-Susan McClure, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council (VAC), is solid in her reassurances for those working in arts and culture in the state.
Joining her at a Dec. 5 webinar, Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup, executive director of the Vermont Humanities Council (VHC) also made clear that what's known for sure is the unknown, given changes on the horizon at the federal level and the priorities of the incoming Trump administration.
"Our biggest message to you is keep at it, work on your mission, and keep doing the good work that you're doing," Ilstrup said at the virtual event hosted by VHC and the Vermont Creative Network, a project of the Vermont Arts Council.
This month's transfer of power in Washington, D.C., could potentially have a big impact on cultural agencies - the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) among them - as well as on states' funding for the arts.
Thus, webinar hosts said, the state of the arts in Vermont, and across the country, warrants concern, while setting clear, budget-savvy priorities is essential.
McClure and Ilstrup held the webinar to offer Vermont arts professionals not only updates on policy priorities, but also relevant data - and a lot of cheerleading.
"The primary focus here is to build up [a] sense of optimism," Ilstrup said. "We have been in challenging places before. We will be in challenging places again. But arts and artists and humanists are important members of the community, and we want you to keep doing what you're doing."
McClure opened her plenary address with a reflection.
"I have been thinking a lot about our role as an arts and culture sector in sustaining people through change and helping our communities understand why we need to keep communicating and creating and being together - making art and understanding our past," she said. "That feels more important now than I think it ever has before."
She acknowledged that stakeholders and leaders "don't know much about what's coming, but we know that there will be change."
And that can be unsettling.
She ascribes to what's termed "sequential worrying," urging those concerned to prepare for the future, but to worry only about things that will certainly happen - and in the sequence in which they will unfold.
Uncertainty at the federal level
At the time of the webinar, the status of the federal government's fiscal year 2025 budget was uncertain. Congress eventually passed and President Joe Biden signed into law a continuing resolution to temporarily extend funding for the federal government and its programs until March 14, averting a government shutdown.
The temporary budget fix kicked the decisions down the road to the incoming Congress, which may or may not mean changes for federal funding of agencies such as the NEA, the NEH, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian, said McClure.
There's light on the murky landscape, though.
The good news is that the current continuing resolution funds the two federal endowments at the same level as in the current financial year, said Ilstrup, "which is actually quite an increase from where they were two years before that."
He credited lawmakers, including former Sen. Patrick Leahy, for the boost. Federal spending for the NEA has increased almost 28% from the 2020 budget and 15% from 2022.
Moreover, Ilstrup reported, the work on the current budget at the state level has largely maintained level funding for the VAC and VHC.
"There will be a change, of course, in the leadership of NEH and NEA," he adds: "Typically when a new administration comes in, the political appointees step down."
But such transitions can be slow. Lobbying endures in Washington regardless, though, through both Americans for the Arts and the Federation of the State Humanities Councils.
Beyond the budget, other issues on the watch list at the federal level, McClure added, include potential upcoming challenges around visas and immigration for international artists and scholars, around censorship and free speech for artists and creatives, and around ongoing perceptions and realities of elitism in the arts and cultural fields.
Tapping national conversations around those feeling left out of politics at both local and national levels, "there is a real opportunity for the arts and culture sector to help people connect with the valuable work we all do at a really grassroots community level," Ilstrup said.
What's Vermont doing?
Patti Komline, a former state representative and current manager of government and public affairs at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, took the screen to give a glimpse of the makeup of the Vermont Legislature in the 2025-26 biennium.
She first noted the historic victory that Phil Scott, "the most popular governor in the nation," had enjoyed the month before.
Sworn in for his fifth term this month, the Republican now has more power, Komline stressed, since Democrats in both the House and the Senate no longer have the two-thirds majorities needed to override a Scott veto on a party-line vote.
That said, she noted that while "a lot more Republicans are in there, Vermont Republicans have been very supportive of the arts. They do understand that the creative economy is an important economic driver. And we have had very good relationships and very good support."
Therefore, the foundation is quite solid for the advancement of the arts and culture in the state, she said.
McClure went on to reassure the 100 webinar attendees from around Vermont that the VCN is grateful for the strong bipartisan support for Vermont's arts and culture - and that the organization will continue to advance state policy priorities for what is the state's third largest economic sector.
The focus, said McClure, is on supporting state programs that benefit the creative sector, which "works at the intersection of economic development: When we strengthen Vermont's creative economy, we strengthen the overall economy."
"We're also part of workforce development. When you invest in creative sector jobs, it keeps workers in Vermont, it attracts workers to Vermont, and it's part of the bigger economic picture for our state," she said.
Moreover, she held that the creative sector is key to climate and community resilience and recovery.
While advocating to ensure that the creative sector's voice is heard at the local, state, and federal levels is an ongoing priority, new this year is a film and creative media workforce development initiative to build and sustain that cohort.
"Vermont is one of very few states across the country who don't do anything at the state level to support the film and creative media industry," said McClure. "What we are requesting is really some baseline support that'll help get the industry on its legs. We want an infrastructure for this industry" and to create a centralized database of creative media resources to make media production more accessible and sustainable "so that we know who is working in film, what the options are, where the resources are."
The aim is to make it easier for artists to film and to develop digital creative projects in the state.
Another 2025 VCN priority is improving public places through the Better Places program. Helping Vermonters create inclusive and vibrant public places, this program is partnership-funded with some funding from the state and some raised by communities themselves to enliven community spaces and boost community resilience and development.
In addition, McClure added, an increase to the Cultural Facilities Grants Program will be sought to fund cultural facilities improvements across the state, such as theaters, museums, and town-owned facilities.
"This," she explained, "is one of the very few grant programs across the state that fund actual capital projects. And these projects are often ones that increase accessibility."
Last year, she said "we expanded a new focus on being able to support some climate mitigation and green energy projects as part of the cultural facilities grants and we have had a huge increase in requests for these." Rationale for support is that such facilities are the heart of communities.
"When they go away or when the roofs leak or when they're not accessible to people, that's a huge loss for the communities," she said.
To see the arts and culture continue to thrive in the state, webinar leaders advised that audiences, advocates, and artists alike become involved in a variety of ways: protest, activism, letter-writing, creating, or otherwise reflecting one's own values vis-à-vis the arts.
They urged that those who value arts and culture should get to know their local and state elected officials, communicate with them, and urge them to attend events.
And, if called, run for office.
When asked about the future of the arts and culture locally and nationally, newly elected state Rep. Zon Eastes, D-Guilford, who is also head of VCN's Zone 6, said last week at the start of the legislative session that "we've been at this place of uncertainty many times - almost always when a Republican president is in office."
"It's true that national funding for the arts and humanities (though perhaps obvious, easy targets for a bit of budget savings) are much loved programs, and well understood by national leaders to be important community investments," he said. "And very tiny investments indeed, compared to investments made in other developed nations."
Eastes said that a sense of positivity and an understanding in the rightness of community well-being go a long way.
Noting his work as a Vermont arts advocate for the VAC in Washington, D.C., for five years, he encouraged Vermonters to "contact the offices of Sens. Sanders and Welch and Rep. Balint."
"Tell them how and why the arts and humanities are important to you and to your community," Eastes said. "They will listen."
Strong support as Legislature convenes
With the new legislative session, McClure said last week, by way of update, that "we have strong support for the arts and culture on all sides of the aisle. Vermont legislators really value the role that the creative sector plays in their communities, their schools, and the economy."
While still waiting to see what happens next with the federal budget, she added that the state's federal delegation - Sanders, Welch, and Balint - "strongly supports federal funding for the NEA, NEH, and IMLS. We are waiting to see anything that comes out of the administration's proposed budget or the budget that works its way through Congress."
As uncertain as times are, McClure is optimistic.
"As a sector, especially our sector here in Vermont, we got through Covid together, and we're going to get through whatever we need to get through together now as well," she said.
"The instinct in times of stress is to retreat to our corners, but that's not how we're going to thrive," McClure said. "We have to stick together as a sector and I know that all of us are poised to do that."
A recording of the entire Dec. 5 webinar is available at vermontartscouncil.org.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.