In so many aspects of Vermont living, the arts - photography, ceramics, woodworking, printing, dance, circus, fine art, theater, puppetry, literary arts, and music from classical to jazz to eclectic - figure in.
The greater Brattleboro area itself is a microcosm of the Vermont scene with its high concentration of arts activity.
At an April 23 gathering, the Economic & Social Impact of the Arts in Vermont, hosted by Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) at Brattleboro's Stone Church, it was noted that Brattleboro had been chosen to host that event for just that reason.
In a vibrant and funky Bellows Falls, day two of a two-day conference that began with a Vermont Downtown and Historic Preservation Conference continued on June 6 with the 2024 Creative Sector Convening.
And, fueled by a $45,000 grant from the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development last December, three towns - Brattleboro, Rockingham, and Wilmington - are joining forces with the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) "to create a vision and action plan to strengthen and grow arts and culture assets in the Windham County region," said Zon Eastes, who leads the southern Vermont zone of the Vermont Creative Network.
WRC Senior Planner Matthew Bachler said that the project will "identify cultural and creative economy assets in the region, their economic impact, and provide for a set of policies and goals to ensure their continued strength going forward."
The prevailing message is that the arts are serious business.
The 2022 federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the arts and culture sector in Vermont is the third-largest economic contributor after retail and construction.
Almost 60% of Vermont's adults attended live music, theater, or dance performances, while almost 40% attended art exhibits, according to the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau.
The most recent information (2022) from the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account, produced jointly by the National Endowment for the Arts' Office of Research and Analysis and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, reports that Vermont added 2.9%, or $1.2 billion, to the state economy from arts and cultural production and employed 10,574 workers in the arts and cultural industries, with workers earning wages and benefits totaling more than $700 million.
These are among a collection of numbers which demonstrate that Vermont values its arts not only as an outlet for creative expression and innovative thinking, but also as a boon to the economy.
Arts create connection
The VBSR event's panelists included Susan Evans McClure, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council (VAC); Robin Johnson, founder/owner and general manager of Stone Church; Danny Lichtenfeld, director of the Brattleboro Museum & Arts Center (BMAC); and Kate Trzaskos, executive director of Downtown Brattleboro Alliance (DBA).
Tom Bodett of Dummerston, widely recognized as an author and media voice, moderated the discussion.
Bodett is founder/owner/conceiver of High Street and Green in Brattleboro, which its website describes as "30,000 square feet of inspiration throughout four floors of creative use."
The building now houses First Proof Press, Vermont Center for Photography, Wheelhouse Clay, A Vermont Table, and HatchSpace, which Bodett also co-founded, to build "community by spreading the joy of woodworking."
As described by its website, High Street and Green is "building a legacy of creative placemaking in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont by making production and retail spaces affordable to makers in culinary, craft, and visual arts."
Each panelist extolled what Brattleboro does - and could still do - to nurture the arts as a viable contributor not only to the complex aesthetic character of the town, but also to the local economy.
In introducing Bodett, Downtown Brattleboro Alliance Creative Director Erin Scaggs acknowledged the "impact he's had on our town - downtown, specifically. He took a space and transformed it into a shining beacon of optimism, showing what's possible when you have the right people and the right resources."
Johnson, a Brattleboro native and son of Omega Optical founder Bob Johnson, noted "we do this because art is what makes us people - what makes us humans - and helps us connect with each other and understand ourselves."
The Stone Church is a repurposed 1875 Unitarian church which describes itself as providing a space for people to hear an eclectic range of curated live music from within the area and well beyond - music not to be pigeonholed into a limiting selection of genres. It's also a space for meeting, incubating, and coalescing.
For instance, its Grrrls to the Front program formed there, according to its mission, to create opportunities for women and nonbinary people in the music industry, to celebrate their accomplishments, and to connect them with resources and one another.
Speaking for BMAC, Lichtenfeld added, "we're passionate about the ways we can strengthen community through art and culture," noting that the museum faces the challenge of resisting the age-old presumption that a museum is supposed to be perceived as a highbrow temple.
"BMAC is there for everyone" with a welcoming vibe and inclusivity, he said, noting a focus on accessibility.
"We work to try to remove barriers; we do a lot of outreach," he said, adding that BMAC "develops collaborations which spark initiatives, such as the Afghan refugees mural artists project."
Attendance is up, he reports, with school groups visiting and other audience development initiatives yielding results. The museum hosts on average five events per month, often on weekday nights when not much else has been offered, Lichtenfeld remarked.
He added that Stone Church has been a game changer, hosting an average of 18 events per month. And up the road in Putney, Next Stage Arts has seasons that are nearly that packed.
"The building we're in was a crossroads," Lichtenfeld said, adding that the 1915 train station that houses BMAC was, in fact, "destined for the wrecking ball in the late 1960s and early 1970s," when a cluster of movers and shakers saved the site from becoming a parking lot and moved it toward adaptive reuse.
Such innovation and community spirit, he noted, is "deeply embedded in our DNA." The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Lichtenfeld has heard real estate agents and people from such institutions as Brattleboro Memorial Hospital describe the BMAC as an asset and an amenity. He told of a potential BMH doctor and his family touring the area and requesting, specifically, to tour the museum.
Trzaskos spoke of nurturing and supporting the vitality of downtown through community and economic development, the nonprofit and for-profit sectors working together.
DBA now runs the monthly Gallery Walk, a long-standing Brattleboro tradition incorporating music, a flea market with local artists and makers, gallery openings, and events.
"It's a place truly where art and community come together," she said.
"We're on this creative corridor: first stop is the Vermont Jazz Center, then the Museum, Stone Church, galleries," Trzaskos said, describing a sequence that includes New England Center for Circus Arts, Next Stage, and other venues.
"I don't think you can come to Brattleboro and not see it as an arts town," she added.
Looking ahead, Trazaskos said, "the future of downtown is not what we already know."
The business of art
The June gathering in Bellows Falls drew some 200 artists, decision-makers, venue representatives, arts managers, and municipal and business leaders from around the state to engage with one another.
With that engagement came opportunities for them to learn and, more importantly, to discern collectively the path forward as they shake off the last dust of the Covid shutdown.
This was the first such in-person convening since 2019. Moving forward the VAC plans to host the event every other year.
Those gathered were welcomed to the Bellows Falls Opera House, with respect paid to the Abenaki heritage of the area.
McClure returned to Windham County give a brief address. Other speakers included Harold Steward, executive director of the New England Foundation for the Arts, and Michelle Monroe, a communications and outreach representative from U.S. Sen. Peter Welch's office sharing updates on state, regional, and national efforts to support the creative sector.
Five vibrantly costumed performers from Shidaa Projects, a Montpelier-based West African dance and drum troupe, brought participants to their feet with rich, rousing dance and rhythms.
Attendees then broke out into multiple workshops that spanned the gamut, from nuts and bolts to vision-making.
Led by professionals and volunteers from around the state, the workshops included "Building Inclusive Creative Communities; Creative Placemaking for Community Resilience," "Creative Entrepreneurship," "Legal Resources for the Creative Sector: The Vermont Small Business Law Center," "Shaping the Future of the Vermont Arts Council," "Art and Inclusion: Removing Barriers to Accessibility in the Creative Sector," and "Maximize Your Marketing Message in the Modern Media World."
In the "Creatives at the Table: Get Involved in Local Government and Planning" workshop, the thrust was on ensuring a seat at the table for the arts at every point of governance statewide.
For those who want to see the arts flourish with support, the message was clear: seize a voice for the creative economy by running for office, from school board to selectboard to the Legislature.
Coming together
An initiative of the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Creative Network was established in 2016, authorized by the Vermont Legislature as "a broad collective of organizations, businesses, and individuals working to advance Vermont's creative sector."
Through it, the state, for purposes of arts development, is segmented into six creative zones.
Southern Vermont - Bennington and Windham counties and the Windsor County town of Weston - is Zone Six. The agent for that zone is Eastes, cellist, conductor, Guilford Selectboard chair, and current candidate for state representative.
Eastes spoke enthusiastically recently about the multi-town municipal planning grant. This three-town planning project, known as the Windham Region Cultural Plan (WRCP) "is nearly ready for prime time," he said.
"Brattleboro, Rockingham, and Wilmington, in collaboration with the [WRC], will do more than simply examine the role and impact of the creative sector in the region," Eastes said. "If the process goes as planned, the region may have a workable blueprint for advancing its economic and quality-of-life profile."
Work on the plan is set to begin this month, starting with the selection of a professional consultant team. The project will run through October 2025.
That team, Eastes explained, "will work with a seven-to-11-person steering team to undertake planning activities inviting everyone to participate in public workshops, smaller focus groups, data collection, and surveys."
The planning offices of all three towns are engaged, he added.
"This project represents a real opportunity for sector-wide study, data gathering, and planning," Eastes said, noting that in his years working in arts and culture, "this is the first time I've seen such broad-strokes energy for collaborative planning in the creative sector."
"Apart from laying out a series of regional next steps, such a study will likely dovetail with the existing Bennington Cultural Plan," he added.
Together, the two plans could become part of regional Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), which Eastes described as "a federal designation that can strengthen this region's edge for attracting federal dollars and more generally forging broader economic opportunities."
Underscoring the value of process to yield progress, Eastes said that "having planning documents do line you up with a lot of federal programming, and if you've already received funding, it raises your chances."
But a big benefit comes in the process itself.
"Any planning that's done just brings people together: just the process of planning can be so innovative, interesting, and exciting for the folks engaged," Eastes said.
"The Vermont Creative Network is solidly behind this planning; they're willing and ready," he said, noting that the Windham Regional Commission will administer the grant, tending to finances and negotiating contracts.
"The pandemic was a strain on lots of arts and cultural sectors: now there's such a thirst for engaging [...] A healthy arts environment triggers a healthy economy," Eastes said. "We know there's data; [...] it's great that the creative network has been proven to be one of the prime economic engines in the state." The planning grant will, it's expected, lead to a galvanizing of that impact in our arts region.
The three municipalities, with Brattleboro as the lead town, will shape a document that will "include a lot of engagement of folks in the community prioritizing assets, naming what strengths are here, and identifying the 10 to 20 things that need to be done in the next number of years," to help grow a full range of arts in the area and support a full range of artists.
Demographic data will inform long range - and even short-term - planning.
More sophisticated data collection will be a boon to the arts: as expressed by several at the April 23 forum, it makes sense to be looking to the economic development side to grab more concrete numbers on participation and impact, on inclusivity and diversity.
"We're not yet tracking zip codes but we know it's important" to yield "more granular data" as to where attendees are coming from, McClure said.
At present, arts entities see 75% local audiences and 25% out-of-towners - data that is a guesstimate.
Johnson said, though, that Stone Church sees, on average, a 25% local following, with the remaining 75% hailing from as far as Montreal, Maine, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Utah.
Eastes and his peers all called for continued collaboration and coordination such as the pandemic necessitated within the arts community.
"Collaboration supports all of us," Trzaskos said.
And that applies locally and statewide.
The arts council, said McClure, "works closely with the Department of Tourism and Marketing (DTM) to help spread the word about the incredible arts opportunities for tourists in Vermont."
"Over the past several years, the DTM has been steadily increasing its support and amplification of the arts and culture in Vermont," she said, noting that "Arts and Culture" is "a major pillar" of the agency's new Vermont Vacation website, launched this year.
Many arts leaders agree that calendar coordination would be a boon to arts planning regional and statewide.
"We continue to work to share as much information as we can about statewide calendars (and to demystify that process as much as we can!)," she said, inviting arts organizations to post free listings on the Vermont Arts Council website.
"There is always more to do," McClure added, "and [coordination among] statewide agencies is key to advancing the arts for all Vermonters."
Business savvy partnering with innovation and creative initiative has been hailed in these forums as the way forward for the arts in Vermont.
But McClure added that "we're not doing this just for economic impact."
"We're doing this because we know this is what our society needs to thrive and it so happens that when we do the right thing for the arts we also do so for our economy," she said.
This News item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.