Sculptor and multimedia artist Leslie Fry of Winooski will receive the 2023 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the highest honor presented to an artist by the state of Vermont, the Vermont Arts Council announced on Monday.

The Governor’s Arts Awards recognize outstanding individual and organizational contributions to the arts, honoring educators, artists, performers, advocates, administrators, volunteers and scholars. Vermonters are recognized in five categories. In addition to Fry, four other winners were announced:

• Filmmaker and former executive director of the Vermont International Film Festival Orly Yadin of Burlington will receive the Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts.
• Master dancer and choreographer Sidiki Sylla of Burlington will receive the Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education.
• Nonprofit arts leader Matthew Perry of North Bennington will receive the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts.
• Multimedia producer Eva Sollberger of Burlington will receive the Margaret L. (Peggy) Kannenstine Award for Arts Advocacy.

The winners are reviewed by an outside panel, except for the recipient of the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts, who is chosen by the Vermont Arts Council staff. Award recipients will be honored at a public ceremony with Gov. Phil Scott on September 28 at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. The ceremony is the first since 2019 and will also honor winners from 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Addressing Fry as winner of the 2023 Governor's Award, Gov. Scott said, “Your many public sculptures within Vermont and around the world have no doubt made a lasting impression on those who have seen your work firsthand. I admire your desire to showcase the connections between humans and nature, and your many years of sharing your passion for art with others.

Born in Montréal and raised in Stowe, Fry said the female body plays a central role in her art. "I revise representations of female bodies that have been controlled throughout history with visions of strength," she writes on her website. "My imagery articulates connections between the natural world and the constructed world. Over the course of a 48-year career, my art has ranged from intimate drawings to public sculptures to street performances."

Her sculptures and works on paper have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Hamburg, Germany; Berlin; Paris; Seoul, South Korea; Vienna and Montréal. Public sculptures have been commissioned in New York, South Korea, Montréal, Florida, Wisconsin and Vermont. Of her public art commissions in the Burlington area, the best known is the circle of concrete sphinxes along Shelburne Road in South Burlington near the intersection of Home Avenue.

The Walter Cerf Medal is presented to individuals whose sustained contributions to the arts have had an impact on Vermont’s cultural life. The 2023 winner, Yadin, is an award-winning filmmaker and producer of documentaries and animation films. She was executive director of the Vermont International Film Festival (VTIFF) from 2012 until June, when she stepped down to pursue other projects.

VTIFF, founded in 1985, was in danger of shutting down when Yadin became executive director, the organization has said. Under Yadin's leadership, it has increased its annual budget to about $300,000 and grown to include year-round programming, monthly screenings and three film festivals.

In 2013, Yadin started VTIFF’s Global Roots Film Festival, which features films from the origin countries of Vermont's new Americans. In 2021, Yadin initiated VTIFF’s Made Here Film Festival, the only film festival dedicated exclusively to films and filmmakers from Northern New England and Québec.

Arts in Education Award winner Sylla is a master dancer and choreographer and the artistic director of Burlington-based Jeh Kulu Dance and Drum Theater, which celebrates traditional West African music and dance. Sylla was born in Guinea, where he performed with Ballet National Djoliba and Les Ballets Africains, the country's two top national ballets. He has performed throughout West Africa, Europe and Asia.

He moved to Vermont in 1997, where he and the Jeh Kulu team have performed, taught weekly dance and drum classes, conducted artist residencies and workshops for schools and other organizations and hosted the annual Jeh Kulu Dance and Drum Festival. "Sylla teaches the complex West African dances with much creativity" creating "a memorable learning experience for students of all ages," Vermont Arts Council said.

Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts winner Perry is co-founder and executive director of the Vermont Arts Exchange (VAE) in North Bennington. Founded in 1994, VAE works to bring art education, exhibition and performance opportunities to people of all ages, abilities, and income. Its Art Bus is a traveling art studio that takes art to the people throughout Vermont.

After graduating from Swain School of Design in 1982, Perry established a graphic design and illustration studio in Weston and produced work that appeared in regional and national publications. In 1989, he created the cartoon strip “Cyrus & Ida”, which appeared weekly for 20 years in Vermont News Guide and the Manchester Journal.

A working artist, he has participated in school and community art residencies throughout the Northeast and in England working with local schools, youth who are at risk, people with dementia and veterans. He also oversees teaching artists in a variety of community and school settings.

Sollberger, winner of the Margaret L. (Peggy) Kannenstine Award for Arts Advocacy, is the senior multimedia producer at Seven Days, where she has been creating the award-winning “Stuck in Vermont” video series for 16 years. For each of her nearly 700 episodes, Sollberger interviews an individual or group of people — many of whom are part of Vermont's arts and culture scene — and then spends 30-40 hours editing footage. She works mostly alone. The series has won first place in multiple categories at annual New England Newspaper & Press Association awards.

"Sollberger has an eye for compelling visuals and an incisive knack for storytelling," Vermont Arts Council said. "'Stuck in Vermont'  is a celebration of something quirky and uniquely Vermont-y." Among artists Sollberger has featured are Alison Bechdel, Matthew Thorsen and Stephen Huneck.

Learn more at vermontartscouncil.org.