CREATIVE CUTS: There’s always a bit of drama at meetings of the Vermont Council on the Arts — its creative constituency is not the ruliest bunch. But whiners stayed away in droves from a special forum focused on federal budget cuts last Thursday in Burlington. Seems like everyone else was there, though. Come summer, Vermont will have half as much congressional cash to finance local artists and arts organizations. Virtually every artist in the state — from individuals like Hannah Dennison to organizations like First Night — will feel the pinch. So the council invited people to get involved in the “complexity of the issue.” Or to suggest how and where to make a smaller pie feed the same-sized crowd. Suggestions ranged from across-the-board cuts to a tax on popular culture and a “2 percent for the arts when you die” provision for art lovers on the way out. The panelists were as diverse as the surrounding crowd. Vermont Symphony director Tom Philion urged caution and communication. Resolution president Bill Schubart encouraged breaking boundaries between art and business — which later inspired a word of warning from Firehouse Gallery curator Wendy Oppenheimer, whose pet project may be transformed into a scoop shop. Meg Ostrum of the Vermont Folklife Center offered the most radical suggestion: scrapping the fellowship program — which doles out eight $3500 grants per year to individual artists — for commissions that would finance the creation of new work. Amazingly, no one really defended the grants to individual artists, even after artist Ken Leslie stood up to deliver a “speak now or forever hold your piece” speech. Visual artists Val Hird and Kathleen Kolb seemed more irked by a state-sponsored solicitation to design a new license plate, which the Vermont Council on the Arts said they had nothing to do with. And one woman who was clearly not hip to the agenda interrupted the proceedings to unveil her architectural rendering of the Moran Plant transformed into a state-of-the-art cultural center. Hullo? Maybe next century.
NAKED BREAKFAST: Sunday morning, fresh snow, cold wind off the lake. Most people would see it as an opportunity to catch up on sleep. But last week about 70 courageous souls hauled ass down to the waterfront and got naked — outside. “It was really, really, really quick,” Rachel Comey says of the impromptu photo shoot with celebrity photographer Spencer Tunick, who snapped a rear-view shot of the group walking south along the railroad tracks by the Dockside Cafe. Barefoot. “Everyone was freezing,” says Comey, noting people of all sorts showed up and “there were no complaints.” There was plenty of body art, though, and Tunick chose to feature the tattooed tushes front and center. Says Comey, “I think we would have gotten more people if there hadn’t been a snowstorm the night before.” The reward for this tundra torture? An autographed, limited-edition print of the event. Other examples of Tunick’s work are on exhibit at the new Maple Street gallery at Jager DiPaola Kemp Design,-appropriately titled Exquisite Corpse.
IN BRIEF: There’s no nudity in Burlington from Above — a compilation of rooftop photos featured on the seven-inch singles released by Burlington’s soon-to-be-defunct Split Records. Brad Searles got a different sort of thrill shooting the city from a helicopter. His aerial daring is evidenced in the poster to be unveiled next Monday at Burlington City Hall Auditorium. “It not only shows Burlington from a new perspective,” the press release reads, “but reflects the dramatic change in seasons over a two-year period.” Not to mention a dramatic change in the music scene — three of the 13 bands featured have pulled the plug. To that end, there will be two versions of the poster: one with band names for the music fan, and one without, for those who do not want Jesus Nut and The Fags perpetually plastered across their view of St. Paul. . . The next best thing to a real visit to Vermont? A pixelated one, from Woody Jackson. Holsteins, hay roils, mountains, barns and fields are some of the images included in his new screen-saver package for Windows. Great stocking stuffer for the computer nerd who has everything. Speaking of last-minute gifts, some eager entrepreneur has been leafleting parked cars downtown with this cheery, hand-scrawled marketing message: “Give Protection for Christmas.” The fellow — who makes no mention of his wares on the answering machine — is offering stun guns for $45 and mace for $13. Very merry.
This article appears in December 13 • 1995.
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