Featured Stories

I was invited recently to present with our partners from AARP VT at the national AARP Livable Communities Placemaking Workshop in Denver, Colorado. This was the organization’s first-ever national convening dedicated to highlighting and sharing best practices, insights, and inspiring next steps in placemaking. It was a gathering of AARP staff, community partners, and livability practitioners representing a range of specialties, locations, and perspectives. Read More

Andy Warhol prescribed: “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” Easier said than done. But, Vermont's creative undercurrent remains powerful. Constant output brings art to the surface—to our venues and landscapes—over and over. The Council's Creation Grant cycle rides this wave. As the application opens again in January, the works of last year's grantees are being formed. The art of two grant rounds past has come into being, and is highlighted here, through the words of the artists. Read More

We are delighted to announce that Mary Ruefle will succeed Chard deNiord as Vermont poet laureate beginning October 28, 2019. Nationally acclaimed Vermont author Major Jackson called Mary “one of the best poets in America,” and reflected that “one travels places, inward and outward” through her work. Critic Lisa Beskin of the Boston Review observed “Like John Ashbery and James Tate, Mary Ruefle investigates the multiplicities and frailties of being with an associative inventiveness and a lightness of touch; the purposefulness of her enquiry never eclipses the remarkable beauty of her work.” Committee members commended Mary's originality, imaginative writing, and wit. They agreed that she is a poet “at the height of her powers,” making her nomination as Vermont’s Poet Laureate in 2019 timely and appropriate. Read More

Twenty-five Vermont artists are represented in an exhibit titled I AM . . . , a display of work culminating the first year of the I am a Vermont Artist e-newsletter series. The online publication is built on a series of interviews and documents how artists' creative expressions reflect their experiences of ethnicity, gender identity, religion, disability, or age. Art in the resulting show varies widely; the muse for some is identity, for others, landscape. There are two-dimensional pieces as well as music and sound, spoken word, poetry, dance, and movement within a digital compilation. All carry two requests: You are invited just to see what is there, and to uncover what is underneath. Read More

Seven artists created pieces for The State of Scupture 2019 . . . an overview of Vermont sculptors. The exhibition―curated by Matthew Perry, executive director of the Vermont Arts Exchange and Joe Chirchirillo, curator of the North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show―will be in the Arts Council's sculpture garden through autumn 2021. The team remarked, "As curators we want to showcase a wide variety of materials and techniques. The works represent the traditional skills of stone carving and woodworking, as well as casting and fabrication using stainless steel, iron, and concrete. Most importantly, we are committed to creating an intimate environment for the public, one that is friendly and engages you to sit, rest, and reflect." Read More

The Vermont Arts Council, in association with the Governor’s office, recognizes outstanding individual and organizational contributions to the arts each year. Awards are given to educators, artists, performers, advocates, administrators, volunteers, and scholars. The Council will be celebrating the contributions of five Vermonters this year during an event held at 7 p.m. (reception at 5:30), Wednesday, October 23, at the Mahaney Arts Center at Middlebury College. Admission is free, but we do ask that you reserve your seats. Read More