Category: Grantee Stories

During the Covid-19 pandemic, artists everywhere are discovering that the viability of their creative business depends on delivering their work digitally. In early August, the Council announced a special round of Artist Development Grants intended to help artists… Read More

Frances Cannon is living proof you don’t need a New York agent to make a life in books. I first crossed paths with Frances in 2014, when I published a poem of hers in the first issue of Mount Island, my independent literary magazine. Her first poetry collection,… Read More

Step outside—into the yard or street, or the parking lot—and take note of as many boundaries as you can: where the grass meets the road, where private becomes public, where the radio station turns to static. This is what composer and educator Otto Muller has been doing to prepare… 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

Creative placemaking is a growing part of Vermont’s landscape and language. The term, well-defined by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa in this white paper, refers to projects where “partners from public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities.” Creative placemaking emphasizes strategic action by cross-sector partners, a place-based orientation, and a core of arts and cultural activities. Read More

“It. Took. Hours.” —Gerry Whitaker , social studies teacher at Miller’s Run School referring to this stop-frame animation made by his students. Miller's Run is a PreK-8 school in Caledonia County. The entire school population, coming mostly from the towns of Sheffield and Wheelock, is about one hundred and twenty. An Artist in Schools Grant from the Arts Council supported, in part, ten days of work with Teaching Artist Evan Premo.The residency was a part of Gerry's and his sixth, seventh, and eighth graders' exploration of place and community; a unit called Thrive or Survive. Read More