VERMONT 2013 POETRY OUT LOUD CHAMPION CROWNED

St. Johnsbury Academy’s Christian DeKett will represent Vermont at the National Finals in Washington, D.C., on April 29 & 30,
Montpelier, Vermont - After a poetry-filled day at the Barre Opera House, Christian DeKett, of St. Johnsbury Academy, took top honors Wednesday at the Vermont Poetry Out Loud State finals. The Wheelock junior was one of 37 competitors representing schools from across the state. DeKett recited “I Am the People, the Mob” by Carl Sandburg and “Ultima Thule” by Linda Bierds for his first two selections, but it was the delivery of his third poem, “Experience” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, that clinched the title. Maia Gilmour, a junior at Brattleboro Union High School, was the runner-up in the competition.

DeKett will now advance to the National Finals in Washington, D.C., on April 29–30. He will receive $200 in addition to the all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., for himself and a chaperone. St. Johnsbury Academy will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. Gilmour will receive $100, plus $200 toward poetry books for Brattleboro Union High School.

Students from 53 high schools – champions from every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands – will compete for a total of $50,000 in scholarship awards and school stipends at the National Finals. Judges will evaluate student performances on physical presence, articulation, evidence of understanding, level of difficulty, and accuracy. The National Champion will receive a $20,000 college scholarship.

“Over 4,000 Vermont high school students participated in the Poetry Out Loud program this year, so Christian’s accomplishment is truly exceptional,” said Executive Director Alex Aldrich. “More than just a contest in which the person with the best rote memory skills wins, Poetry Out Loud requires students to dig deep and explore not just the meaning and the context but also how to present the poem publicly. What was particularly exciting this year was our ability to show all 37 students’ recitations to schools throughout the state with our Livestream feed.”

The Poetry Out Loud program was created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, and is administered statewide by the Vermont Arts Council. Now in its eighth year in Vermont, Poetry Out Loud has inspired hundreds of thousands of high school students to discover and know by heart classic and contemporary poetry. Poetry Out Loud builds on the rising interest in poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the popularity of rap music.

For more information, visit www.vermontartcouncil.org.

Since 1964, the Vermont Arts Council has been the state’s primary provider of funding, advocacy and information for the arts in Vermont. It strives to increase public awareness of the positive role artists and arts organizations play in communities and to increase opportunities for Vermonters to experience the arts in everyday life. The Council is the only designated State Arts Agency in the U.S. that is also an independent, not-for-profit, membership organization. For more information on the programs and services of the Vermont Arts Council, visit www.vermontartscouncil.org

GOVERNOR PETER SHUMLIN TO PRESENT GOVERNOR’S AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS

For the first time, four Vermonters will receive this honor for their extensive contributions to the arts.

Brattleboro, Vermont – The Vermont Arts Council invites you to join Governor Peter Shumlin on Monday, December 10, as he presents the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts to author Karen Hesse, author Archer Mayor, cellist Sharon Robinson, and teacher and professional clown Stephen Stearns.

Thepublic are invited to attend the 2012 Vermont Arts Awards Gala, sponsored by Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee in association with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The Gala is on December 10, 8:00 p.m., at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT. Reservations for the free Ceremony may be made by calling (802) 828-3293. Please RSVP by December 3, 4:00 p.m.

The public nominates individuals for the Governor’s Award and the Arts Council then passes on the top nominees to the governor, who makes the final selection. This year is a year of firsts; it is the first time the

VERMONT ARTS COUNCIL AWARDS $33K IN GRANTS

A total of 11 grants will support the creation of new work by local artists in seven Vermont counties.

Montpelier – The Vermont Arts Council is pleased to announce its Creation Grant recipients for Fiscal Year 2013. A total of $33,000 will be awarded to 11 Vermont artists in seven counties, each of whom will receive $3,000 to support new work.

A panel with experience in curating, producing and creating art selected the following grantees from a pool of over 100 applicants:

·         Brooke Ciardelli, White River Junction

·         Jay Craven, Barnet

·         Alisa Dworsky, Montpelier

·         Serenity Forchion, Brattleboro

·         Peter Miller, Waterbury

·         Rachel Moore, Stowe

·         Erik Nielsen, Brookfield

·         April Ossmann, Post Mills

·         Jim Schley, South Strafford

·         Bronwyn Sims, Brattleboro

·         Gabriel Tempesta, Craftsbury

Click here to learn more about the work these grants will support. Click here for a complete list of FY2013 grantees by county.

FINALISTS PRESENT ‘ART IN STATE BUILDINGS’ DESIGN CONCEPTS FOR BENNINGTON PROJECT

Four artists to share preliminary concepts for $41,000 public art project at the Bennington Courthouse and State Office Building.

Bennington, Vermont – The Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services invite the public to help decide which artist will lead the newest Vermont ‘Art in State Buildings’ project.

The permanent public art project will be commissioned for the Bennington Courthouse and State Office Building. Four finalists were chosen from a pool of 16 applicants: Jim Cole of West Rupert; Gordon Auchincloss of Hardwick; Sabrina Fadial of Elmore; and Donald Saaf of Saxtons River.

VERMONT ARTS COUNCIL, MARLBORO COLLEGE AWARD NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT TRAINING SCHOLARSHIPS

Four Vermonters named first awardees of Nonprofit Arts Management Training scholarship.

Montpelier, Vermont – The Vermont Arts Council and Marlboro College Graduate School are proud to announce the first four fellows in the Nonprofit Arts Management Training scholarship program. This partnership between the Council and Marlboro College supports nonprofit management education for Vermont artists and art managers by awarding up to four $500 scholarships each trimester. Those scholarships are used to subsidize the cost of Marlboro’sCertificate in Nonprofit Management, which assists Vermont artists and the staff of Vermont arts organizations in building the skills needed to run a successful organization.

“The Vermont Arts Council is delighted to collaborate with Marlboro on this opportunity to support Vermont’s emerging arts leaders,” said Arts Council Executive Director Alex Aldrich. “The Marlboro College Graduate School program is a perfect ‘advanced step’ for Vermonters who have either successfully navigated our Breaking Into Business workshops, or who are professional, committed arts administrators looking to broaden their knowledge and skills in the area of nonprofit management.”

"Marlboro College has a deep commitment to both the nonprofit sector and the creative economy in Vermont, and we're very excited about this opportunity to put more business skills in the hands of arts entrepreneurs and arts managers around the state,” said Marlboro College President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell.

The four fellows of the Fall 2012 Vermont Arts Council Nonprofit Arts Management Training scholarship are:

Anahi Costa: Costa works at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe as an administrative assistant. She is an art critic in her own right and wants to learn how to "portray a whole picture of the arts in an appealing way" to build a more knowledgeable art audience in Vermont.

Jessica Hill: Hill is the new education coordinator at the Frog Hollow State Craft Center in Burlington. She is a veteran art teacher with ten years of classroom experience, and is now heading up a pilot program at Frog Hollow to bring local art into schools.

Kathryn Moody: Moody is a cartoonist and hopes to start up a small press focused on visual stories for educational purposes. She is a graduate of theCenter for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction and currently serves as the Center's librarian.

Heather Morris: For the past ten years, Morris has run her own Celtic dance school. During that time she has also served as an officer on the St. Andrews Highland Dancers board.

The Fall Certificate classes are now underway. The Council and Marlboro College will be opening applications for the Winter 2013 trimester in mid-October. To learn more about Marlboro’s program, contact Kate Jellema, Program Director: katej@marlboro.edu or (802) 451-7510, or visit their website at www.nonprofit.marlboro.edu. For inquiries about the scholarship, contact Rachel Feldman, Communications Manager:rfeldman@vermontartscouncil.org or (802) 828-5422.