Grass Roots Art and Community Effort

Grass Roots Art & Community Effort (GRACE) is a non-profit organization based in Hardwick, Vermont, United States, that supports art-making among local community members, including the elderly and patients of mental health centers. Perhaps the most notable artist associated with GRACE is the late Gayleen Aiken.{{cite web|title=Works by Barre folk artist Gayleen Aiken chosen for American Folk Art Museum|url=http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080105/NEWS01/801050351/-1/RSS14|publisher=The Barre Montpelier Times Argus|accessdate=5 July 2016}} The organization maintains a permanent collection of art made in its programs.{{cite book|last1=Kogan|first1=Lee|title=Encyclopedia of American Folk Art|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415929868|url-access=registration|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415929868/page/230 230]|isbn=9780415929868}} GRACE was founded in 1975 by Don Sunseri, a New York artist of the 1960s and 1970s who "escaped the insulation and sophistication of the art world," and whose credo was "Be yourself and do it your way."{{cite journal|last1=Wexler|first1=Alice|title=GRACE Notes: A Grass Roots Art and Community Effort|journal=Studies in Art Education|date=Spring 2005|volume=46|issue=3|page=256|doi=10.1080/00393541.2005.11650078|jstor=3497084}}