[T]he Vermont Arts Council could have celebrated its 50th anniversary by playing up its past. Instead, it’s promoting a new initiative in hopes of shaping the future.
The nonprofit, formed in 1965 as part of what’s now the National Endowment for the Arts, believes painters, poets, dancers and designers help foster the state’s wealth and well-being. That’s why it’s aiming to empower imaginative, inventive people by establishing a new Vermont Creative Network.
More than 7,000 Vermonters are employed by arts and cultural enterprises — nearly 5 percent of all Green Mountain businesses, according to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
The U.S. census reports that Vermont ranks third in the nation for artists as a percentage of the workforce, second for fine artists and writers, and eighth for musicians and photographers.
But although creative people abound — there are 33 percent more as a proportion of total Vermont employment than nationwide, statistics show — they often work more independently than collaboratively.
That’s why the Vermont Arts Council is founding the arts equivalent of Vermont agriculture’s Farm to Plate Network, to help individuals and institutions grow audiences with promotional efforts and financial support.
“This isn’t just about the arts,” says Zon Eastes, the council’s director of outreach and advancement, “but about all creativity.”
The council has spoken with two dozen “thought leaders” representing government, commerce and culture as well as 750 residents at more than a dozen community forums. It now is conducting an online survey asking questions like “When you think about the future and about a positive outcome for creativity in Vermont, what one change, in your estimation, would bring the arts, culture, and creativity success?”
The council will use the results of a survey and summit to finalize a strategic plan for the network this winter, with the assistance of Common Good Vermont, Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center, the Vermont Department of Libraries, state Agency of Commerce & Community Development’s Downtown Program and funding support from the Vermont Community Foundation.
Artists aren’t the only ones working to boost their collective business, which accounts for some $500 million in spending and pays almost $15 million in state and local taxes. The state is also supporting similar efforts in its new Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.
“The presence of a vital arts community correlates strongly with the overall strength of a region’s economic activity,” leaders at the state Department of Economic Development write in the document. “The sector produces jobs and revenue. Perhaps as importantly, art and culture help define community character and contribute to placemaking as a whole.”
Eastes is developing the Vermont Creative Network with the help of Liz Ruffa, an East Dorset consultant associated with Common Good Vermont and Northshire Grows, a food systems network serving southwestern Vermont.
“We are making great strides — well attended participation at the meetings, solid following on social media, impressive response rate to our survey,” Ruffa says. “The interest in this emerging network has been strong.”
Kevin O’Connor, a former staffer of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, is a Brattleboro-based writer. Email: kevinoconnorvt@gmail.com
