Pennie Beach

Pennie Beach grew up at Basin Harbor Club, a summer resort on Lake Champlain, owned and operated by her family since 1886.  She received her education at Vergennes Union High School and the University of Vermont.  After a Basin Harbor guest commented that no one’s learning was complete without working in New York City, she moved there and pursued various lines of work before returning to Basin Harbor in 1974.

She was active in sales and marketing for the resort, and then, in 1990, Pennie and her brother, Bob Beach, Jr., assumed control of the resort operations and property at Basin Harbor, where they co-manage the company.  Today this fourth generation business has a year ‘round staff of 35 and a seasonal staff of 350 who come from near and far to cater to the every need of guests.  Many guests have vacationed at Basin Harbor for generations, describing the experience as “returning home” with each visit. 

Pennie is a member of the board of directors of the Vermont  Business Roundtable,  the American Hotel and Lodging Association and Immediate Past Chair of its Resort Committee.  She is a member of the Governor’s Council on Travel and Recreation, a board member of the Vermont Hospitality Council, and also the Resort Hotel Association, an insurance captive.

Pennie is married to Peter Morris, an architect, and they have two children.  The family enjoys travel together whenever possible.  Pennie’s interests include cooking, reading, walking her dog, and collecting the work of Vermont artists.  She takes particular joy in the appreciation of her surroundings.

“Our state's natural beauty is a constant inspiration, not only for artists of all disciplines but also people like me who just like being an observer.  There are so many talented people among us.  I look forward to being on the Vermont Arts Council to help foster that home grown capability.”

David Carris lives in Marshfield and is a Senior Financial Advisor and Vice-President with a national financial services firm. His professional career has spanned the arts, community, and economic development.

In the 1980’s he worked with historic preservation organizations in Vermont, Philadelphia, and Connecticut. He returned to Vermont in the late-80’s to develop community design and planning programs as a Council staff member and also taught in UVM’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. At the VAC he founded the Vermont Design Institute, directed the initial Art in State Buildings projects, and worked to help start the Vermont Crafts Council. He has been either on the board of or employed by nonprofit community organizations since high-school. He holds a B.A. in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont.

“This is an exciting time to be a VAC Trustee. The Council is uniquely positioned to help grow the bonds between artists and the places where they live and practice, between teachers and students, between visitors and residents, and between neighbors. Arts are unmistakably economic drivers as well as a deeper ingredient in thriving communities.”

James Clubb is a partner with a large professional services firm working primarily with global wealth managers.  He grew up in rural Colorado and has since lived in three countries outside the United States (Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).   Additionally, for the past ten years he has traveled on a regular basis to over 20 countries giving him the opportunity to develop a wider appreciation of the diversity of art and artistic pursuits.   Jim's interests include both the visual and performing arts.   He also has a keen interest in architecture and historic preservation. Jim holds degrees from the University of Denver and the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London).

"I am very interested in the role of art in the community beyond the economic impact and the way it helps to define our state.   This includes the objects, designs and performances that enrich our lives on a daily basis.    It also includes the diversity of perspective that artists bring as residents of our communities."

Carlos Haase

Over the last few years, Carlos Haase has worked for various non-profits in Vermont, going from Goddard College’s Community Radio Station, Focus on Film’s Green Mountain Film Festival, the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, to most recently, the South End Arts and Business Association (SEABA), best known for organizing the South End Art Hop in Burlington.

Born in Mexico City, he came to Vermont to pursue a BA at Goddard College.  By the time he had graduated in 1999, he had deeply grown to cherish and embrace the collective Vermont culture in which social capital and quality of life take top priority.  This world view has translated into policies that support our relatively speaking, clean environment, safe communities, and of course, vibrant arts and cultural activities. 

Through his jobs as the Managing Director of the Green Mountain Film Festival, and later as SEABA’s Executive Director, Carlos has been fortunate enough to directly participate in art and economic activities lately referred as the “creative economy.”  Consequently, he has been able to learn about the successes and challenges that each of these organizations, their constituents and their host communities face when trying to implement these new models, which ultimately contribute to the bottom line of our Vermont social capital and quality of life.

"Mexico City will always hold an important place in my life.  For that reason I enjoy visiting family and traveling throughout Mexico as much as I can.   Every time I return to Vermont however, I also feel proud and lucky to live here and despite the cold winters, I remain excited about the many opportunities that we have for continuing to make of Vermont the place in which we all love to live and work."
 

Marie has spent more than 30 years developing and honing her strategic planning and business management skills for one of the world's largest corporations - IBM.  Most recently her work has focused on corporate social responsibility and philanthropy.  Marie recently completed three years of service with the board of directors of Central Vermont Adult Basic Education and currently serves on the board of the VT Association of Business, Industry & Rehabilitation.  Her committee memberships include the United Way of Chittenden County, the VT Chamber of Commerce Business EXPO Committee, and the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee.

Marie has always enjoyed the arts.  In her youth, she produced many small plays for her family and friends.  She also worked hard (she thought) at learning the piano and the saxophone, participated in both band and orchestra, but was unable to earn a spot with a local teen rock and roll band.  Throughout her school days, Marie was very active in theatre arts, mostly as an actor.  Today, her interest in and enjoyment of the dramatic arts continues, primarily as a member of the audience.

"Along with working to help the Vermont Arts Council in any way that I can, I am particularly interested in arts education, making the arts more accessible in all ways, and the impact the arts have on Vermont's economy."

Stephanie Jerome

Stephanie is the co-owner of the Visual Learning Company with her Husband Brian Jerome.  Visual Learning Company is the producers and distributors of science programming for students in grades 3-14.  Visual Learning is unique in that it is a total production company: writing scripts, filming original footage, producing animations, employing its own salesforce and shipping its products – all from its Vermont headquarters.  It employs a staff of nine talented people to accomplish the tasks at hand.  The company has specialized in the production of high-quality, core-curricular, and visually appealing science videos since it first production in 2000.  Each video is accomplished by an extensive teacher’s guide, which saves the classroom teacher countless hours of prep time by providing assessments, lab activities and cross-curricular activities.  The programs are sold throughout the United States to individual schools, media centers, educational consortia, television stations, and to state departments of education.  In addition, there is a growing interest in Visual Learning’s core-curricular programs in Europe, Latin America and Asia. 
   
The visual Learning Company is proud of its ability to stay at the forefront of educational visual media.  Its first productions were in VHS and then progressed to DVD, and all broadcast formats.  Now, all productions are available in H.264 and WMV, and in formats compatible with viewing on iPods and other hand-helds.  In addition, middle schools videos are available in Spanish language narration, and all programs are closed captions or subtitled for the deaf and hard of hearing.  All teacher’s guides are available in .pdf, as well as hard copy.  The website www.visuallearningco.com details the earth, life, physical science, health, biology and integrated science programs that have been produced, as well as provides clips of the videos, sample teacher’s guides and journal reviews. 

Stephanie lives and works in Brandon, Vermont a small town of 4,000 people nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains.  Here, she and her husband, Brian Jerome, have raised their children, ages 15, 13, and 10.  Their science programs are used in the local elementary, middle and high school, which their children attend.  They are incredibly busy keeping up with their children’s academic, musical and sports activities.  In addition, they are active in the local Nordic ski community and teach 40 children to cross-country ski each Saturday, having started the local Bill Koch league three years ago.  Each summer, they take an extensive filming trip with their children, and also travel and film throughout the year.
   
In Brandon, Stephanie and Brian have totally renovated an 11,000 square foot “Granary” into 14 working artist studio spaces.  This circa 1900 building had been used as a grain mill, long underwear factory, and woodworking manufacturer during its long life.  This ongoing renovation currently house the Brandon Arts Guild’s off-site salon space, as well as jewelers, weavers, painters, sculptors, photographers, fabric artists, and poets.  “The Granary” has become a hub of the local arts community.   

Statement: "I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve on the board of the Vermont Arts Council.  As an active member of the Brandon business, arts and education community, it would be my pleasure to serve on a boader statewide level.  Over the past ten years, I have witnessed the economic benefits. civic pride and townwide enthusiasm that the arts can bring to a small rural community."

Margaret Lampe Kannenstine is an artist whose landscapes and paintings of performing musicians are centered on the expressive use of color. Her paintings and works on paper have been shown extensively for decades, and are held in the permanent collections of museums, hospitals, academic institutions and corporate collections, as well as numerous private collections.

Margaret (Peggy) is a former Secretary of the Board of Directors of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Peggy served at the White House Mini-Conference on Aging. In 2004 she co-Chaired the Arts Council 40th Anniversary celebrations, and rejoined the Vermont Arts Council Board of Trustees. In 2007, Peggy was called to Washington DC to serve on the NEA conference on the "Museum and Artist Partnership Act," which is a piece of legislation proposed by Sen. Leahy.  Peggy also served on the Vermont Council on Culture and Innovation (VCCI) which studied policy issues of the Creative Economy for our state. She is a past Board member of New England Foundation for the Arts, and was twice President of her local arts council, Pentangle. Peggy also served as Chair of the Board of Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, and is now on the founding Board of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Jct. VT.

Margaret Lawrence is Director of Programming at the Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, one of the original prototypes of campus-based performing arts centers in North America. There, she curates a program of over 50 annual visiting artist events, including the commissioning of new works and approximately 500 arts education activities each year. She is a board member of the national Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), and has served on panels for the Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Vermont arts commissions. Former hub-site advisor for the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, she has represented New England in Australia, Japan, Cambodia, China, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia; and has taught professional workshops in Russia and throughout the United States.

Lawrence's double BA is from the University of California, Berkeley in Anthropology and Humanities. She has worked in presenting, education, and marketing for the Hult Center (Eugene, OR), Life on the Water (San Francisco), and the Marlboro Music Festival (VT). She is currently co-producing the first North American tour of multiple ethnic minority performers from Yunnan, China, and leads a series of arts management workshops in Central Asia in May 2005.

Rob ran off to join the circus in 1969. He clowned with various national European circuses, including England's Circus Hoffman, Sweden's Cirkus Scott, Denmark's Circus Benneweis by the Tivoli, the Hungarian Magyar State Cirkusz, and prestigious circus buildings throughout Scandinavia and the former Soviet Union. Formal training includes mime with masters Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux, and a degree in Drama and Literature from Lake Forest College.

Rob has acted and written for TV and film in Scandinavia, and is a producer, director and creative consultant for international theater, film, and circus companies. In a forty-year career, Rob has been a Visiting Artist and lecturer in universities worldwide, and a performer in theaters from the Kennedy Center to the Moscow Circus. He is former President of Blackfriars Summer Theater, and Dean of Clown College for Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus.  Rob is Founder and Director Emeritus of the award-winning international touring company Circus Smirkus (www.smirkus.org)

Rob’s awards include Russia’s Best Director Prize at The International Festival on the Black Sea, It Takes A Village Award, the Vermont Arts Council Award of Merit, and the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

"When I came to Vermont in the late 70's there was no circus in sight. Where else could a quiet clown with a crazy dream like Circus Smirkus have found the local support to begin a new adventure in the arts? I am hoping to work with the VAC Board to assist other artists with dreams to flourish within the state."

 Barbara Morrow has had a rich, lesson-filled career as an administrator in many kinds of nonprofits, including hospitals, higher education, and economic development. She is a former commissioner with the Vermont Commission on Women, an organization she continues to champion. Barbara is currently the development officer for Sterling College, where her values for environmental stewardship, education, and philanthropy converge nicely. While not an artist (although she comes from a long-line of writers and can spew out a few cogent sentences herself sometimes), she understands the power of the arts for Vermont’s economy, families and individuals, and disenfranchised populations. Barbara has a Master’s degree in Education, and has taken a turn or two at teaching on the college level in addition to having a small consulting practice, Equilibrium.

“Beyond their intrinsic value, I respect the arts for the voices they strengthen and the transformation they inspire. (I adore “outsider” art!) A life or a healthy society is not possible without them. From a practical perspective, participation in the arts challenges and sharpens so many parts of our brain, our thinking ability. They are essential to us as fully functioning humans dealing with complex social, economic, scientific and interpersonal issues.”
 

Gayle Ottmann is a Vermonter, born in the Northeast Kingdom.  After high school, she attended Boston University and Hesser Business College. She has been Executive Director of the Quechee Chamber of Commerce for 19 years; completing 11 years on the Hartford Board of Selectmen; served five years on the Hartford Zoning Board as Chair; Hartford Development Corporation Board, CCV Citizens Advisory Board.  She also serves on the Upper Valley Food & Farm Steering and Outreach Committee, the Connecticut Rivers Joint Commission as a Vermont Commissioner and Connecticut River Scenic Byway Steering and Marketing  Committees, and sits on the newly-organized Upper Valley Regional VSO Advisory Board. She also sits on the Steering Committee of the Upper Valley Arts Alliance (an organization that came out of the Creative Economy Initiative

She is a 2000 graduate of the Snelling Leadership Institute; I received the Vermont Travel Person of the Year Award in 2005 as well as the Rotary Club’s Citizen of the Year Award in 2006 and 2008.

She likes to spend her “down time” in the garden, entertaining, being a grandmother, reading, golfing, walking, enjoying performing arts and all forms of music.

“The most exciting economic development to come to Vermont in many years is the creative economy initiative.  Its diversity covers the widest range of entrepreneurship and is bringing, for the first, an awareness to the general public of the value of Art in all its forms.  Vermont is the perfect setting for the Artist – whether on its mountain tops or valleys, its small villages or urban communities, its farms or historic sites, its galleries or its classrooms.  Art creates a sense of place for this generation and those to come.”

GERALD W. "GARY" REIS of St. Johnsbury, Caledonia County, Republican, born in Brooklyn, NY, on October 4, 1935 moved to St. Johnsbury in 1976 to work for EHV-Weidmann Industries In 1999, he became Director of the local Welfare-to- Work program. Retired since 2003, Gary received his education in the New York area and his B.S.in Industrial Management from Adelphi University on Long Island in 1964. He has two sons; a daughter, five grandchildren and a Black Lab. Gary’s past and present memberships have included St. Johnsbury Select board (vice chairman) and Planning Commission, St. Johnsbury Kiwanis Club (past President) Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce ( past President), Northeast Kingdom Youth Services (past President) Lyndon State College Foundation (past Treasurer), Town, County, and State Republican Committees and the St. Johnsbury Development Fund. Religious preference: Catholic. Member of the House: 2009-2010. Home phone: 748 8132, E-mail: greis2kingcon.com. Post Office Address: 1640B Main Street, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819-1851.

"God is a showoff! First He creats all this beauty around us, then He endows people with special talents to interpret His beauty. It will be a privelege to do whatever I can to help the Vermont Arts Council make all forms of the arts available to all Vermonters, and to promote the creative economy."

Gerianne Smart is owner/president of Smart Communication, Inc. which is an advertising sales and marketing firm located in the greater Vergennes Area. Her main client is Vermont Life magazine where she serves as the publication's director of advertising. Her firm also represents Middlebury College's alumni magazine and they also provide marketing, PR and advertising services to a variety of clients throughout Vermont. Gerianne was the President of the Vergennes Opera House during the theater's most intensive restoration phase (1994 through 2000) and is pleased that today the theaters has an executive director and plays host to a myriad of performances both local and national as well as serve as a venue for weddings and special occasions. Gerianne is also producing a full length feature film, "The Summer of Walter Hacks" with George Woodard of Waterbury (the film's director). The duo plan to release the film to the film festival circuit this summer.

"I believe the arts, in all its forms, touches people's lives in a non discriminating way and in a way that can resonate for a lifetime. I am delighted to be part of an organization that supports and nurtures the arts and encourages creativity to be a part of our every day lives. In Vermont, true wealth lives in the heart of the artist."

Steve Swayne teaches courses in art music from 1700 to the present day, opera, American musical theater, Russian music, and American music. He has received fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His articles have appeared in The Sondheim Review, the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, American Music, Studies in Musical Theatre, the Indiana Theory Review, and The Musical Quarterly. He has contributed to commentaries on Sondheim developed by the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., and the Chicago Lyric Opera. His first book, How Sondheim Found His Sound, was published in 2005, and he is currently at work on a study of the life, times, and music of William Schuman. He is an accomplished concert pianist, with four nationally distributed recordings currently in release and a performance with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas to his credit. In addition to his work at Dartmouth, he has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at UC Berkeley.

"My days as a composer and concert pianist appear to be mostly in the past, but I remain keenly interested in the roles that performing artists play in the life of their communities. I look forward in expressing that interest as I serve on the Vermont Arts Council."

The arts have been a core component of Caro Thompson’s life since childhood. Taking piano lessons, singing in school and church choirs, acting in high school plays and studying dance in college established her lifelong joy in the performing arts.  In college, she studied voice at the Eastman School of Music for 2 years, while taking extensive dance classes with the Garth Fagan Dance Company. Her degree in Art History from the University of Rochester, New York, added a deep respect and appreciation for the visual arts. Special studies in dance film and video there led to her career in communications.

Caro’s media career began in New York City while studying with the Jose Limon Dance Company. She worked as production assistant and videographer for a company that documents live dance performances. She went on to direct the video documentation project at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Massachusetts. As a videographer/editor at the ABC affiliate in Albany, New York, broadcast television finally provided ongoing year-round employment.
She moved to Vermont in 1988. A position at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury as marketing assistant and production coordinator for their live performance schedule provided her with a memorable first experience with the extraordinary local arts scene in her adopted state. While there, she also produced “High Water: Behind the Scenes,” a video documentary about Jay Craven’s first narrative film based on a Howard Frank Mosher story.

Since 1994, Caro has been capturing the spirit, history and rural activities of Vermont and New England as an independent producer and filmmaker through her company, Broadwing Productions. Her programs have been broadcast on Vermont Public Television.  Documentaries In Days Gone By and Barns: Legacy of Wood & Stone received Boston/New England Emmy nominations.  Other programs include New England’s Great River: Discovering the Connecticut, Noble Hearts: Civil War Vermont, the Rural Free Delivery series and Connecting Vermont: Digital Communication. Her most recent documentary, Champlain: The Lake Between, garnered a Boston/New England Emmy award for historical/cultural documentary. In 2009, the Vermont Historical Society, honored her with its Richard O. Hathaway Award for research on Vermont.

Currently exploring a new integration of her media, outreach and writing experience, Caro works as the admissions communications manager for the national headquarters of the Student Conservation Association in North Charlestown, New Hampshire. She continues to live in the Northeast Kingdom and complete video projects in her “spare” time.

"Art is a tricky word. It encompasses eternal works that inspire awe, hang in museums and are heard and seen in special spaces, where one sits quietly to take in magnificent performances.  But art must also embrace a second-grader’s drawings pinned to the refrigerator, and new visions, which may only be seen by a few in out-of-the-way galleries.  In my perfect world, everyone would be encouraged to sing, dance, draw, and write without judgment. People would participate in art on a regular basis… not just look at it or listen to it.  Art and life would be intertwined, bringing joy and satisfaction and contemplation into living rooms large and small.  With this broad foundation of shared experience, individuals who choose the rocky path of Art as a way of making a living would find the support they need abundantly near at hand."

Paul Ugalde is the Director of Development for Population Media Center based in Shelburne. PMC is an international NGO specializing in the use of serial dramas (yes, soap operas) on radio and television in developing nations around the globe. Armed with a passport and various visas, Paul pursues funding from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Bamako, Mali to San Francisco and Seattle on behalf of PMC's projects. Our concerns are with the rapid growth of the human population and its effect on the environment. Paul's career path has included the commercial broadcast industry (WCAX-TV, WEZF radio) and non-profit fundraising (Vermont Public Television, Burlington City Arts). He is a graduate of the University of Vermont. As an actor, he has appeared with Vermont Stage Company, Lyric Theatre Company and other troupes. Paul is trained in the techniques of stage combat and has staged numerous scenes of mayhem and destruction for many Vermont theatre companies, especially Lost Nation Theater. When not wielding a rapier and dagger, he attempts to play classical guitar.

"I am an active participant in the arts in Vermont and have been an ardent and long-term supporter. Any activity that unlocks imagination and creativity benefits us all in very tangible ways. I believe in the power of Vermont's creative sector to enrich lives, broaden understanding and fuel our economy. Each individual, each state and each nation flourishes when it has a vibrant soul. That is the nature and gift of the arts."

For the past 20 years, Greg has provided a place for hundreds of craftspeople and artists to show and sell their works. He and his wife, Susan, own and operate Vermont Artisan Designs & Gallery 2 on Brattleboro’s Main Street. Additionally, Greg has been active in community affairs. He recently stepped down from the Brattleboro Selectboard after serving for 12 years, two as chair.

Greg was a founding member of Brattleboro’s Gallery Walk, a monthly celebration of the arts which has grown to include more than 50 venues that feature art-related openings around town on the first Friday of each month. He also helped found Building a Better Brattleboro and the Creative Communities Council of Windham County, organizations that have helped stimulate the town’s economic and aesthetic activities. He has been an active member of the Vermont Crafts Council, the Vermont State Craft Center Overview Commission and CRAFT (Craft Retailers Association for Tomorrow), organizations promoting American-made craft and artistry.

Before owning Vermont Artisan Designs & Gallery 2, Greg worked as reporter, photographer and assistant managing editor of the Brattleboro Reformer. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, the Defense Information School and the University of Vermont’s Snelling Leadership Institute. He enjoys photography, reading, motorcycling and finding art.

“Throughout my years in our state, it is increasingly apparent that Vermont has a special attraction for artists and thinkers. To be part of a Vermont Arts Council which brings these people together with those who appreciate their talents would be my goal."