenced her artistic sensibility. She studied art and architectural design at the Girls’ School of the Arts in Isfahan in 1979. Following Iran’s regime change, she moved to the United States and continued her studies in mass media and set design at the University of Massachusetts in 1983.
Her background in architecture continues to inform her artistic practice, providing a strong foundation for her artwork.
Samimi-Urich spent her youth in Isfahan, whose rich heritage of art, poetry and architecture profoundly influenced her artistic sensibility. She studied art and architectural design at the Girls’ School of the Arts in Isfahan in 1979. Following Iran’s regime change, she moved to the United States and continued her studies in mass media and set design at the University of Massachusetts in 1983. Her background in architecture continues to inform her artistic practice, providing a strong foundation for her artwork.
Her art and poetry have been featured in the Addison Independent and Zigzag Magazine. She was the recipient of a 2025 Development Grant from the Vermont Arts Council and a 2026 Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center. Her professional honors include Best of Houzz Design Awards 2016-2017, and her artistic designs have been published in several magazines, including New England Home, Vermont Magazine, and Design New England.
For the first time this year, the Council awarded five $10,000 awards for performing arts groups, made possible through a partnership with the Trust for Art and Social Practice. Performing arts groups often face unique challenges, including higher production costs, technical requirements, and the involvement of multiple artists. This expanded funding helps address those needs and strengthens support for collaborative projects.
A total of 213 eligible applications were received for this highly competitive award, with over $1 million requested in funding. Proposals were reviewed by an independent panel of practicing artists and arts professionals. The Council was able to support 13% of the requested need.
“This year’s expansion of the Creation Grants program is part of our ongoing efforts to increase funding available to Vermont artists and support a dynamic, interconnected arts community. We are proud to be building a state where artists can thrive, collaborate, and create. And we are grateful for the support from private donors that is making this possible,” said Vermont Arts Council Executive Director Susan Evans McClure.
The Vermont Arts Council’s Creation Grants are made possible through support from Bari and Peter Dreissigaker, the Trust for Art & Social Practice, the Vermont Community Foundation’s Arts Endowment Fund, and generous private donors.
For a list of FY27 Creation Grantees, including biographies and photos, click here.
