Eric Bass

Eric Bass has worked in the theater for thirty years as a director, playwright, performer and mask and puppet maker. He was a member of Jean Erdman’s Theater of the Open Eye in New York City for five years, until he left in 1980 to create his first solo performance using puppets, Autumn Portraits, which was awarded a Diploma of Excellence in Pecs, Hungary and the First Prize Critics Award for Best Production at the International Puppetry Festival in Adelaide, Australia.

In 1982, Mr. Bass founded the Sandglass Theater in Munich, Germany, with his wife, Ines Zeller Bass. Mr. Bass conceived, designed and performed in all three of the Sandglass Heaven Trilogy productions: Sand, Invitations to Heaven and The Village Child, each of which earned a Citation of Excellence from the International Union of Puppeteers. As a director, Mr. Bass has worked in America, Australia, Poland, and Finland, as well as the United States. His staging of Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle was produced at the Helsinki City Theater, Canada’s Caravan Farm Theater and by Sandglass Theater for the Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater in September 1996. His children’s play, In My Grandmother’s Purse, has been produced by theaters in the United States, Finland and Poland. In 1991, Mr. Bass was awarded the Figurentheater Prize of the City of Erlangen, Germany for his contributions to the field of puppet theater. In July 1997, Mr. Bass directed and performed in Never Been Anywhere, hailed by American Theatre as “one of the most definitively ‘American’ puppet shows”, filled with “characters that bite.” Never Been Anywhere was performed at the Henson Festival in New York in the Fall of ‘98 where it received an UNIMA Citation of Excellence. Mr. Bass conceived and performed in Sandglass’ adult production, One-Way Street, based on the life and work of Walter Benjamin.

He is currently directing and performing with comedian Bob Berky in a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III entitled Richard 3.5:Light Ruminations on Murder. He directs, Between Sand and Stars, a collaboration between Sandglass Theater, Gemini Trapeze, and Rob Mermin of Circus Smirkus, which toured in Norway in 2005 and in France, Switzerland and Spain in 2006. He directed, The Story of the Dog, a collaborative piece between Sandglass Theater and Sovanna Phum Theater in Phnom Penh, Cambodia which toured Cambodian in 2005 and premiered in the US in the Fall 2006 at the Sandglass Puppet Festival, Puppets in the Green Mountains. He performed in Sandglass' latest production Bad Weather Ballads which opened at the PGM Festival in 2008. He teaches on a regular basis at the Turku Arts Academy in Finland, and currently directs an intensive puppet theater training institute with the rest of the Sandglass company for three weeks during the summer at The University of Connecticut.

Ines Zeller Bass

Ines Zeller Bass is a puppet designer, performer, director and playwright. She has been performing with puppets since 1968, when she became a member of the Munich marionette theater, Kleines Spiel, where she worked for ten years. In 1978 she created her children’s hand puppet theater, Punschi, which has toured in Europe and America. Her work with Sandglass Theater has included fullstage children’s productions, The Box Show, Dwarf Longnose, and Isidor’s Cheek, which earned a Citation of Excellence from UNIMA-USA in 1999. The Box Show was by the Lincoln Center Institute, as well as Arts-In-Education Institutes in Buffalo, Rochester and Utica, New York. It has toured Germany, Finland, Japan, France and Spain. Ms. Bass has also collaborated on many adult pieces including Sand, The Village Child, and Never Been Anywhere.

Mrs. Bass was also the assistant director and co-producer of Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, performed at the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater in New York City in September ‘96. Mrs. Bass performed in Never Been Anywhere (presented at the Henson Festival ‘98) and is performing in her new adult show entitled The Pig Act as well as One Way Street. She has recently co-created a new family piece called The Ark in the Tree, which premiered at Sandglass in April, 2004.

She designed and built puppets for Sandglass’ recent production Richard 3.5: Light Ruminations on Murder. For the last three years she has been designing puppets for and performing with Sandglass on one of its most ambitious pieces, The Story of the Dog, a collaboration with Sovanna Phum Theater in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which toured Cambodia in Fall 2005 and opened in the US in the Fall of 2006 at the Sandglass Puppet Festival, Puppets in the Green Mountains before touring throughout New England.

For the last five years she has taught an intensive puppetry training program with Sandglass Company currently at The University of Connecticut, Storrs. Mrs. Bass also teaches residencies in puppetry in Vermont schools and has given professional training workshops in Japan. She is currently performing a new Sandglass Production, Ballad.

Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts

Recipients of this award:

• Currently reside in Vermont.
• Have made a significant and sustained contribution to the advancement of an art form.
• Are recognized for his/her contribution in an international, national or regional area.
• Demonstrate a personal commitment to the development of cultural life in Vermont.
• Demonstrate exemplary standards of professional integrity.

Past Recipients

2008 Rob Mermin, Circus Smirkus Founder
2007 Ed Koren, Illustrator
2006 Jaime Laredo, Musician
2005 Howard Frank Mosher, Author
2004 Jane Beck, VT Folklike Center
2003 Frank Gaylord, Sculptor
2002 Robert DeCormier, Conductor/Arranger/Composer
2001 Katherine Paterson, Writer
2000 Ernest Kinoy, Screenwriter
1999 Sabra Field, Printmaker
1998 Jay Craven, Filmmaker
1997 Karen Karnes, Potter
1996 Michael Singer, Landscape Architect
1995 Pat Adams, Painter
1994 Steve Paxton, Dancer/Choreographer
1993 Grace Paley, Writer
1992 Louis Calabro, Musician/Conductor
1991 Daniel Urban Kiley, Landscape Architect
1989 Efrain Guigui, Conductor
1988 David Mamet, Writer
1986 Ralph Steiner, Photographer/Cinematographer
1985 Elsa Hilger, Musician, Cello
1984 Marcel Moyse, Composer/Musician
1983 George Tooker, Painter
1982 Julius Held, Meyer Schapiro and John Kouwenhoven, Art Historians and Writers
1979 Bernard Malamud, Writer
1978 Peter Schumann, Actor/Founder of Bread & Puppet Theatre
1977 Blanche Honegger Moyse, Conductor/ Co-founder of Brattleboro Music Center
1975 Ivan Albright, Painter
1974 Clara Sipprell, Photographer
1973 Hayden Carruth, Poet
1972 Alan Carter, Conductor/Founder of VSO
1971 Walter Piston, Composer
1970 Aileen Osborn Webb, Crafts Administrator
1969 Luigi Lucioni, Painter
1968 Carl Ruggles, Composer
1967 Rudolf Serkin, Musician

Walter Cerf Award for Lifetime Achievment in the Arts

The Walter Cerf award is presented to an individual who:

• Has made a sustained contribution to the arts and has had an impact on Vermont?s cultural life
• The Cerf awards have been named in honor of the late philanthropist Walter Cerf.  Walter Cerf's generous gifts, exceeding $5 million, have benefited numerous Vermont institutions including the Arts Council.  Mr. Cerf was instrumental in establishing the Arts Endowment at the Vermont Community Foundation, and his contributions have created a $1 million fund to assist Vermont's artists and arts organizations.

Past Recipients

2009
John Nassivera, Playwright

2007
Charles Ginnever, Sculptor

2006
Lucien Day, Painter

2005
Pauline Billings,VAC Founding Chair

2004
Tasha Tudor. Illustrator/Author

2003
Malcolm Wright, Ceramicist/Sculptor
and Louis Moyse, Musician/Teacher

2002
David Budbill, Poet/Playwright
Sam Lloyd, Actor
Margaret MacArthur, Musician/Musicologist

2001
Sterling Weed, Musician/Orchestra Leader/Teacher

2000
Mary Azarian, Painter/Printmaker
Gwyneth Walker, Composer

1999
Luis Batlle, Musician
Peter Saxe Jennison, Writer and Publisher
Claire Van Vliet, Visual Artist

1998
Wolf Kahn, Painter
Melvin Kaplan, Musician

1996
David Wells, Cellist
Freda Rosenblatt, Pianist

1995
Vivian Fine, Composer
Ruth Stone, Poet
Arthur Williams, Arts Administrator

1994
Helen Rogers, Dancer/Choreographer
Donald and Joanne Rathgeb, Theater
Florence Cushman, Pianist

1993
Paul Aschenbach, Sculptor
June Gorton, Dancer
James Hayford, Poet

1992
Judith Brown, Sculptor
Frank Hewitt, Painter
Ron Slayton, Painter

Citations of Merit & Business Awards

This award is presented in recognition of the recipient’s enthusiastic leadership in support of art and culture in Vermont.  The awardee:

• Has a business that makes a significant contribution to the cultural life of the state or region
• Forms a partnership with the arts in their community
• Has a vision for the arts as an integral part of the workplace environment

Citation of Merit awards are presented in recognition of the recipient’s meritorious service to the arts in Vermont.

Past Recipients

2009
Mark Vogelzang, VPR
Jane Lendway, Division for Historic Preservation
Troy Peters, Vermont Youth Orchestra

2008
Sabrina Brown, Pentangle Council on the Arts
Paul Costello, Vermont Council on Rural Development
Mary Prior, Community Advocate, Danville Transportation Project

2007
Tom Slayton, Editor Emeritus, Vermont Life Magazine

2006
Mike Rainville, Maple Landmark
Dan Davis, Vermont Plywood

2005
Ric Campman, Artist

2004
B. Amore, Sculptor/Founder of the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center
Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass, Founders of Sandglass Theater
Rob Mermin, Founder of Circus Smirkus
David Gunn, Composer
Ed and Barbara Morrow, Northshire Bookstore
Walter Parker

2003
Bernier Mayo, St. Johnsbury Academy
Steve Klimowski, VT Contemporary Music Ensemble
Key Bank

2002
Peggy Kannenstine, Artist/Arts Advocate
Victor Swenson, VT Council on the Humanities
Vicky Young, Crossroads Arts Council
Robert McBride, RAMP (Rockingham Arts Museum Project)
Barre Opera House
Frog Hollow Craft Center
Okemo Mountain Resort

2001
Vermont Music Educators Association
Vermont Art Teachers Association
Vermont Alliance for Arts Education
Vermont Drama Council
Vermont Museum & Gallery Alliance
Governor's Institute on the Arts
Sweet Tomatoes Trattoria Restaurants

2000
Sara Doncaster, Musician, Founder/Director of Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival
Christine Hadsel, First and long-time Director of Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance
Harriet Worrell, Director of Yoh Theatre Players of Woodstock High School
Bell Atlantic

1999
Karen Hess, Writer
Donny Osman, Theater Artist and Director of the Governor's Institute of the Arts
Shelburne Farms, Shelburne
IDX Systems Corporation, South Burlington

1998
Kate Pond
Verandah Porche
Vermont Public Radio
Lynne DeBeer
Community National Bank, Derby

1996
Ludy Biddle
Susan Farrow
Martha Fitch
Nicholas Hecht
Vermont National Bank

1995
City of Barre
Hannah Dennison
Donna Borofsky
Andrew Cohen
Larry Gordon
Paul Frank & Collins, Inc.

1994
Ron Wild
River City Arts
Vermont Folklife Center
David "Crow" Levine
Minzter Brothers

1993
Jean Sousa
Janet Ressler
Jim Ross
Renee Wells
George Becker
Martha Pellerin Drury
Skip Farrell, Pepsi-Cola Bottling of Burlington

1992
Jeanne Brink
Anne Taylor
Senator Robert Gannett
David McWilliams
National Life of Vermont

1991
Jonathan Gregg
Louise von Weise
Jim Lowe
Philip Bither
Mary Anthony Cox
S.T. Griswold & Co., Inc.

1990
Henry Carris
Jill Charles
James Montague
Edwin Lawrence
Downs Rachlin & Martin

1989
Pat Adams
Bread and Puppet Theater
Elizabeth Brouha
Thomas Conlon
Jay Craven
John Engels
Ed Feidner
Flynn Theatre for the Performing Arts
Jon Gailmor
Robert Gannett
Phillip Hoff
Elinor Janeway
Louis Levy
Chester Liebs
Ellen Lovell
Peter Marsh
Blanche Honegger Moyse
William Schubart
Catherine Stockman
Don Sunseri
Vermont Studio School
Gwyneth Walker
David and Janet Wells
Arthur Williams
International Business Machines

1988
Terrance Demas
Arthur Williams
Jan Danziger
Linda Rubinstein
Chittenden Trust Corporation

1987
Mary Rowe
James Sardonis
Children's Art Exchange
The IATSE Local 919
Project Harmony
Muriel Palmer
Vermont National Bank

1986
Christine Graham
Robert Nuner
Don Sunseri
Vermont Sunday Magazine
Green Mountain Power Corporation

1985
Elizabeth Brouha
Constance Price
David Strohmier
Brattleboro Reformer/Norman Runnion

1984
Irving Bates
IBM Corporation
Janet Rood
Governor & Mrs. Richard Snelling
WNCS (Jeb & Susan Spaulding)

1983
Anthony (Tony) Barrand
Louis Calabro (Special Citation)
Bertha T. Koury
Toni Taylor
Margaret (Mrs. Norman) Williams

1982
Albert B. Chandler Cultural Foundation
Eric Peterson
Andrea Rogers
William Schubart III

1981
Allen Johnson
George Little Press, Inc.
Thomas Slayton
Peter Smith

1980
Carol Langstaff Duveneck
Lionel Nowak
Reverend J. Lynwood Smith
J. Lynwood Smith, Jr.

1979
John Carroll
Ellison Lieberman
Nella Grimm Fox Room, Rutland Free Library
UVM Choral Union (James Chapman, Conductor)

1978
The Bundy Art Gallery
Dorothy and David Dushkin
Edward J. Feidner
Robert E. Sheridan

1977
Governor Philip H. Hoff
Richard H. Janson
Katherine King Johnson
West Village Meeting House of All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church

1976
George Finckel
Bennington College
Cathedral of St. Paul's Ministry of the Arts
William Lipke
Maggie Maurice
Rutland City Municipal Band

1975
Burlington Savings Bank (Bank Chairman, Frederick Smith)
Adele Dawson
D'Ann Calhoun Fago
Dorothy Hung

1974
Patricia (Mrs.) Abraham
Melissa Brown
Peter Brown
Carolyn Long
Peter Schumann

1973
Paul Aschenbach
Jon Borowicz
Margaret MacArthur
Louise (Mrs. Byron) McCoy
Mary Rowe (Mrs. Harry)
Clara Sipprell

1972
Burlington Lions Club
Carol Brown
Gladys Colburn
Walter Hard, Jr.
Margit Holzinger
Bradley Smith
Stinehour Press

1971
Edwine Behre
Carleton Howe
Rockwell Kent
Ronald Slayton
Peter E. Wendland

1970
Dr. Robert S. Babcock
Alice B. Dibble
Evelyn J. Edwards
Armand Henault
Charles E. Tuttle, Jr.

1969
Mrs. Bartlett Arkell
Dr. Paul Boepple
Francis J. Gyra
Edward G. Janeway
Mrs. Theodore Morrison
Marcel Moyse
Jean Simpson
Mrs. Vanderbilt Webb

1968
Howard Bennett
Francis Colburn
Edwin Earle
Mrs. Robert Flaherty
Arthur K.D. Healy
Theadore Morrison
Samuel Ogden, Sr.
Theodore Riehle
Frank Stevenson
Vermont Highway Department

Vermont Poet Laureate

Governor James H. Douglas appointed Ruth Stone of Middlebury as Vermont’s Poet Laureate, beginning July 2007 and serving for a term of four years.

The Vermont Poet Laureate is appointed by the Governor and serves for a term of four years. The Council, at the direction of the Governor, conducts the selection process for the State Poet by convening a nomination process and an advisory/selection panel.  

The Vermont Poet Laureate is a person whose primary residence is in Vermont; whose poetry manifests a high degree of excellence; who has produced a critically acclaimed body of work; and who has a long association with Vermont.

ABOUT RUTH STONE:  Ruth Stone was born on June 8, 1915, in Roanoke, Virginia, and has been a resident of Vermont since 1957. She is recognized around the world as a major American poet, and has been described as “Mother Poet” to many contemporary writers. Ruth Stone has published poems and fiction in numerous anthologies and literary journals, and is the recipient of the 2002 Wallace Stevens Award.

Among her other awards are two Guggenheim Fellowships, The Bess Hokin Award from Poetry magazine, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Kenyon Review Fellowship, the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Eric Mathieu King award from the Academy of American Poets, the Vermont Cerf Award for lifetime achievement in the arts, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award. She is the namesake of the Ruth Stone Prize in Poetry Award, given by Vermont College each year since 2004.

She served for many years as Bartle professor of English at Binghamton University, and taught previously at various schools including the Universities of Wisconsin, Indiana, and California, and Harvard University. Her books of poetry include In the Dark (2004), In the Next Galaxy (2002), Ordinary Words (1999), Simplicity (1997), Who is the Widow's Muse (1991), Second Hand Coat (1987), Cheap (1975), Topography (1971), and In an Iridescent Time (1959).

Past Recipients

2007
Ruth Stone

2003
Grace Paley

1999
Ellen Bryant Voigt

1994
Louise Gluck

1989
Galway Kinnell

1961
Robert Frost