Dog Mountain Grant

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Created on Friday, 04 November 2016 20:09
Written by Tyler Hall

dogmtn2Saint Johnsbury - Friends of Dog Mountain are celebrating with a $75,000 grant that will keep the doors of Dog Mountain and the Stephen Huneck Gallery open for business. 

The funding will be focused on maintaining the property, establishing their own fundraising operation, and continuing to work with the local community and other stakeholders to develop a long term plan to make Dog Mountain a cornerstone piece in the Northeast Kingdom.

Friends of Dog Mountain was established in 2015 to continue to keep the attraction going after owners Stephen and Gwen Huneck passed away.  The Hunecks built Dog Mountain, which is now known as a world renowned gallery and dog park, and it was a priority for the group to carry on their legacy.

"Steven Huneck is more than a folk artist or whimsical artist, he's an important american artist that's an equally important fasset of what we're trying to do here is preserve that legacy," says Scott Buckingham, a volunteer of Dog Mountain.

Dog Mountain is a non-profit organization, and thanks to the $75,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, they finally got the helping hands and paws they need.  "These dollars that we just received from the USDA through their rural business enterprise grant program is really spending money for the not profit organization to establishing itself and build up a base so that we can ultimately manage and own and operate what you see here today," says Buckingham.

The work doesn't stop here.  The future of Dog Mountain relies on more contributions to keep the momentum going, as Buckingham states, "We will absolutely need to build more and more. This one's going to allow us to build momentum, but we've got a lot of work to do here on the site and the buildings to sort of bring it back up to snuff, and keep it relevant and exciting."

General Manager, Pam McCann, wants to eventually have artists live on the property and demonstrate their artistic talents, which would make Dog Mountain better than it already is and creating new fundraising opportunities.

"What I would like to see is the ground get utilized.  Perhaps the barn getting revitalized.  And have some of the artwork come back in production.  Perhaps with artists in residence the downstairs of that could be renovated...dog events, music, a little bit of theater," says McCann.

McCann hopes to have a lot more dog events and music events in the future, and it looks like the tails will keep on wagging for years to come at Dog Mountain in Saint Johnsbury.