The mission of Great River Arts is to create and sustain a New England-based arts center to support and nurture visual and literary artists and provide regional youth programs. Great River Arts is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing faculty from the literary and visual arts disciplines to teach in the Connecticut River Valley and other select locations. These areas of study are addressed both independently and in cross-disciplinary explorations .

Great River Arts also provides opportunities for regional schools to supplement their visual arts and creative writing programs with in-school offerings, as well as with after-school opportunities for young people in New Hampshire and Vermont .

The Great River Arts Institute is located in Bellows Falls, VT.