We want to thank all of you who joined us in Battery Park on Saturday for puzzlePALOOZA!  We had more than 1600 puzzle pieces on display for the official 2 o'clock Guinness World Record count...helping us to set a new World Record for the World's Largest Jigsaw puzzle measuring in with an area of 2,603 square feet! 

Thanks for helping us set the record, and a very special thanks to those of you who stayed with us through the thunder, lightening and rain to march with us in the Champlain 400 parade.

For those of you who left a puzzle piece behind, you have 30 days to claim your piece from the Arts Council (and get a puzzlePALOOZA t-shirt while supplies last).

Click on the link below to see pictures from puzzlePALOOZA...

The Vermont Arts Council’s Spotlight Gallery is currently hosting an exhibit featuring artists from the Vermont Festival of the Arts.  This “sampler” includes works by 13 artists participating in the month long arts festival. 

The Vermont Festival of the Arts is a cultural celebration that takes place in the communities of the Mad River Valley.  It runs from August 1st through the 31st, 2009 with a special encore on Labor Day weekend.  The festival features more than 125 exhibits, workshops and demonstrations that “entertain the soul, enlighten the mind & energize the spirit.” From the summit of Sugarbush Resort, to the depths of the Mad River, there are children’s events, garden and house tours, culinary classes, literary excursions and musical masterpieces with in more than 50 different venues.

One hundred pieces of artwork, comprising the 10 suites of artwork created for the Art of Action are set to be delivered in mid-August. Beginning in September 2009, concurrent tours of the collection will be exhibited in 24 communities through July 2010. Don’t miss the gala premiere of “The Artists’ Choice Tour”, scheduled for Friday evening, September Fourth in Manchester Center, VT.  Click below for more information.

The Arts Council reports to five sets of stake-holders: The IRS, because we are an independent non-profit of a size that requires us to fill out a Form 990 every year; The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), because we are one of the 56 state or regional partners that receive the bulk of its federal funds through this small independent agency; the Governor, because his annual budget process is the starting point for determining what our state appropriation will be; the Legislature--particularly the House and Senate Appropriations and Institutions committees--because they tend to be the ending point for determining our annual state appropriation; and our members, represented by the Board of Trustees, who set policy, adopt our mission and strategic plan, approve our annual budget, and provide executive oversight.