-
Rachel Stearns
-
Gov. Shumlin with Excellence in the Arts award winner Eric Aho and family
On Tuesday evening, November 15, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the
Vermont Arts Council honored six Vermont artists with the annual Governor's Arts Awards. This year's ceremony took place at the
Putney School, in Shumlin's hometown.
Eric Aho, who lives and works in nearby Saxtons River, received the 2016 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
It's no coincidence that the six award recipients are clustered in southern Vermont. As Kira Bacon, VAC communications and outreach manager, explained, awardees are selected from a pool of nominees through a nomination process that is open to the public.
Trustees review all nominations, consider staff input and then provide the governor with a list of suggestions for the Governor's Award. Once he has selected a recipient, Bacon said, "We see if we can find a cluster [of arts leaders] in the same part of the state" to increase community momentum. Last year, the "cluster" was focused on the Montpelier area; in 2014, it was St. Johnsbury.
Eric Aho is an internationally recognized painter who, in the words of poet and art critic Peter Campion, paints the space "where nature and feeling fuse together." Aho is represented by
DC Moore Gallery in New York, and recently exhibited work in Vermont at the
Shelburne Museum and in Hanover, N.H., at the
Hood Museum of Art.
-
Courtesy of Vermont Arts Council
-
Peter Gould
Peter Gould of Brattleboro received the Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education. The performer, director, teacher and author established the youth Shakespeare company
Get Thee to the Funnery in 1998, and has been bringing theater to youth audiences as half of
Gould & Stearns since 1980.
-
Ken Russell
-
Robert McBride
Robert McBride of Bellows Falls received the Margaret (Peggy) L. Kannenstine Award for Arts Advocacy. McBride founded the
Rockingham Arts & Museum Project in 1995 and continues to act as director. "Art Makes a Difference" is the organization's motto.
-
Courtesy of Vermont Arts Council
-
Stephen Rice
Stephen Rice of Brattleboro received the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts. Rice began his career as a music teacher at Brattleboro Union High School in 1987 and became head of the music department in 2004. He has been an active leader in the
Vermont Music Educators Association as well as the
Vermont Alliance for Arts Education.
-
Courtesy of Vermont Arts Council
-
Elsie Smith and Serenity Smith Forchion
Elsie Smith and Serenity Smith Forchion of Brattleboro received the Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts. The identical twin acrobats have performed internationally as aerial and trapeze artists, settling in Vermont in 2003. In 2007, they established the
New England Center for Circus Arts.
Comments
Comments are closed.
Since 2014, Seven Days has allowed readers to comment on all stories posted on our website. While we’ve appreciated the suggestions and insights, the time has come to shut them down — at least temporarily.
While we champion free speech, facts are a matter of life and death during the coronavirus pandemic, and right now Seven Days is prioritizing the production of responsible journalism over moderating online debates between readers.
To criticize, correct or praise our reporting, please send us a letter to the editor. Or send us a tip. We’ll check it out and report the results.
Online comments may return when we have better tech tools for managing them. Thanks for reading.