Dear Friends of Vermont Arts,
This has been a year of losing and regaining our balance as we calibrate risk in the midst of a global pandemic, navigate political cross-currents, and seek the tipping point between conviction and compassion.
Vermont artists have navigated the upheavals of the past year with stunning creativity and grace. Recent national research recognizes the role of art in building community resilience and recovery in times of crisis. That has been demonstrated in towns and villages across Vermont, as musicians and dancers performed on rooftops and in street parades; vacant storefronts were transformed into pop-up art galleries; and online poetry readings, plays, and concerts inspired and connected us.
We are grateful to the many individuals and partners who sustained the work of the Vermont Arts Council over the past year.
Thanks to collaborations with Vermont Humanities, the Vermont Community Foundation, the Agency of Commerce & Community Development, and the generosity of individual donors, we have overseen delivery of $7 million in urgently-needed aid to artists and cultural organizations since the pandemic hit in March 2020. We launched an ambitious strategic action plan for Vermont’s creative sector, CreateVT, which you’ll read more about in this report. And we continue to advocate for the needs of the arts and culture sector.
There will be a time when our feet find solid ground again. When that happens, artists will be the ones who make sense of what we’ve all lived through, and light the way ahead. Poets, sculptors, painters, weavers, actors and singers will tell our pandemic stories and will muster the imagination we need to move on together.
All of us at the Vermont Arts Council look forward to creating that future with you.
With apprecation,
Cover image: A performer’s world is turned upside down at Boot Camp, the most intensive performance-centered program at the New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro. NECCA was awarded an Arts Partnership Grant in FY21. Photo by Elsie Smith.
Across Vermont
A total of $619,084 in Arts Council funding was awarded in FY2021 to 100 individual artists and 73 arts and cultural organizations across Vermont. Since the start of the pandemic, we've delivered a total of $7 million in funding.
We've prepared an interactive map and table on our website showing the locations of all our FY2021 grantees (July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021).
Image: A map of Vermont is dotted up and down with colors representing the locations of FY2021 grantees.
Relief & Recovery: A Hopeful Vision
“What advice would you give yourself to help shape our future?” The Shelburne Craft School asked of its community this summer to inspire hope during the pandemic. The finished mural by artist Aaron Asis—over two miles of printed strips of responses pasted onto the surface of the craft school—transformed the courtyard into a wall of inspiration.
We too were inspired this year by the ingenuity of artists and the nimbleness of cultural organizations despite seismic shifts taking place in the world around us. Outdoor concerts, festivals, and other arts events brought audiences back together after months of isolation, while online engagement became more vital than ever.
Most of Vermont’s theater companies, for example, transitioned to online and/or outdoor performances. Northern Stage transformed a courtyard behind their building in White River Junction into a new outdoor theater space, where they plan to stage performances for many years. Weston Playhouse offered online reading groups and lively artist talks, and in Rutland, the Paramount Theater presented drive-in movies at the Vermont State Fairgrounds. Online classes offered by the New England Center for Circus Arts were so successful at attracting new students that NECCA has decided to continue them.
Such adaptations enable arts organizations to stay afloat, keep their communities engaged, and often reach new audiences through the arts. Organizations made these transitions in the face of enormous losses from lost ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, and other revenue streams.
Across Vermont, arts and culture nonprofits are still struggling financially due to the pandemic and its variants, and our relief and recovery efforts continued apace in FY2021. The Council forged new partnerships and deepened existing ones to secure new funding for artists whose businesses evaporated overnight and for nonprofit cultural organizations struggling to survive.
Since the start of the pandemic, we've delivered $7 million in funding, unprecedented support to arts and culture in Vermont. Full details about our Covid relief can be found on our Covid-19 relief web page.
Read on for more inspiration from FY2021.
Image: Part of the What Next? mural by Aaron Asis (with words contributed by community members) at Shelburne Craft School. Photo by Aaron Asis.
Still We Rise
Covid-19 has been a test of humanity’s creativity, and the Council is working to help artists and makers rise to the occasion. With extra funding for our Artist Development Grants thanks to a new partnership with the Vermont Community Foundation and generous contributions from Higher Ground and other donors, we were able to make 85 awards in FY2021 totaling $47,522, with a special focus on helping creatives make the digital pivot. Funding supported 16 website redesigns and 11 digital marketing consultations. The grants also helped artists hire videographers to document their work for the web and paid for courses and equipment for online instruction in poetry, woodcarving, music, and more.
Choreographer and dancer Elizabeth Kurylo of Corinth directed a documentary about the resiliency of creatives during Covid. She noted that the Council’s support enabled her to keep creating “during the worst of the pandemic.” With her Artist Development Grant, Kurylo hired a videographer to document the making of a ten-minute dance solo in all its stages, showing the audience perspectives and details not usually seen in a live performance. As Kurylo wrote in her application, the pandemic “profoundly altered my perspective on dance both as a creator and as a viewer.” For Kurylo, learning the medium of video was the only way she could continue her craft. Her documentary, COVID, A Poem and A Rope, premiered in June 2021 at a Junction Dance Festival fundraising event, and can be viewed online at the festival’s website (scroll down to the video).
Winooski-based graphic designer Julia Vallera is no stranger to the digital revolution. She has a long background as a technology and design consultant for organizations such as Mozilla, Tech Impact, and the Metropolitan New York Library Council, and in 2017 she was Maker in Residence at Burlington’s Generator Maker Space for a project that focused on public awareness of data privacy and digital security. In 2020, Vallera started a new graphic design and digital media consulting business, JV Creative LLC, and she knew exactly what to do to get her new business off the ground in the time of Covid. With an Artist Development Grant, Vallera pursued online business and marketing training, purchased targeted digital advertising, and joined an online freelance design community where she could connect with others and find more work.
Interested in how artists have been adapting to the Covid-19 pandemic? Read a longer version of this article on our blog.
Images: Performers in Lyric Theatre's televised musical special, Miracle on Green Tree Drive. Image courtesy of Lyric Theatre Company.
Creatives Now
With the release of the CreateVT Action Plan in August, the Vermont Creative Network completed its three-year initiative to envision a stronger future for Vermont’s creative sector. Building on years of research and the input of hundreds of Vermonters, the Action Plan maps a path to a Vermont where creativity is essential infrastructure; where communities thrive through creative expression and enterprise; and where the sector succeeds in a diverse, connected, collaborative environment. The CreateVT Action Plan is a springboard to organize, advocate, and move toward the thriving and creative Vermont we wish to see.
When people use the term “creative sector” or “creative economy,” arts and cultural industries often come to mind—visual artists and actors, writers and musicians. But the “creative sector” or “creative economy” is a much broader community of enterprises, organizations, and individuals whose products and services share the common root of creativity. This includes makers and industrial designers, woodworkers, specialty food producers, and even marketing professionals. Half of all creative sector workers in Vermont aren’t occupied with what you might think of as “creative work,” but are the custodians, accountants, program officers, and other staff and administrators on whom the sector depends.
Arts, culture, and creativity are already essential to Vermont—9.3% of all jobs in Vermont are in the creative sector, more than the national average. Now is the time to recognize that investment in the creative sector is vital to Vermont’s future. As Jody Fried, chair of the Vermont Creative Network’s steering team, wrote in VTDigger, “When Vermont communities embrace creative engagement and enterprise, local economies thrive. Vermont is celebrated worldwide for arts, food and recreational resources. Creative enterprises such as the Brattleboro Words Trail, Montpelier’s Sculpture Garden, and Northern Stage’s Courtyard Theater enhance quality of life and spark community pride, but make no mistake about it: They also drive economic development.”
The collective vision laid out in the CreateVT Action Plan is anything but abstract. It’s supported by concrete goals and strategies, many of which are already being pursued by creatives around the state. You can learn more about the CreateVT Action Plans visions, goals, and strategies, and Vermonters making progress toward them, on the Vermont Creative Network website.
Image: The Vermont Glove workshop in Randolph was one of many creative businesses that quickly re-tooled to produce face masks during the pandemic. Vermont Glove president Sam Hooper is pictured here. Photo by Andrew Plotsky.
Stages in the Sun
Covid-19 meant curtains for performing arts organizations until the second summer of the pandemic, when many Vermont venues were able to re-open and audiences were hungry to come back together. We were proud to partner with the Vermont Recreation & Parks Association and the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing to offer Stages in the Sun, a calendar of over 100 Covid-safe, outdoor arts performances across Vermont. Thanks to a generous grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, we sponsored concerts like Joe’s Big Band at the Ferry Watch Inn in Grand Isle and concerts in the courtyard at Bennington Museum. Unique events included Theatre on the Hill, a partnership between JAG Productions and King Arthur Baking Company to present five weekends of Black theater and local food on the King Arthur campus.
As Jarvis Green, JAG’s producing artistic director, said of Theatre on the Hill in his episode of our podcast, Vermont Made, “I’m grateful that after this year and a half of isolation we’re coming back together to celebrate community, to celebrate each other, to celebrate our commitment to each other’s work.”
With support from Stages in the Sun, the Bennington Museum held 14 concerts in their courtyard over the summer of 2021. These concerts were free of charge for the public, while funds from the grant allowed the museum to pay artists an average of $320 per gig, not including tips. Keeping the concerts free of charge opened the museum's doors to new audiences.
“To help encourage this connection, we made the museum free of charge during this time, offered kids activities outside of the gates, and distributed maps of our outdoor sculpture show,” said Alexina Jones, the museum’s director of advancement.
Scrag Mountain Music was able to hold live shows for the first time in a year and a half in August 2021, performing watershed-inspired works at Hubbard Park in Montpelier and Phantom Theater in Warren.
"For a few hours I was able to just enjoy the music, the setting, the kids, people and the entire experience. It was such an important break from so much heaviness in the world,” said one audience member.
Image: The crowd and custom-built stage at Theatre on the Hill at dusk. Photo by Lars Blackmore.
A Culture-Bearing Barn
You may not expect us to be in the business of renovating farm buildings, but the Big Barn at Charlotte’s Clemmons Family Farm is no mere barn. The entire farm is a site of culture bearing for the African diaspora community and a gathering place for Black Vermonters since Jackson and Lydia Clemmons purchased it in 1962.
In recent years, the farm has been transitioning into a nonprofit center where visitors learn from the arts and culture of the African diaspora. In 2017, the farm was added to Vermont’s African-American Heritage Trail, a statewide network of cultural sites that attract visitors from across the nation. With a new cement floor funded by a Cultural Facilities Grant, the Big Barn will host artist studios, exhibits, classes and more in its new life as a visual and performing arts community center. This is only part of the Clemmons Farm’s programming—they support a network of some 200 Vermont African-American/African diaspora artists with professional, social, and creative opportunities; they host annual artists’ summits and retreat space for Black faculty from regional colleges and universities; and they recently developed African diaspora ethnic studies programs for K-12 students called “Windows to a Multicultural World.”
As of the 2017 agricultural census, out of Vermont’s nearly 7,000 farms only 17 are Black-owned. In a country where African-American land-ownership has declined 93% over the past 100 years, the preservation of places like the Clemmons Family Farm is about more than a single place or community. The farm’s visitors—be they artists, historians, writers, or visitors from across the country, the world, or the state—all join in the larger effort to celebrate heritage and history in order to “learn from our past, shape our present, and invest in our future,” as the farm’s website states.
The Big Barn’s renovation makes it the only community arts facility in the town of Charlotte, and one of the town’s few large, public meeting spaces. The farm is currently closed to the public due to the pandemic, but in time the building will be available to rent as a beautiful venue for meetings, workshops, and retreats by all those who want to support the Clemmons’ work.
Image: Lydia Clemmons and artist Harlan Mack outside the lower level of the Big Barn at Clemmons Family Farm. Photo courtesy of Clemmons Family Farm.
Shifts in Perspective
When fifth graders at Enosburg Elementary returned to school in September 2020 after months of uncertainty, they dove into an Artists in Schools residency all about discovering agency in creativity. Working with puppeteer Sarah Frechette online, students reimagined classic fairytales and presented their rewrites in the form of desktop-sized moving panoramas, a.k.a. “crankies,” an entertainment style popularized in the 19th century.
For Frechette, this was a perfect opportunity to integrate historical methods with modern, Covid-era techniques; for the students, it was an exercise in perspective. They analyzed characters and themes, invented new story outcomes, and learned to share their original ideas in bold new ways. While each student’s crankie was small enough to fit on their desktop, students filmed their moving panoramas in action so that they could be shared anywhere. Frechette edited all the students’ footage together into one video for the classroom.
“Last year’s residency at Enosburg Elementary was the most perfect match I’ve ever experienced,” said Frechette. “Zooming moving panoramas into the 21st century meant creating an entertaining film of an otherwise entertaining pastime—we made ‘Once Upon a Time…’ cooler than ever.”
The Artists in Schools program has traditionally placed teaching artists in physical K-12 classrooms for multi-day residencies. Working around Covid restrictions and adapting lesson plans for remote learning has been particularly difficult for teaching artists used to traveling around Vermont schools, but many have been able to find their stride.
Actor Susan Haefner and Cavendish Town Elementary students produced a musical about personal heroes, learning theater techniques and conducting rehearsals in a mix of remote and in-person lessons. Haefner opted to become a substitute in the district in order to continue entering the building during the pandemic. Multidisciplinary artist Linda Whelihan was able to hold a bookmaking residency for kindergarteners at Guilford Central School entirely outdoors. Alissa Faber worked with Burlington’s Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler to develop a public art-making residency that could be adapted as necessary for a hybrid, five day in-person, or fully remote schedule. The pandemic has changed what a school can be, but together teachers and artists can expand the possibilities of the classroom.
Image: Puppeteer and teaching artist Sarah Frechette in a cemetery with a handmade skeleton marionette. Photo by Jason Thibodeaux.
Art Belongs to Everyone
As the leading funder of the arts in Vermont, the Arts Council seeks to address historic inequities in the distribution of cultural resources. Promoting the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) is ongoing work that takes many forms–through examination of our grantmaking and organizational policies and practices; raising public awareness; staff training; ongoing evaluation of how we allocate our resources and more. In the past year, the Council has:
- modified our grant application and review process to ensure that applicants can access a variety of ways to apply and that funds are distributed equitably
- added an implicit bias segment to the orientation for external grant panelists
- supported the Clemmons Family Farm and the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association with discretionary Covid relief grants to provide direct relief for their networks of artists
- articulated equity as a core value of the CreateVT Action Plan, noting that the creative sector cannot thrive until we acknowledge and address racism, systemic injustice, and barriers to equity and accessibility
- provided training and educational opportunities for our staff and Board that specifically address issues of bias, inclusion, and ADA accessibility
- revised our Employee Handbook and personnel policies with particular attention to issues of equity and inclusion
Full details about our progress as well as IDEA resources for Vermont arts and cultural organizations can be found on our IDEA web page.
Image: Student artwork on a "belonging wall" created during an artist residency provided by Inclusive Arts Vermont. Photo courtesy of Inclusive Arts Vermont.
Reclaimed Gathering Places
“When a public project is truly public art, it comes from the community and gives back to the community in infinite ways,” says Stephanie Bonin, executive director of the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, which was awarded an Animating Infrastructure Grant to radically transform a major downtown parking garage at the Brattleboro Transportation Center.
The area, which includes a regional bus station, has been the gateway for people arriving and departing town, for tourists and locals alike for almost 20 years. It was often dismissed as drab and uninviting, and perceived as unsafe, but three artists – Elizabeth Billings, Evie Lovett, and Andrea Wasserman – saw its potential as a place where art might change public perceptions. They also wanted to reconnect Brattleboro to the Connecticut River a few blocks away.
The community was invited into the process. Shop owners, librarians, town government officials, public health leaders, river conservationists, elders and youth all came together to re-envision the area at a pop-up event in the bus-waiting alley area next to the garage.
The result was “River Wall,” a massive kinetic sculpture of thousands of shimmering discs that flash in the wind and sunlight, mimicking the movement of the river. The installation covers the almost 90-foot wide expanse of the side of the garage, bringing lightness to the facade and connecting people to the water and to the sky.
New signs were installed with each parking level designated by a different animal of significance to the Abenaki and to the Connecticut River ecosystem.
An education component designed in collaboration with the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center included multiple workshops with area students, elders, and community groups who created large silk cyanotype banners celebrating the river.
Today, the garage and its surroundings are embraced as a positive community asset.
Brattleboro State Representative Emilie Kornheiser noted, “Our Transportation Center hosts some of our most vulnerable neighbors as people wait for buses, access restrooms, and have a sheltered place to socialize. Art…is often reserved for just one segment of our population. The sculpture brings beauty, attention, and worth to a part of our town and our townspeople that are often considered a blight. Essentially it brings light and reflection to our darker corners and, it is my hope, brings a sense of worthiness to folks who spend time in that darkness.”
Image: The Brattleboro Transportation Center's exterior shimmering with the recently installed sculpture, Ask the River. Photo by Evie Lovett.
In Closing
We hope you’ve enjoyed this snapshot of our journey through FY2021. The support we were able to provide afforded many artists precious time to deepen their practice or to imagine new artistic journeys, like Otto Muller, who was awarded a FY21 Creation Grant to create a new musical composition, Kingsbury Branch. Said Muller:
“Kingsbury Branch has achieved a unique and innovative re-imagining of the musical work, and a methodology for composing that I plan to continue throughout my career. This would not have been possible without the support of the Creation Grant and the ability to invest the time necessary for research and development and to invite other artists to take these risks with me.”
We look forward to continuing our work building a Vermont where art, culture, and creativity are at the heart of our communities. For more information about all our programs, visit our website.
Image: Otto Muller standing beside the old sawmill at Kents Corner in Calais, one of the research sites for his Creation Grant work. Photo by Desmond Peeples.
Grantees
Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021)
Animating Infrastructure Grants support community projects that integrate art with infrastructure improvements.
Albany Community Trust, Inc., Albany, $5,000
Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, $15,000
Fairlee Community Arts, Fairlee, $15,000
Town of Bennington, Bennington, $15,000
Town of St. Albans, St. Albans, $10,000
Artist Development Grants support professional development for artists at all stages of their careers.
Benjamin Aleshire, Chittenden County, $500
Eliza J. Anderson, Chittenden County, $375
Joshua Axelrod, Washington County, $500
Sage Barber, Orange County, $450
Cloud Bartoli, Chittenden County, $600
Carolyn Bates, Chittenden County, $500
Martha Beauchamp, Bennington County, $500
Jen Berger, Chittenden County, $500
Susan Bettmann, Washington County, $500
Elizabeth Billings, Orange County, $455
Dana Block, Chittenden County, $500
Ryan Boera, Chittenden County, $500
Shoshannah Boray, Chittenden County, $650
Robert Burch, Windham County, $1,000
Michael Caduto, Windsor County, $800
Susan Calza, Washington County, $450
Sayon Camara, Windsor County, $650
Elissa Campbell, Washington County, $445
Trent Campbell, Addison County, $1,000
Stuart H. Carter, Chittenden County, $999
Nicholas Charyk, Windsor County, $500
Markeith Chavous, Chittenden County, $750
Alison Cheroff, Windsor County, $350
Daniel Chiaccio, Windham County, $400
Rachel Clemente, Windham County, $450
Tristan Cooley, Washington County, $400
David Cooper, Chittenden County, $1,000
Johanna Dery, Windham County, $600
Patrick Donnelly, Windham County, $800
Morgan English, Windham County, $450
Leila Faulstich-Hon, Washington County, $500
Sarah Frechette, Franklin County, $888
Kerry O. Furlani, Rutland County, $1,000
Lucia Gagliardone, Windsor County, $530
Geoffrey Gevalt, Chittenden County, $500
Jonathan Gitelson, Windham County, $350
Susan Haefner, Windsor County, $500
Bonny Hall, Windham County, $375
Tracey Hambleton, Washington County, $312
Michaela Harlow, Windham County, $528
Jennifer Herzer, Rutland County, $300
Rage Hezekiah, Bennington County, $350
Jessica Hill, Windham County, $300
Christine Hill, Chittenden County, $750
Nora Jacobson, Windsor County, $750
Andreas John, Washington County, $1,000
Cecelia Kane, Caledonia County, $500
Rip Keller, Caledonia County, $700
John Killacky, Chittenden County, $400
Elizabeth Kurylo, Orange County, $500
Gioia Kuss, Addison County, $500
Alexandra Langstaff, Bennington County, $350
Tori Lawrence, Addison County, $900
Benjamin Lerner, Bennington County, $1,000
Scott MacDonald, Windsor County, $545
Mica McDonald, Chittenden County, $500
Nick Mayer, Addison County, $600
Lisa McCormick, Windham County, $1,000
Berl Jonathan Mendel, Chittenden County, $250
Mina Nishimura, Bennington County, $500
Katie O'Rourke, Washington County, $300
Jake Paron, Chittenden County, $500
Stuart Paton, Bennington County, $1,000
Ariela Paulsen, Chittenden County, $400
Alana Phinney, Washington County, $500
Caitlin Pomerantz, Orange County, $500
Katie Roberts, Windsor County, $312
Lydia Roe, Orange County, $300
Allison Rogers, Orange County, $500
Kelly Salasin, Windham County, $500
Hanna Satterlee, Washington County, $500
Kyle Saulnier, Addison County, $650
Eric George Schlosser, Chittenden County, $700
Lissa Schneckenburger, Windham County, $500
Ruth Shafer, Windham County, $260
Bronwyn Sims, Windham County, $350
Jeanette Staley, Windham County, $1,000
Silene Sutera, Lamoille County, $675
Pete Sutherland, Chittenden County, $550
Jessica Ticktin, Lamoille County, $500
Christine Triebert, Windham County, $500
Julia Vallera, Chittenden County, $720
Mindy Wong, Chittenden County, $675
Kathy Wonson Eddy, Orange County, $500
Sophie Wood, Orange County, $545
Artists in Schools Grants help schools develop in-class residency relationships with Vermont artists.
Barnard Academy, Barnard, $2,500
Canaan Schools, Canaan, $1,250
Cavendish Town Elementary School, Proctorsville, $2,750
Champlain Elementary School, Burlington, $2,500
Clemmons Family Farm, Charlotte, $3,000
Currier Memorial School, Danby, $1,790
Enosburg Falls Elementary School, Enosburg, $2,750
Green Street School, Brattleboro, $2,500
Guilford Central School, Guilford, $1,460
Harwood Union Middle and High School, Moretown, $2,500
Hilltop Montessori School, Brattleboro, $1,250
Hunt Middle School, Burlington, $2,500
Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler, Burlington, $2,500
J.J. Flynn Elementary School, Burlington, $2,500
Mount Abraham Union High School, Bristol, $2,690
Peoples Academy, Morrisville, $2,200
Stowe High School, Stowe, $2,200
Windham Elementary School, Windham, $2,750
Arts Partnership Grants support the annual operations of Vermont arts organizations.
Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, $7,000
Brattleboro Music Center, Brattleboro, $5,600
Burlington City Arts, Burlington, $8,000
Carving Studio & Sculpture Center, West Rutland, $4,000
Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, $8,000
Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, $6,300
Dorset Theatre Festival, Dorset, $6,300
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, $8,000
Generator, Burlington, $7,000
Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, $4,000
Inclusive Arts Vermont, Essex Junction, $5,000
In-Sight Photography Project, Brattleboro, $3,000
Kingdom County Productions, Barnet, $4,500
Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, Leicester, $3,000
Music-COMP, Duxbury, $3,000
New England Center for Circus Arts, Brattleboro, $8,000
Next Stage Arts Project, Putney, $4,000
Northern Stage, White River Junction, $8,000
Paramount Center, Rutland, $7,200
River Arts, Morrisville, $5,000
Scrag Mountain Music, Marshfield, $3,000
Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, $7,200
T.W. Wood Art Gallery, Montpelier, $3,000
Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, $6,300
Vermont Stage Company, Burlington, $4,000
Very Merry Theatre, Burlington, $4,500
Weston Playhouse, Weston, $7,200
WonderArts, Greensboro, $4,500
Yellow Barn, Putney, $8,000
Young Writers Project, Burlington, $3,000
Creation Grants support the creation of new work by Vermont artists.
William Alexander, Montpelier, $4,000 | Read our interview with William
Sarah Audsley, Johnson, $4,000 | Read our interview with Sarah
Big Teeth Performance Collective, East Dummerston, $4,000
Frances Cannon, Burlington, $4,000 | Read our interview with Frances
Kate Donnelly, Burlington, $4,000 | Read our interview with Kate
Misoo Filan, South Burlington, $4,000
Mary Lacy, Jericho, $4,000
Toby MacNutt, Burlington, $4,000
Brian McCarthy, Colchester, $4,000
Rachel Moore, Stowe, $4,000
Otto Muller, Marshfield, $4,000 | Read our feature story on Otto
Estefania Puerta, Burlington, $4,000
Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees, North Ferrisburgh, $4,000
Stefania Urist, Londonderry, $4,000
Dana Walrath, South Burlington, $4,000 | Read our interview with Dana
Cultural Facilities Grants support nonprofit organizations and municipalities to improve the safety, quality, or accessibility of public buildings.
Barre Opera House, Barre, $30,000
Bennington Performing Arts Center, Bennington, $20,160
Caledonia Grange #9, East Hardwick, $4,390
Clemmons Family Farm, Charlotte, $20,450
Dorset Players, Dorset, $8,171
Fairfield Community Center Association, Fairfield, $11,307
Grass Roots Art and Community Effort, Hardwick, $5,233
Lost Shul Mural, Burlington, $3,599
Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, $30,000
Royalton Historical Society, South Royalton, $2,467
Saint Albans Museum, Saint Albans, $3,470
Seven Stars Arts Center, Sharon, $4,075
Town of Fairlee, Fairlee, $17,000
Town of Hyde Park, Hyde Park, $10,835
Town of Plainfield, Plainfield, $4,110
Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, Colchester, $7,000
Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, Weston, $17,605
Head Start Arts Integration Grants support arts-integrated experiences for early education students and teachers in Head Start classrooms.
Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, $4,000
Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, $5,000
Vermont Arts Exchange, North Bennington, $6,000
WonderArts, Greensboro, $3,500
Special Project Grants support statewide services or are awarded at the discretion of the Council’s executive director.
Clemmons Family Farm, Charlotte, $6,000
Clemmons Family Farm, Charlotte, $2,000
Governor's Institute on the Arts, Winooski, $5,000
Green Mountains Review, Johnson, $1,000
Vermont Abenaki Artists Association, Burlington, $6,000
Vermont Crafts Council, Montpelier, $3,000
Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, $3,000
Panelists and Advisors
Accessibility Advisors
Jessica Butterfield
Peter Johnke
Deborah Lisi-Baker
Charlie Murphy
Lisa Ryan
Heidi Swevens
Renee Wells
Art in State Buildings Legislative Advisory Committee
Sen. Joe Benning
Rep. Alice Emmons
Jennifer Fitch
Karen Mittelman
Keith Robinson
David Schutz
Cultural Facilities Coalition
Caitlin Corkins
Karen Mittelman
Steve Perkins
Grant Panelists
Mary Admasian
Richard Amore
Shawn Brennan
Catherine Brooks
Jason Broughton
Steve Budington
David Burnell
Jen Carlo
Bill Cole
Kathryn Davis
Abby Dreyer
Glynnis Fawkes
Mollie Flanagan
William Forchion
Ceilidh Galloway-Kane
Wylie Garcia
Robert Gardner
Joe Gleason
Bob Hannum
Judy Hayward
Jennifer Herrera Condry
Kelly Holt
Kathleen Horton
Ralph Irish
Laurel Jenkins
Sara Katz
Tabrena Karish
Richard Kerschner
Brian Leet
HB Lozito
Justin Marsh
Colin McCaffrey
Laura McCaffrey
Bridget McGrath
Erin McKenney
Tracy Montminy
Brian Michael Murphy
Matt Neckers
Dawn O’Toole
Jericho Parms
Carol Potter
Susan Ritz
Dana Robinson
Andrea Rosen
Jim Schley
Mary Margaret Schoenfeld
Isadora Snapp
Kelly Stoddard-Poor
Margaret Tamulonis
Brian Terhune
Vaune Trachtman
Kevin Wiberg
Dana Yeaton
Christine Zachai
Jack Zeilenga
Board of Trustees
Emily Bernard
Sabrina Brown
Ed Clark
Sean Clute
Will Kasso Condry
Jo Sabel Courtney*
Greg Cutler
Sharon Fantl
Mark Foley**
Holly Ernst Groschner
Reeve Lindbergh*
Becky McMeekin
Nicole Nelson*
Gail Nunziata
Greg Paus
Tony Pietricola
Stephen Pite
Greg Sargent
Nick Sherman
Edmond Strainchamps*
Yasmin Tayeby*
*term ended June 2021
**term began June 2021
Staff
Michele Bailey
Meredith Bell
Deirdre Connelly
Catherine Crawley
Amy Cunningham
Johanna de Graffenreid*
Anne Gould
Dominique Gustin
Troy Hickman
Karen Mittelman
Desmond Peeples
Tom Pilon
*as of December 2021
The Vermont Arts Council is funded, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which requires a 1:1 match from the Vermont State Legislature. Council grants, programs, and statewide arts promotion would not be possible without the critical funding provided by these government agencies.
We could not do our work without the support of our wider Vermont Arts Council community. THANK YOU to the hundreds of generous individuals, businesses, and foundations that made vital contributions to our work in the past fiscal year. View FY2021 Contributors.
136 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05633-6001 | 802.828.3291 | info@vermontartscouncil.org