Editor’s note: This begins a weekly series of interviews with arts leaders discussing the state of the arts in Vermont.

By Jim Lowe / Staff Writer

The arts in Vermont have survived the recession better than in most states, according to Alex Aldrich, the Vermont Arts Council’s executive director of 16 years. In fact, he’s hard pressed to name one arts organization that went under during it.

“I can’t think of one off the top of my head,” he said. “There are some organizations that have gone through really volcanic transitions — and are still going through them.

“A lot people have done smart things,” Aldrich said. “For the most part, artists are really inventive when it comes to being creative responding.”

Aldrich is more concerned with the long-term impact of the recession.

“The tendency has to been to retrench and come back and hold your cards closer to your chest and not let anybody see how large the cracks in the wall really are,” he said. “The one thing I do regret is that when things get tough, they go back to the standards like ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ The ballet companies do ‘The Nutcracker.’”

If Aldrich had the recession to do over again, he would have pushed arts organizations to be more innovative.

“Let’s find some new stuff and play with it — and package it differently,” he said.

He cited two of the state’s professional theater companies that followed that direction during this recession: Weston Playhouse and White River Junction’s Northern Stage under its then-director Brooke Ciardelli.

“There are pockets of innovation that can and should be supported — and should be brought to the public at large,” Aldrich said.

For the future, Vermont and its artists need to focus more on marketing themselves to reach their full potential.

“I think we have allowed ourselves, not just the arts community but all of Vermont, to put the arts as an afterthought that doesn’t quite make it into the attributes (like) independence, outdoor resources, stewardship of the environment, that are our brand identity.”

“We’re seeing that as more and more our role,” he said. “Let’s go to Marlboro Music Festival, let’s go to the Weston Playhouse, let’s go to the Paramount, let’s go to the Flynn, find out who those audiences are, go out and get more people like that to come to Vermont — and see what transformation happens in our revenue base, in our audience base.”

The Vermont Arts Council was created by the Legislature in 1994. Its chartered mandate is to support the presentation of the arts in Vermont for the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike; to support the creation of art by Vermont artists; and to support arts activities in schools.

Of its $1.7 million annual budget, the state appropriation is a little over $500,000 and $700,000 comes from the National Endowment for the Arts. Some $120,000 is raised from private sources, individuals and corporations, with the remainder coming from collaborations with other state agencies through such programs as Cultural Facilities Grants and Art in State Buildings.

While most of the council’s money goes to grants for artists of all disciplines, arts organizations and educational institutions, Aldrich sees the organization as primarily a catalyst.

“The value that we provide to the field has more to do with the signals that we send, or our ability to get people together to talk about common areas of interest or concern, or opportunity, and being there,” he said.

This takes more than grants, which are limited by the state’s resources. So innovation is needed, and Aldrich cited an example.

Seven or eight years ago, renowned Brandon folk artist Warren Kimble, while on the council’s board, questioned Aldrich on the value of the grants.

“‘He said, ‘So, let’s say 100 people apply for 15 grants. Can I just ask the obvious question? How long do we expect to stay in business when we’re pissing off 85 percent of our client base?’

“It’s such an obvious question to ask,” Aldrich said. “We’re so mission-based that no one had thought to put the question quite that way. Because, to us, it wasn’t about the 85 percent who didn’t get a grant; to us, it was the 15 percent who did.”

So the arts council started developing programs like its “Breaking Into Business” workshops, which help artists and arts organizations over the long term.

“If you’re an artist and you want to have your work known, and you want people to buy it or pay to see it, you are a business person,” Aldrich said. “So getting people to understand that, in a very short time, three years, has resulted in about 175 artists all over the state who have a very different relationship with us.”

While the arts council will always be involved in supporting arts efforts through grants, Aldrich feels that it’s time to bring the world’s attention to what Vermont has.

“We’re very good, in the field, at promoting only to ourselves and our immediate audiences — who already know us,” Aldrich said. “It is not in any nonprofit organization’s bandwidth to get collective the way ski areas get collective supporting the ski industry.”

The problem is indigenous to the arts sector.

“We’re mission driven. If we get an extra dollar, we put it into programming,” Aldrich said. “I think we need to be able to do a better job of very strongly advocating, with our local arts organizations in particular, to help them get their boards to see that 3, 4, 5 percent of the budget for marketing and promotion is not enough. There needs to be a minimum of 10 percent, preferably 15 or 20 percent of the budget.”

He added, “What would happen if you did? We have that challenge. If we don’t have audiences, we don’t have a purpose.”

Aldrich sees his mission over the next 16 years is to help people understand the relationship between Vermont and its arts community and institutions like Marlboro, Burlington’s Flynn and Rutland’s Paramount.

“They create an ebb and flow of dynamism and creativity — and inspiration,” Aldrich said. “We’ve got to do a better job of attracting more audiences here, or we have to do a better job of connecting our artists out into the world where the audience is.”

After 16 years on the job, Aldrich maintains the same enthusiasm — and optimism — as when he started.

“It feels like less than three,” Aldrich said. “Every year here is different. Even when we’re doing the same kinds of grant programs, the people are different, the circumstances are different, who’s getting money and where we’re engaged is different.

“I’ve never felt like I’ve been spinning my wheels. It feels brand new every day,” he said. “I have never felt tapped out — which is really unusual. It’s never the same — and I love that — and I’m passionate about it.”

By Keith McGilvery

BARRE, Vt. -Poetry filled the air at the Barre Opera House Wednesday. Students from 38 Vermont high schools were on hand to participate in the Poetry Out Loud finals. Participants used the works of a number of different poets as part of the recitation competition. Students were quick to share their love of the art form and some pointers for those looking to take on the challenge.

"I just think that poetry is just one of the best art forms because I think aside from music it's the best way to get your emotions across," said Emily Billado, a student at Fair Haven Union High School.

"Repetition, I repeat the poems a lot, I'll write them out, I'll write them with calligraphy actually and that will help me remember each letter of each poem," said Sienna Thiem, a student at Mount Anthony Union High School.

Vermont's winner is Christian Dekett from St. Johnsbury Academy. He will go home with a $200 cash prize and will compete in the national competition this April in Washington, D.C.

By Gayle Hanson / Correspondent

BARRE — The cheers and applause can be heard outside the closed doors of the Barre Opera House. Every seat is packed with students, teachers and friends from around the state.

They’ve come to cheer on the 38 students whomade it to Wednesday’s seventh annual state finals of Poetry Out Loud, the national poetry recitation contest that will send one eloquent Vermonter to Washington to compete against students representing the rest of the nation.

“This is amazing,” says Stefanie Ayers Cravedi, a Spaulding High School English teacher accompanying a group of students to support Barre finalist John Reese. “There have never been so many people here. But it’s becoming more and more popular. This year I had 25 Advanced Placement students and they all competed.”

Long before the days of television, let alone the 140-character tweet, memorizing and reciting poetry were part of a well-rounded education. It was common when friends and families gathered to offer up a bit of verse for the edification of all. In fact, poetry competition was an event in the first Olympic games.

These days students’ ears are often keyed to rhyme through the cadences of hip-hop music. The ability to have words flow off the tongue has become a recognizable skill. Poetry Out Loud challenges students to more than memorize a poem, but to inhabit it. Theatrical performance is every bit as important as the words themselves.

Early in the first round on Wednesday, Dylan Robinson, a junior from Northfield High School, garnered cheers from the crowd with his recitation of “Mechanism,” a poem by A.R. Ammons that in no way resembles Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” Instead, it is the modern language of currency and calculations, “Honor a going thing, goldfinch, corporation, tree, morality: any working order, animate or inanimate.”

“I saw the poem and just fell in love with its language and images,” Robinson said. “I used to think that all poetry was just about love. I had a real neutral feeling about it. But now I read it a lot.”

The students are judged on six criteria: physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic presentation, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, and overall performance.

Each year, say veterans of the competition, they’ve seen an increase in the level of complexity in the poems the students choose.

“When you have this caliber of performance it feels as though you are splitting excellence,” said Stacy Raphael, a judge in the finals and associate director for school programs at Burlington’s Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. “You just have to really trust the process. The students picked really challenging poems this year.”

To make it to the state finals, students first had to win at their local level. More than 4,000 students, representing 38 schools, participated in the event, according to Ben Doyle, who coordinates the state program through the Vermont Arts Council. And students didn’t have to learn just one poem, but three: two for the semifinal rounds and a third, if they made it to the finals.

A small hesitation or stumble was enough to keep a student from making it to the final four. Yet despite a few slips of the tongue, the students all exuded confidence and poise at every phase of the competition.

“It really isn’t about winning,” said Spaulding’s Reese, sounding like a quarterback on a difficult Saturday afternoon.

The youngest in the competition, Montpelier High School freshman Isabelle Ansari, entered as a way to meet other students, having recently moved to Vermont from Oakland, Calif.

“I did it because I thought it would be a fun thing to do,” she said. “I didn’t even think that I would end up here.”

Like others, Ansari writes poetry. “I used to write a lot when I was younger. Then I became too much of a perfectionist. But now I am getting freer.” Ansari lists the poet and rock icon Patti Smith as a favorite wordsmith. And while she didn’t take home the gold Wednesday, she hopes to come back next year.

On hand to help orient the competing students, and lend them support, was Claude Mumbere, who twice won the Vermont championships and went on to place second in the nation in 2012. Mumbere, a freshman at St. Lawrence University, was born in the Congo and moved to Vermont when he was 10. “I spoke French, and Swahili, and Lingala,” he said. “No English.”

Mumbere’s rich baritone would sound good reading a laundry list. The poem that he took to the competition was Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago.” He took home $10,000 and has since done a voice-over for a movie for NASA.

Although he hasn’t yet declared a major, he’s still involved with poetry as both a writer and reader. “I’m taking a course right now on poetry as a healing power, and I’m involved in Poetry for Peace,” he said.

At the end of the day, St. Johnsbury Academy student Christian Dekett was chosen to represent the state at the April finals in Washington, D.C., with Brattleboro Union High School student Maia Gilmour as the runner-up.

“This is more than STEM,” said Vermont Arts Council Director Alex Aldrich, referring to the acronym for science, technology, engineering and matheducation that is continually bandied about as the most important thing in education. “When you add in the arts to STEM you’ve got STEAM.” And the audience and students were cooking.

by Anne Galloway | March 13, 2013

The card room and main hallway on the second floor of the Statehouse was shrouded in mystery on Tuesday.

Sheets of brown paper with mysterious word cutouts cascaded from the ceiling, transforming the busiest walkway in the building into a temporary zone of contemplation.

Conversation, which tends to flow around the latest gossip, stopped for a few hours. Lawmakers, lobbyists, visitors and state officials were forced, on this first day of the frantic “crossover” week, in which bills must pass out of committee or languish until next year, to slow down a bit and think about poetry and art for just a few seconds as they passed through the space.

The art installation by well known Vermont artist Elizabeth Billings took five hours to install and lasted a day, just long enough to elicit a little wonder and a lot of chatter.

Alex Aldrich, head of the Vermont Arts Council, which commissioned the work, said that there were two schools of thought among those who’d seen it.

“Women tend to think it’s a little scary and claustrophobic,” he said. “Men usually really like it.”

But Judy Pransky, who has child care centers in St. Johnsbury and a summer camp called Laughing Turtle, loved it. “It stimulates a lot of ideas,” she said.

Each sheet of paper had only one word cut into it. The full poem, by Cora Vail Brooks, reads:

Forgive these words they are not birds.
No Two Are the Same
each steep hour rises
   or falls into or out of the next
       while we do
what has been left for us undone

The Vermont Arts Council is asking the state to double its funding for the arts come January. The Council awards grants to arts organizations and artists every year but state funding has remained level for the past two decades.

Dan D'Ambrosio/Free Press Staff Writer

With hard times still haunting the country, it may seem counter intuitive to ask the State of Vermont to double the amount of funding your organization is receiving, yet that is exactly what Alex Aldrich, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, has done.

Aldrich telegraphed his intentions in a blog post, in which he wrote:

“Once a year we have a conversation with the Governor’s Finance Office about our Vermont state appropriation. We fill out forms, write a defense of our programs and services, and wait to be told — usually in December — what our ‘Governor’s Recommendation’ will be for the next fiscal year. From then on, until the end of the legislative session in May, we spend our time defending this recommendation from others who want to change it. At least that is how it usually goes.

“The conversation for next fiscal year has begun and already it is different.

“We are asking for a $500,000 increase.”

In a recent interview with the Burlington Free Press, Aldrich explained that the Arts Council has been level-funded at about $500,000 annually since 1991. Inflation alone has eroded their purchasing power, in the form of grants, by about 40 percent.

“So that’s the challenge,” Aldrich said. “There’s a $250,000 gap in what we’re no longer able to fund. Five hundred thousand dollars today buys 40 percent less than what the field needs.”

Aldrich said he’s been around long enough to know that no organization gets its funding from the state doubled, but he says he’s under a lot of pressure from arts educators, and Vermont’s artists themselves, to bump up the grants.

“A lot of what we do with our grants is send a signal to the private sector about who is creating a community of artists worth putting private sector dollars into,” Aldrich said. “We are ideally suited to do that with grants.”

The council hands out between $500,000 and $600,000 in grants every year, according to Aldrich, funding 40 to 50 organizations, and 40 to 50 school projects, along with about 15 individual artists each year. The competition for the individual artists seeking grants is intense.

“I would say the average number of applications it takes for an artist to get a grant for the first time is three to five attempts,” Aldrich said. “Probably one in 10 will get a grant.”

The decisions on which artists receive grants are made by panels of peers, ranging in size from three to nine members. This is the best way, Aldrich says, for the legislature to be confident that all applications are thoroughly and fairly vetted.

“We see who’s in the applicant pool and then we call other artists or professionals in the field who know what they’re talking about to review the materials and discuss the projects,” Aldrich said. “They provide their best collective group thought about who should get funding.”

'A sympathetic ear'

Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding was encouraging concerning Aldrich’s “Big Ask,” as Aldrich termed it in his October blog post.

“The Arts Council has a sympathetic ear from the governor,” Spaulding said. “He is focused on trying to enhance Vermont’s economic prospects in all aspects. The creative economy and arts can be a real positive part of our economic future.”

A November 2010 study by economist Doug Hoffer, Vermont’s newly elected state auditor, showed the combined impact of artists, museums and historic sites, arts promoters and agents, and performing arts companies on the state economy is some $443 million. The arts are accountable for $19.4 million in state and local tax revenue, according to the study, which was sponsored by Main Street Landing.

Of course, the governor’s sympathy, and rosy economic impact studies, only go so far, and they probably don’t reach as far as doubling the Arts Council’s budget in a single year.

“We understand it’s been two decades since a substantive increase (in the appropriation for the Arts Council),” Spaulding said. “It’s a tight budget, but we’re hoping to include a significant increase.”

Spaulding said the budget is still “under construction,” but will be ready to present to the legislature in January.

The Vermont Arts Council was created in the fall of 1964, about six months before the National Endowment for the Arts came into being.

“Everybody in Vermont’s political and cultural circles knew the NEA was in the process of being created and there would be a strong partnership between the NEA and the state effectuated by establishing a state arts council,” Aldrich said.

Rather than creating a new state agency, however, the Art Council’s founders decided on an independent nonprofit that the state legislature would designate as the “recipient and disburser” of federal and state funds for the arts.

Vermont is one of several small rural states where the funding from the National Endowment for the Arts is actually larger than the state appropriation, according to Aldrich, typically in the $800,000 range. State and federal funding, at about $1.3 million combined, make up the majority of the Art Council’s roughly $1.7 million annual budget, with the balance covered by membership dues, the private sector and other partnership agreements with other state agencies.

Opening Pandora's box

Not everyone is happy with the Vermont Arts Council being the ultimate arbiter of funding for the arts in the state. Jim Lockridge founded the nonprofit Big Heavy World in 1996 to promote all things music in Vermont. Lockridge relies heavily on young volunteers from the nearby universities to help him with his statewide mission of “promoting and preserving music that originates in Vermont.”

Big Heavy World runs a public listening library of Vermont-made music and operates a radio station called The Radiator at 105.9 FM. It has two 15-passenger vans it loans to musicians in need of wheels to tour, and has worked with the state to get Vermont music into every welcome center. Big Heavy World’s latest project is a virtual tour of live music venues in the state, with 3D images of everything from hillsides to teen centers to Grange halls.

It hasn’t been easy.

“We‘re so busy catching up with bills, there is a lot of friction in the system that prevents us from sitting down and seeking the funding our mission deserves,” Lockridge said.

Lockridge acknowledges Big Heavy World is functioning with an operational support grant from the Arts Council, where he says the distribution of funds is the “fairest I’ve ever seen.” But he blames the council for interfering with a $20,000 grant he was working on getting from the state earlier this year that would have been a game-changer for the nonprofit.

Sen. Hinda Miller, D-Chittenden, who has since left the legislature, had taken up Big Heavy World’s cause in January, according to Lockridge.

“We got to the point where the Senate anticipated seeking to secure this funding for Big Heavy World, when Alex stepped in to prevent that,” Lockridge said. “It’s not like they were writing the check and it was taken out of our hand, but the fact is because of a policy acted on proactively by leadership of the Arts Council what could have been very meaningful funding was thwarted.”

Miller did not return a call for comment.

The Vermont Arts Council, Lockridge says, doles out its grants in increments of about $3,000 each, not enough to make a real difference for an organization such as Big Heavy World.

“Three thousand dollars pays the bills, $20,000 gets us launched,” Lockridge said. “Alex is acting in the spirit of equability, and doesn’t want the arts funding boat rocked by what seems to be an imbalanced distribution of state funds supporting the arts. But at the same time, the state loses the asset of diverse, uniquely operated arts support at the state level.”

Lockridge stresses that his is a philosophical discussion, not a personal attack on Aldrich, whom he says he respects as a professional who adheres to the policies of the Arts Council’s board of directors.

“It’s a mode that is supportive of small support for artists and organizations, and destructive of larger support for organizations that could serve in useful and unique ways,” Lockridge said.

For his part, Aldrich is sympathetic to Lockridge’s plight, but says when he was asked a “simple question” by legislators — Did he support directly funding Big Heavy World? — he had to say, “No.”

“We were founded in part to help the legislature avoid exactly that circumstance,” Aldrich said of Lockridge’s request for funding. “The minute you reopen that Pandora’s box of the legislature getting funding for pet projects, you create a feeding frenzy at the legislature the likes of which they will never want to engage in again.”

Secretary of Administration Spaulding seconded Aldrich’s analysis.

“Generally speaking I think it’s problematic,” Spaulding said of direct grants. “It makes a lot of sense to have the Arts Council in a statutory role and a process that allows all organizations around the state to compete for funds available.”

Make it in the market

Felix Wai, co-founder of ArtsRiot in Burlington, has an entirely different view of how the arts should be funded. Call it free enterprise. Wai and co-founder PJ McHenry made a specific choice not to be a nonprofit. The partners recently opened a gallery on Pine Street, and are currently in the midst of a crowd sourcing campaign to pay for things such as finishing the bathroom and the wiring.

“I believe that funding for the arts and for community events doesn’t have to fall under the purview of charity,” Wai said. “It needs to and it can exist being supported by the community by attending events and spending money.”

Wai and McHenry founded ArtsRiot earlier this year to merge art, food, and music into the larger context of community organizing in Burlington.

“In other words, through the draw of art, food, and music, we are here to bring community together, knit relationships tighter, and bring awareness to local issues,” they write on their website.

Wai is willing to be judged by the marketplace, just as any business would be judged.

“In my view, if we can’t be sustained by the community we’re not supplying value to the community,” he said. “We’re essentially competing in the marketplace. With that said, we’re in a start-up position. We’re not against assistance. Every start-up needs assistance. Any new business is not going to be in the black for three years.”

Wai and McHenry hit up friends and family and business associates for their start-up capital. Wai wants to steer clear of venture capital — “too many cooks in the kitchen” — and says venture firms are not really interested in the arts and music as business propositions anyway.

Meanwhile, Alex Aldrich waits to find out what will happen with funding for the Arts Council, but already has plans if that funding is significantly increased.

“I will throw a parade for the governor,” he said. “It might be the shortest parade in the history of Vermont, right out in front of the Arts Council offices. I”ll march up and down the street with a drum on my back.”

If Aldrich isn’t putting on his own little parade, he’ll probably be in mourning, because he says level funding would translate to a loss of about $250,000 from the Arts Council budget, resulting from an inability to match federal funding.

“We’ll lose staff and we’ll have to cut back vastly on the kinds of services we provide,” Aldrich said.

Four Windham County artists earn Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts

By Olga Peters/The Commons

BRATTLEBORO — A series of firsts occurred on the Latchis Theatre’s main stage on Dec. 10, capping a year of accomplishment by the Windham County arts community.

For the first time, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the Vermont Council for the Arts honored four artists with the 2012 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

For the first time, all honorees reside in Windham County.

And also for the first time, the awards ceremony took place outside Montpelier.

Authors Karen Hesse and Archer Mayor, cellist Sharon Robinson, and professional clown, teacher, and founder and artistic director of the New England Youth Theatre Stephen Stearns accepted their awards in front of a packed house.

In interviews filmed by Vermont Films shown during the awards ceremony, the honorees spoke about the twisty-turning paths they took to Windham County and why they stayed.

The artists all said that Windham County had felt like home from the moment they arrived. Their respective communities welcomed them unlike any place they’d previously lived.

Karen Hesse said, “I’m proud to be a Vermonter.”

She jokingly hoped the award made the “Vermonter” title official.

All the honorees also spoke of serving their communities with their creative output, whether through entertainment, teaching, or introducing audiences to new places, times, characters, or sounds.

“I’m swept away by the feelings of this,” said Mayor in his acceptance speech. “You’ve given me this song to sing.”

Robinson, who said she believed Brattleboro and Southern Vermont were experiencing a renaissance, added, “In my own small way, I get to serve you all.”

“Dreaming big is important for all of us, but dreaming big is nothing without partnership,” said Sterns as he thanked his wife, Bonnie, and his creative collaborator, Peter Gould.

“Thank you for allowing me to live in my dream,” Sterns said.

In a press release, Doug Cox, president of the Arts Council of Windham County, said, “One thing we’ve learned in the arts is that excellence does not develop in a vacuum. All of us working in the arts can take pride in the accomplishments of those being honored.”

“We can all celebrate the rich community of which we are a part and that feeds all of us as artists and workers,” Cox said.

After the award ceremony, standing in the Latchis lobby, Cox said that everyone now knows what he has always known — that the arts nurture the communities of the artists themselves.

Artists and the larger communities to which they belong are part of a volley, he said: As one group dreams big, the other is nurtured, and visa versa.

The arts and media help the larger community define an identity, he said.

The real work, said Cox, comes from creating an arts industry in Windham County, one able to support all the arts.

For some, no renaissance

Despite the evening’s festivities, the lack of nourishment for all the participants in the county’s creative industries remained an acute dent in the county’s economy.

Andrea Livermore, executive director of Building a Better Brattleboro, the town’s Designated Downtown Organization, said she felt excited that this year’s recipients hailed from Windham County.

But she didn’t feel Brattleboro was experiencing a renaissance — yet.

In Livermore’s opinion, the town was putting “one foot in front of the other,” and she could see this perseverance slowly carrying the arts and related economy forward.

Kate Anderson offered a more bullish perspective on Brattleboro and its cultivation of the arts.

“Overall, those four artists are treasures to the nation and on a global level as well,” said Anderson, member of the Brattleboro Town Arts Committee, who added the honorees deserved every single kudo they received.

Anderson said she wished the night’s festivities had concentrated more on the cultivation, nourishment, incubation, and shelter that Brattleboro provides for artists.

Like the four honorees, artists congregate in Windham County for a reason, said Anderson.

“Brattleboro is the fifth honoree,” she said. “I hope that the Vermont leadership recognizes what a creative community this is.”

According to Anderson, the town recently received a National Endowment for the Arts two-year Our Town grant because the people involved with the creative industries have cultivated a soil that nurtures an arts community and economy despite very little supportive infrastructure.

Anderson admitted she lacks an outside perspective on the area’s creative community. She added, however, that she thinks the arts are receiving a wider recognition of “the fuel that arts provide a town.”

Some of this recognition has come from the community’s increasing awareness of these issues.

Still, she added, there’s more work ahead before the creative industries in the area thrive as a whole.

“It is so rich,” she said. “It’s so full of potential.”

Significant and sustained contribution

Nominations for the Governor’s Award come from the public. The Arts Council passes the top nominees to the governor, who makes the final selection.

To qualify for the annual award, participants must reside in Vermont. They must have made a “significant and sustained contribution” to the advancement of an art form. They must have been recognized for their achievements on a regional, national, or international level. They also must demonstrate a personal commitment to the development of cultural life in the state and possess high standards of professional integrity.

According to the Arts Council, it is the only designated state arts agency nationwide that is also an independent, not-for-profit, membership-based organization. It has served as the state’s primary funding provider, advocate, and information source for the arts since 1964.

For more information, visit www.vermontartscouncil.org.

VERMONT ARTS COUNCIL AWARDS $152,330 IN CULTURAL FACILITIES GRANTS

Nine grants will improve existing facilities and expand their capacity to provide cultural activities

Montpelier – The Vermont Arts Council is pleased to announce the recipients of 2012 Cultural Facilities Grants. The grants, totaling $152,330 will be awarded to nine institutions to improve existing facilities and expand their capacity to provide cultural activities for the public. The recipients will be honored in a ceremony at the Vermont State House on Thursday, January 19 at 3:00 PM.

The recipients were chosen by a panel of community members and experts in cultural facilities, historic buildings, and accessibility. Thirteen Vermont organizations applied for Cultural Facilities funding this year.

The Cultural Facilities Grant program is administered by the Vermont Arts Council in conjunction with the Vermont Historical Society and the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. The program is funded through an annual appropriation in the Capital Budget.

Now in its 22nd year, the purpose of this program is to assist Vermont nonprofit organizations and municipalities enhance, create or expand the capacity of an existing building to provide cultural activities for the public. As a result of these grants, improvements to public cultural facilities have enabled citizens of all ages and abilities to enjoy more cultural events while increasing their participation in the heritage of their communities. More than 100 organizations have been funded in the past eight years alone.

“More and more people recognize Vermont as a place where art is created and where artists gather to experiment with new forms and get important feedback from discerning audiences. It is important to make our venues-whether that is a concert hall or a multi-use town hall theater-as up-to-date, as accessible, and as responsive to the needs of artists as possible,” said Alex Aldrich, Executive Director. “These grants, in effect, legitimize our description of ourselves as one of the most creative and resourceful states in the nation.”

By Jon Potter / Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO - Bathed in the glow of a spotlight they had earned for themselves, the four Windham County artists chosen for the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts spent Monday night trying to redirect as much of that light as they could.

Spouses, children, friends, family members, collaborators, partners, neighbors in Brattleboro, the people of Vermont -- in fact everything about Vermont -- all caught the rays originally sent toward the four honorees -- Karen Hesse, Archer Mayor, Sharon Robinson and Stephen Stearns -- at the 2012 Vermont Arts Award Gala at the Latchis Theatre.

"Down-home comfort-food good" was a phrase Hesse used to describe how her life in Vermont makes her feel, but those words could apply to the whole evening, which began as a love letter to four extraordinary creative souls but became a love letter to the arts and to life here in the southeast corner of Vermont.

"They finally figured out in the rest of Vermont that the center of culture, the center of taste, the center of virtue and the center of creativity is right here in Windham County," said Gov. Peter Shumlin, showing his hometown pride. "If you want to be hip, if you want to make it in the arts, you gotta come to Windham County."

Certainly the Vermont Arts Council, which presents the award, got the message. Typically given to one or two people in a ceremony in Montpelier, the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts went to four people for the first time in its 45-year history. Since all four were closely linked to Brattleboro, the Vermont Arts Council held the ceremony in the Latchis Theatre -- and was rewarded with a crowd of roughly 400 people, who enjoyed a night that mixed the serious business of honoring four deserving people for their staggering accomplishments with a whole lot of fun.

Stephen Stearns, dressed for success in a bright yellow shirt, rainbow-striped pants, rainbow-striped socks, clown shoes and a trademark hat, even got Shumlin to try on a red clown nose. The governor did for a second or two, then removed it. "It's just so small," the governor quipped.

Alex Aldrich, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, recounted to the crowd a trip he made to Brattleboro shortly after Tropical Storm Irene devastated the area. Encountering a group of men in HazMat suits cleaning the muddy mess in the Latchis basement, he discovered they were from Texas -- and that they liked it in Brattleboro very much.

"'We love it here. The spirit is just wonderful. ... ‘Before you can spit, this place will be back,'" Aldrich recalled them saying.

"We celebrate the recovery of Brattleboro. We celebrate the four world class artists we are honoring. We are also celebrating what the arts mean to our local communities," said Aldrich.

Picking up on that theme, Shumlin said the arts are integral to strong, healthy downtowns and to communities where people care for one another. The arts, he said, are also "a vital part of the economy."

The four honorees are united not only by high achievement in their artistic endeavors, but also by the fact that they all moved to Vermont in adulthood, making the intentional choice to live here. All four delivered paeans to the state.

In a video aired before she spoke, Hesse described how she and her husband drove around the country looking for a place to put down roots, then crossed the bridge from New Hampshire into Brattleboro and immediately felt at home.

"We discovered such a level of decency in everyone we met," said Hesse, author of more than 20 novels for young people and winner of a National Jewish Book Award, the Newbery Medal, the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, two Christopher Awards and the Kerlan Award.

Sharing with the crowd that a house she and her husband once owned in Williamsville was swept away by Irene, Hesse recounted how she had met FEMA workers who were astounded by how much work had already been done and by how willing Vermonters were to roll up their sleeves and help one another.

"It is that spirit that sustains me as a writer and as a Vermonter," she said.
Mayor said he chose Vermont after rejecting the idea of moving to his parents' house in New Hampshire because he didn't want to live in a state whose motto was "Live, Freeze, or Die" -- a remark which brought down the house.

Feeling at home in Windham County, Mayor honed the skills as a writer which have allowed him to produce 23 Vermont-based crime novels featuring Detective Joe Gunther. He also works as a death investigator for the Vermont State Medical Examiner's Office and as a deputy for the Windham County Sheriff's Department. He has 25 years' experience as a firefighter and EMT.

"You have given me my song to sing in this interminable series of books, and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Mayor told the crowd.

Robinson has done her "singing" as a cellist who has performed with symphony orchestras all over the world and with chamber ensembles, including the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, which has dazzled audiences for 35 years. A passionate teacher, Robinson is a native of Houston, Texas, and moved to Guilford with her husband, renowned violinist and 2006 Governor's Award-winner Jaime Laredo.

In introducing her, Zon Eastes, a fellow cellist and important player in the Brattleboro area arts community, now on staff at the Vermont Arts Council, praised Robinson as a supremely gifted collaborator. He also touted Robinson's "Herculean commitment to the creation of new music."

"She's made a remarkable investment in the future of classical music," Eastes said.

For her part, Robinson effused about how much living in Vermont means to her and spoke with humility about her life in music. "In (my) own small way, I get to serve you all," she said.

Introducing Stearns, Vermont Arts Council board member and local cardiologist and artist Mark Burke praised Stearns for the ways his work -- as clown, teacher and founder of New England Youth Theatre -- has transformed the lives of others.
"For Stephen, waiting for the other shoe to drop is not about fear, it's about anticipation," said Burke.

Pledging his devotion to "the infinite realm of possibilities" and the "ever-changing world of ‘interesting,'" Stearns touted the power of partnerships.

"I know that it has to do with so many other people besides myself," said Stearns, who sprinkled gratitude, like clown noses, to his family, the NEYT family and to his longtime partner in clowning, Peter Gould. "Dreaming big is an important thing for all of us to do, but big dreams don't happen without partnership."

Big events don't either. Among the other collaborators in Monday's ceremony were Robert Burch of Brandywine Glassworks of Putney, who made the awards, and Vermont Films videographer Tim Wessell, who produced the short videos.

The four honorees also received letters or proclamations from the Town of Brattleboro, through the Town Arts Committee, and Vermont's Congressional Delegation. Members of the Arts Council of Windham County were on hand to pass out buttons that said "Working Artist" or "I Work in the Arts," so that event-goers could show the state officials just how big a role the arts play in the area.

The event was co-sponsored by Local 300 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (represented by president Jeffrey Wimmette) and by Entergy Vermont Yankee (represented by Mike Twomey, vice president of external affairs).

For more information on the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, visit www.vermontartscouncil.org.

By Jon Potter / Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO - If they weren't already, the eyes of the arts world will be on Brattleboro on Dec. 10, when Gov. Peter Shumlin comes here to present the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts to four people from Windham County.

Authors Karen Hesse and Archer Mayor, cellist Sharon Robinson and teacher and clown Stephen Stearns have all been selected to receive the award, which honors Vermont residents who have made significant contributions to their art forms and to the cultural life of the state and beyond.

The award will be presented at the 2012 Vermont Arts Award Gala on Monday, Dec. 10, at 8 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre in a night of historic firsts -- the first time ever that four people have been honored with the Governor's Award in a single year and the first time the award has been presented outside of Montpelier.

"I haven't the slightest idea what I've done to deserve this, but I'm grateful nevertheless. ... I consider this exalted company to be in," said Mayor in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. "It's an extremely important testament to the region's artistic strength and presence."

Admission is free, and the public is welcome to come enjoy a night when these four artists -- and the area they call home -- are in the spotlight.

"You should be deservedly proud," said Alex Aldrich, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, which nominates the finalists, who are then selected by the governor. "I think it demonstrates, not just to the rest of Vermont, but throughout New England and the country, that, in particular, the Brattleboro area is definitely what I call a cultural destination."

Not only do tourists recognize Brattleboro as such -- and come there to enjoy the cultural offerings -- but other artists do and move here, creating what Aldrich called the "critical mass" to sustain and perpetuate its lively arts scene.

There are artists everywhere in Vermont, but Aldrich said the Brattleboro area is rare in having that critical mass of artists continuing to live and work there.

"The two communities in the state of real significance (for that) are Burlington and Brattleboro," he said.

"I think it's just one more affirmation of what a great place it is for artists here to live and work," said Douglas Cox, artist and president of the Arts Council of Windham County. "I think it's a sign of a healthy community."

Each year, the Vermont Arts Council compiles a list of nominees for the award, with the winner selected by the governor. When officials realized that this year's list contained four people who call the Brattleboro area home, the idea of honoring all four and holding the ceremony in Gov. Shumlin's home county came together.

Aldrich hopes the Dec. 10 gala evening is not only a fun and fitting celebration of the achievements of these four artists but also helps the town and the state continue to make the case for the importance of the arts to healthy communities.

"The arts, in case anybody didn't notice, have really arrived," said Aldrich. "I often find myself with people who are mired in the belief that the arts are a luxury ... that they are something to do when you've run out of other things to do. ... Instead, the arts are frequently the cause of what works in a community, of how you get people talking to each other."

The Dec. 10 gala ceremony is free, but reservations should be made by calling 802-828-3293; please RSVP by Dec. 3, at 4 p.m.

Cox said the Arts Council of Windham County will be encouraging all artists to attend the ceremony and to wear a tag describing themselves as artists -- to wear their art on their sleeves as it were -- not to upstage the honorees but to show their pride and to remind people "that these things only happen when there is broad, rich humus of artistic activity."

About the award-winners

* Karen Hesse has written more than 20 novels, primarily for young readers. In 2002, she received a MacArthur Fellows Program award. She has also received a 1993 National Jewish Book Award, the 1998 Newbery Medal, the 1998 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the 1993 and 2002 Christopher Awards, and the 2006 Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota. Her book "Out of the Dust," which won the Newbery, is a story of the dust bowl and the Depression. Hesse's other novels include "Witness," the story of the Ku Klux Klan's attempt to recruit members in a small town in Vermont; "The Cats of Krasinski Square," a portrayal of the Holocaust; and, her latest novel, "Safekeeping," published in October. Hesse lives in Brattleboro.

* Archer Mayor is the author of the Joe Gunther detective series. Before turning to popular fiction, Mayor worked as an editor, researcher for Time-Life books, photographer and journalist. He also worked for the University of Texas Press in the late 1970s, where, as Special Projects Editor, he found and caused to be published "The Book of Merlyn," the barely known conclusion to T.H. White's famous "The Once and Future King." Mayor's first novel, "Open Season," was published in 1988, and was the first of his popular 23-book Vermont-based mystery series. Since then, a new novel has been published almost every year, typically in the fall. Mayor works as a death investigator for the Vermont State Medical Examiner's office and as a deputy for the Windham County Sheriff's Department. He also has 25 years' experience as a firefighter/EMT. He lives in Newfane.

* Sharon Robinson, cellist, graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Peabody Institute. She made her New York debut in 1974, collaborating with violinist Jaime Laredo and pianist Samel Sanders. Robinson has performed with many major symphony orchestras throughout the world. In 1976, she joined colleagues Jaime Laredo and Joseph Kalichstein, to create the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio which has performed worldwide and is considered among the finest chamber ensembles in existence. Robinson has participated in music festivals such as Aspen, Edinburgh, Granada, Madeira, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart and Spoleto. She has served on the faculty at Indiana University and recently joined the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Robinson lives in Guilford.

* Stephen Stearns is a teacher, director, professional clown, mime and actor. In 1977, he began his solo clown/mime career while simultaneously creating the Horizons Project, a federal program bringing Vermont artists into rural schools. In 1980, he and Peter Gould formed Gould & Stearns. Their play, "A Peasant of El Salvador," has won several awards. They are Vermont Arts Council grant recipients and have been sponsored by the Lincoln Center Institute. In 1998, Stearns founded the New England Youth Theatre. He lives in Brattleboro.

In a Facebook message, Stearns wrote: "I am honored to be receiving this award with three other amazing Windham County Artists. Please come and help me and NEYT celebrate all the work we have done together over the years to make NEYT a place where young people can find their own voices and do amazing things with great power and confidence. That is my life, and you are in my life, and I honor and love all of you who allow me to teach and direct in one of the best places on earth, our town of Brattleboro."

The Dec. 10 gala ceremony is free, but reservations should be made by calling 802-828-3293; please RSVP by Dec. 3, at 4 p.m.