Vermont Arts Council

The People’s Choice Award

Voting has now closed.

Enjoy discovering new artists across a wide range of artistic disciplines and vote on which amazing project to fund (it will be a challenge)!  

The new People’s Choice Creation Grant Award is a unique opportunity for artists—and the broader Vermont community—to participate in the highly competitive Creation Grant program, which provides up to $5,000 in funding per project. 

Some applicants elected to participate in the People’s Choice Awards. The project proposals below did not receive an award in the traditional round. Resources this year allowed us to fund 20 projects in the traditional round of review – only 9% of the 225 eligible requests that were received. Click on the link to view the full proposal and read about the artist or artist group, then vote! Each proposal, written in the artist’s own words, is a shorter version of proposals written for the traditional Creation Grant. Artists’ names or artist groups are also listed at the bottom of the page.

Voters must be 18 years or older, a Vermont resident, and may only cast one vote.* 

As you consider each proposal, you are invited to “think like a grant panelist” by using the following criteria for casting your vote: 

Artistic excellence:  While excellence looks different to everybody and the quality of art is not an objective measure, the following are indicators of artistic excellence and artistic merit for the purpose of the Creation Grant program: 

  • Strong technical skill and craft in the execution of the relevant work is demonstrated  
  • A combination of aesthetics, technical skill, and delivery is potentially engaging emotionally, intellectually, and/or spiritually 
  • Personal voice, vision, and authenticity shows in the proposed work  
  • The creative work demonstrates integrity and ethical use of material with specific cultural origins and content  

Impact: 

  • The proposed work will potentially reveal something about the world by communicating unique perspective(s) or by inviting the viewer, reader, or audience to question, discover, and/or explore new ideas  
  • There is strong potential for public presentation 

Deadline for voting is September 17, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.

Once the deadline for voting has passed, votes will be tallied. The amount awarded for the Creation Grant People’s Choice will be for the amount requested in the proposal budget (up to the maximum $5,000). Grantees from the traditional and the People’s Choice Creation Grant programs will be announced at a later date.

*Board members and staff of the Arts Council are not permitted to vote.

Candidate Projects

Project 1: Create music videos for original songs
Project 2: Paint images of the Connecticut River through time
Project 3: Create portraits of diverse “Climate Farmers” for exhibition and inclusion in a book about climate farming in Vermont
Project 4: Create a humorous memoir that examines midlife
Project 5: Support the performance of site-specific fem-guerrilla community art
Project 6: Create animation for the original song, “Squirrel in a Tree”
Project 7: Create an interactive memory recording kiosk and archive at the Londonderry Arts and Historic Society
Project 8: Produce a short film about public education in Vermont
Project 9: Complete the draft of a novel, “We Seditious Herbalists”
Project 10: Create illustrations for a children’s book, “Rescued”
Project 11: Create a book of images of local artists, their processes, and creative tools
Project 12: Develop a new play about trauma, society, and family
Project 13: Create a short biographical film about rehabilitation
Project 14: Create an enamelware line using digital art techniques
Project 15: Create the first draft of a fantasy graphic novel
Project 16: Publish a book of plant portraits featuring culturally significant species from the Amazon to the New Mexico Desert
Project 17: Create a set of materials that use choreographic thinking to enable learning and practice in the field of conflict engagement
Project 18: Create a live music concert and light show experience
Project 19: Complete the travel film series, “Wild Foods”
Project 20: Paint a large mural in the Brattleboro Boys and Girls Club
Project 21: Create a performance about nuclear power in Vermont
Project 22: Support the further development of the original puppet ballet, “Starman*”
Project 23: Support rehearsals of the theater show, “Physics and Love”
Project 24: Create a multidisciplinary performance for the Old West Church 200th anniversary in Calais, VT
Project 25: Write a book about the founding of OpenStreetMap
Project 26: Create new table designs for furniture showroom in Richmond, VT
Project 27: Complete “The Oracle Hour,” a science fiction novel about evolution at the end of civilization
Project 28: Create the artist’s first live album
Project 29: Create mixed-media pieces representing grief and loss
Project 30: Complete a pilot comedic series about a gay couple moving to Vermont and opening a food business
Project 31: Create a series of mixed-media works about the transformation of perimenopause
Project 32: Complete tarot deck illustrations
Project 33: Create the first English-language biography of the Austrian novelist Robert Musil
Project 34: Create my third experimental album as a solo artist
Project 35: Create a series of watercolor paintings exploring the secret lives of pigs
Project 36: Create a short-story collection featuring women heroes
Project 37: Create a full-length album, “Dutch Experts”
Project 38: Create an immersive, multimedia installation experience of water
Project 39: Create a photographic body of the work, “Essence”
Project 40: Create an album of original Americana/pop songs, written and recorded in Vermont
Project 41: Create a documentary film on coyotes in Vermont
Project 42: Create a five-volume series of illustrated travelogue booklets
Project 43: Create a series of paintings exploring illness, disability, and identity
Project 44: Create a graphic novel about redemption and dog rescue
Project 45: Create an art book about minority queer identity
Project 46: Create a first draft of an historical novel set in 1860’s Vermont
Project 47: Create a film about the late Ralph Preston, WWII veteran and ship-in-bottle artist
Project 48: Create a first draft of “Alma,” a chamber musical in one act
Project 49: Create an original dance theater piece combining dance and spoken word
Project 50: Create five large-format Vermont Teacher of the Year portraits
Project 51: Create oil paintings connecting mountaintops to seafloors
Project 52: Create a series of paintings, “Our Wild Beauty of Vermont,” printed to wood, HD metal, and giclee canvas
Project 53: Create “Balancing Chaos” through sacred geometry and mandalas
Project 54: Create a stage production of a sci fi synth pop opera
Project 55: Create a series of paintings connecting to land and spirit
Project 56: Create a new line of ceramic pieces from local-based material research
Project 57: Create “Agatha,” a tragicomic opera based on life and stories of Agatha Christie
Project 58: Explore “interactivity” with the creation of motion paintings and installation
Project 59: Create and perform a multi-media, solo theater production of “The Dolls in My Pocket”
Project 60: Create a graphic memoir, “Dear Mini: Book Two”
Project 61: Create a series of portraits of community members
Project 62: Compose new music for a Vermont chamber ensemble, Heliand.
Project 63: Record an album of original songs
Project 64: Expand the scope and reach of The Listening Project
Project 65: Create a series of 15 “garden-scape” paintings exploring and celebrating gardening in Vermont with an emphasis on native plants
Project 66: Create a new poetry collection inspired by medieval clocks
Project 67: Publish a manuscript of original poetry
Project 68: Create a series of new paintings reflecting the life of a Nepalese immigrant and the artist’s journey from a refugee camp to Vermont
Project 69: Create a debut album of original music
Project 70: Produce a 19-track debut album of original songs
Project 71: Create a site-specific immersive dance performance
Project 72: Complete the musical play, ”Queen City Songs”
Project 73: Create a large scale colored pencils series
Project 74: Create a silk-screen artwork edition of women athletes
Project 75: Create a new series of paintings about the body, gender, and identity
Project 76: Create a book on early anti-racist, progressive suffragette, Matilda Joslyn Gage
Project 77: Create new paintings and sculpture for a show at the Front Gallery in Montpelier, VT
Project 78: Create an eclectic bike film on Vermont communities and culture
Project 79: Write a script about a close-knit family, dealing with a hard situation
Project 80: Create a middle-grade historical novel manuscript titled “The Education of King Tut”
Project 81: Create an original script for a performance art experience featuring country music and psychedelic puppets
Project 82: Create 10 collages investigating the legacy of settler-colonialism
Project 83: Create a series of 3D collages on time and climate shifts in the environment
Project 84: Create a music album about inclusion, engagement, bravery, and gratitude
Project 85: Create an ongoing Black Lives Matter mosaic portrait series
Project 86: Create a play about women and the lifetime impact of gendered clothing
Project 87: Create a documentary about the writer Russell Banks

Artists

David Abair • Laurie Alberts  • Cecily Anderson • Megan Applegate • Erin Barry • Maple’s Busy Morning (Linda Bassick) • Trystan Bates • Petal Fall Production (Adam Benay et al) • Justin Bigos • Marcia Blanco • Rachel Boettcher • Shoshannah Boray • Holy Smokes Production (Seamus Brennan et al) • Laurie Brooks • Erin Bundock • Blair Butterfield • Dana Caspersen • Polar Productions (Kevin Chap) • First Proof Press (Daniel Chiaccio et al) • Faultline Ensemble (Taiga Christie et al) • Aubrey Clinedinst • Chris Colt • Vanessa Compton • OWC Performance Collaboration (Anne Connor et al) • Courtney Cook Williamson • Nathan D’Aversa • Michelle Dussault • Ben Ellingson • Ashley Farren • Vicki Ferentinos • Gin Ferrara • Luciana Frigerio • Cleopatra Redbird Griffin • Genese Grill • Jennifer Grossi • Christine Harris • Steve Hartmann • Tracy Haught • Dutch Experts (Hannah Hoffman et al) • Arthur Hynes • Andreas John • Daniel Kasnitz • Gaelen Kilburn • Ivan Klipstein • Shannon Knight • Juniper Kozlowski • Katherine Leung • Diana Lischer • Jeremy MacKenzie • Little Yellow House Studio (Susan Haefner et al) • Joy Madden • Matthew Marro • Nick Mayer • Holly McLaughlin • Nicole McNeill • badweatherfriend (Calvin Moen et al) • Nathaniel Moody • Eric Moore • Charles Morrow • Michel Moyse • Denis Mueller • Keryn Nightingale • Natalie Norris • Karen Ojala • Kathleen Oprea • Ryan Osswald • Amber Paris • Nola Parker • Angela Patten • Robyn Joy Peirce • Hom Pradhan • Edward Ransom • Philip Roy • Hanna Satterlee • David Schein • Stacey Sherman • Suzy Spence • Ashley Strobridge • Mary Tapogna • Sam Thurston • Myles Trainer • Carole Vasta Folley • Aimee Vient • Emily Weinberg • Julie Winn • Sophie Wood • Micah Wood • Kyle Woolard

Voting has now closed.

Desmond Peeples June 29, 2023