Vermont's Art of Action

Lyman Orton is an interesting man. As the heir to The Vermont Country Store he grew the retail and catalog business started by his father Vrest in 1946, into the 60 million dollar a year success that it is today. In addition to employing about 350 people in Vermont, he also started The Orton Family Foundation as a resource for small cities and towns “...to build vibrant and enduring communities.” A current project of the foundation, together with The Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Council on Rural Development is called The Art of Action: Shaping Vermont’s Future Through Art.

(From the RFQ) The goals for the project are to:

1. Help Vermonters comprehend what the future may bring given current forces and trajectories, and to articulate a desired vision.
2. Demonstrate how art is able to frame societal issues and engage people in dialogue and action.
3. Cause more art of this type to be created as a result of this project.
4. Create a national market for Vermont art and position the State as 'the place to be' for creative and entrepreneurial leaders.

This project is imaginative and ambitious. As an artist I find the effort to harness artistic idealism for a greater good to be refreshing and empowering. It is not all that common for artwork and artists to be taken seriously by serious people for an earnest and worthwhile cause. Referring to oneself as an artist is sometimes a risky thing to do. If someone says they are a real estate agent, or a chemical engineer people have a good idea of what they do. The title artist means different things to different people. A majority still conjure the image of the tortured soul covered in paint in the garret trying not to self mutilate their ears. For some people every artist is like their Aunt Millie making paintings of Emmett Kelly. Others only think of artists in the news that try to be as provocative as possible. Do I sound bitter? I hope not. Art is by definition all inclusive. Even so, artists can't even agree what an artist is. Some painters think all conceptual art is hooey. Some conceptual artists think painting is an anachronistic craft like a millinery or a purely decorative endeavor like flower arranging. Serious practical endeavors that purposefully reach into this thick soup of ideas don't come along all the time.

The economic, social, and environmental challenges facing Vermont today are similar to those that trouble our entire nation. These issues are magnified and more significant in Vermont due to it's rural character, rich history of independence, fierce sense of identity, and close proximity to the growing Eastern Megalopolis. Maybe because of these attributes, there are critical differences in how these challenges are being addressed nationwide and in Vermont. Vermonters are leading the way by actively working the problems with genuine Yankee innovation to forge creative practical and long lasting solutions. This project is a positive step in that direction and I would love to be a part of it. Time will tell whether the jury thinks I should be too. You can view all the entries here.