A circus instructor, an internationally acclaimed photographer, and a family of artists, educators and healing arts practitioners are among this year’s recipients of the Governor’s Arts Awards, announced on Monday by the Vermont Arts Council.
Dona Ann McAdams of Sandgate, the 2025 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, has been shooting photos for more than a half-century, with her work having been exhibited in such places as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and La Primavera Fotographica in Barcelona, Spain. Since 1983, the award-winning photographer has been bringing cameras and photography equipment into small, underserved communities, setting up community darkrooms, and teaching people how to shoot, process and develop their own film to document their own lives. McAdams has worked in homeless shelters, adult homes for people with mental illness, small mountain communities in Appalachia and dairy farms throughout New England.
Sue Higby is the recipient of the 2025 Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts. A tireless community leader, she has been executive director of Studio Place Arts in Barre for more than two decades. Beginning as a volunteer in the 1990s, she rose through the ranks until taking the helm at the nonprofit art center in 2003. Higby now organizes more than 24 exhibitions annually, oversees art classes for students of all ages, and manages the 14 artist studios in the 1885 building that SPA owns and operates.
Troy Wunderle of Chester, this year’s recipient of the Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Award in Arts Education, has spent nearly three decades teaching circus arts to more than 115,000 students. A former director of clowning for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for six years, Wunderle spent 26 years as director of Vermont’s Circus Smirkus. Since 2007, he’s been captivating audiences through Wunderle’s Big Top Adventures. He has been featured on the Disney Channel, “The Today Show,” “Fox and Friends,” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
Zon Eastes, a longtime Guilford resident, selectboard member and state representative, was chosen as this year’s recipient of the Margaret L. (Peggy) Kannenstine Award for Arts Advocacy. For nearly 20 years, he worked as a cellist and conductor, teaching and coaching at the Brattleboro Music Center and at Amherst, Dartmouth and Keene State colleges. Eastes served for six years as director of outreach and advancement for the Vermont Arts Council. He served on the boards of two national creative-sector service organizations and was a leader in the development of the Vermont Creative Network.
With work that is deeply rooted in their cultural and spiritual lineages, Will Kasso Condry, Jennifer Herrera Condry and Alexa Herrera Condry — known collectively as Juniper Creative in Brandon — draw inspiration from hip-hop culture, the mystical and the natural world. As the 2025 recipients of the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts, Juniper Creative makes art that “honors and celebrates the lives and stories of the African Diaspora.” Through camps, workshops, speaking engagements and public murals — more than 40 of which decorate public schools and buildings throughout the state — the Condry family focus on what they call “creative placemaking” to foster community building and a sense of belonging. This is the second major Vermont arts award in as many months for Will Kasso Condry, who won the Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts in June.
Since 1967, the Vermont Arts Council and the governor’s office have recognized outstanding individuals and organizations for their contributions to the arts in Vermont. The 2025 Governor’s Arts Awards celebration will take place on Wednesday, September 17, at 5:30 p.m. at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester. Click here for tickets.
Related Stories
From Toy Cars to PEZ Dispensers to Oil Lanterns, Vermonters Love Their Unusual Collections
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
