Mission Statement

“To strengthen the environment for artists and arts organizations in Windham County”

1. History and Mission

ACWC was founded as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization in 1975 by representatives of the major arts organizations in the county for the purpose of

“making the arts accessible and familiar to all the residents of Windham County; to offer professional support to all community arts groups and individual artists; to initiate innovative programs; and to work in partnership with the Vermont Council of the Arts (now the Vermont Arts Council) in making its programs readily available to Southern Vermonters.”

The Arts Council exists to promote the arts as a vital part of the life and economy of the Windham County area.  We are concerned with all the arts – visual, literary, and performing (music, theater, dance).

The Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts funded programs in the early years of the Arts Council. Funds from foundation grants, donations and membership contributions from individuals and families have enabled the Arts Council to offer a number of important and valuable services and programs. Through the years, the Arts Council has:

• Acted as a county-wide clearing house and information center for arts organizations and members of the community; for eight years published and distributed the Lively Arts Calendar, a monthly comprehensive listing of arts and cultural events in Windham County; offered a referral service for artists seeking exhibition, commission, education and funding information; and for visitors, clients, and collectors seeking art.
• Administered and coordinated the Vermont Arts Council Artists in Residence Program, a program providing experience in the arts for students in county schools with working professional artists, until the late 1980’s.
• Since 1981, planned and administered Student Art Month, an annual month-long tribute to the creativity and talent of young students. Each year local businesses, libraries, and stores throughout Windham County display the work of students from public and private schools; secondary-school students are given a professional quality show at the Windham Art Gallery or other venues. In 1999, the high school show toured to four locations in the county during March and April. For many years Student Art Month included Student Art Night, which gave young people an opportunity to perform for their community in a program produced and directed by professional artists in collaboration with music educators.
• Earlier activities of the Council have included Community Outreach Program with speaker service, films, video tapes and slide presentations; a weekly 45-minute radio program, Art Scene; a high school Arts Internship Program; In-service Teacher Training; topical seminars, workshops and public information meetings; publication of a Directory of Windham County Artists and Arts Organizations; and publication of On Location, a booklet listing and describing cultural facilities and resources in the towns and villages of Windham County.

2. A New Era: ACWC established a gallery for local artists

Since ACWC’s founding in the mid-1970s, the number of visual artists living and working in southern Vermont has dramatically increased. No permanent facility existed in the Brattleboro area where local visual artists could exhibit their work on a year-round basis and under their own management.

ACWC decided to close this gap. A questionnaire invited comments from individual artists. Did they want a gallery in Brattleboro? Would they join as active members? Were they prepared to help with the everyday tasks of operating a gallery?

The response was overwhelmingly positive. In April of 1989, 41 artists joined a core group to establish and organize the Windham Art Gallery. ACWC rented and helped renovate gallery space at Flat Street in downtown Brattleboro. The gallery opened to an enthusiastic reception in September 1989.

With the implementation of its Windham Art Gallery program, ACWC took an important step in a new direction. Compared to previous service-oriented programs, the gallery represented a program of a very tangible nature. The Council/Gallery budget increased significantly. The demands on staff and volunteers working to administer, fund, and promote, became heavier and decidedly different in many respects.

From the start, the Windham Art Gallery (WAG) was a successful program. The community welcomed the gallery with open arms. A few months after it opened, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center president heartily endorsed our work in an article for the paper as follows:

“The Windham Art Gallery has already become a lively center for the arts and for artists, further enriching our sense of community, as well as responding to the needs of artists in the area.”

Within a year, the Gallery moved to 69 Main St., a more commodious space, with potential for additional activities, and closer to the center of downtown Brattleboro. It remained an active and vital space until the spring of 2009 when a number of issues culminated in the closure of the gallery. It had a wonderful run of 20 years!

WAG emphasized the visual arts. The Gallery was also a venue for performing and literary events sponsored by the Arts Council. The Gallery was the venue of the Arts Council’s secondary schools’ show during Student Art Month and annually sponsored occasional non-member shows such as a pastel and small works show juried by painter Wolf Kahn and a bold and well-received show organized by HeartWork on sexual abuse and intimate violence. Theme exhibits – Artists Respond to Censorship and Women and AIDS, for instance – as well as large and small group shows of artists working in similar veins or media or genres addressed the aesthetic needs of a large and growing regional audience. The Gallery was an artist-run cooperative guided by a steering committee made up of elected representatives from the artists members. Active artist memberships ranged from 40 to 60.

Openings of the monthly exhibits drew overflow crowds. Sales exceeded expectations for much of the Gallery’s life, and Gallery artist-members enjoyed the personal and professional support that peer review and interchange offered. Many devoted volunteers – artists and members of ACWC – gave enthusiastically and generously of their time, money and energy  to build and maintain the Gallery.

Although it was a sad day for the Arts Council when WAG members voted to close the Gallery, it was also a time to reflect on 20 exceptional years of arts activity in Brattleboro. Additionally, some of the artists who were members of the Gallery continue to meet and show their works in a variety of other venues that have opened in and around Brattleboro.

3. Community Access

It is clear from both our membership and the non-member public that maintaining a flow of reliable information about the region’s cultural activities is an obligation of the Arts Council of Windham County. We have a 25-year history of doing so, and other organizations look to us for this service.

The ACWC plans to continue to organize and oversee the annual Student Art Month in collaboration with area professional artists and art teachers.

Development of a website to inform the public and artists of activities and opportunities is under way.

Other ongoing activities of the ACWC include:

Organization and support of programs like the Artist Town Meeting;

Consultation with the Town Manager and Selectboard in fostering the development and activation of a Town Arts Committee; and

Coordination with the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce, Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. and Building a Better Brattleboro in helping them recognize the importance and benefit of art to the business community.

4. Professional Support

The other side of the cultural coin is the fostering and encouragement of artists to make art. Without sufficient time, facilities and financial support, artists have to contend with mundane distractions as well as the problems inherent in making art itself. As the local arts agency, ACWC can channel information and resources to artists and arts organizations ready to make use of them.