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Working to advance and preserve the arts at the center of Vermont communities.
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Date
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Event
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Location
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Time |
April 16, 2009
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Book Discussion |
Waterbury Public Library |
7pm |
| April 23, 2009 |
DVD Release Party |
Fleming Museum (Room 101) |
7pm |
Created as part of Vermont’s Big Read project, the film focuses on six Vermont artists whose work explores social and political issues. The artists interviewed in the film include papermaker Drew Cameron; filmmakers Alan Dater and Lisa Merton; poet Major Jackson; performance artist Janice Perry; and Founder of Bread & Puppet Theater, Peter Schumann. These artists discuss issues of censorship, protest, media bias and the role of the artist in a democracy. Click here to watch the film.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services that was designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment.
The Arts Council has chosen Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for Vermont’s Big Read. The Council will provide schools and libraries with up to ten copies of Fahrenheit 451 plus teacher’s guides, audio guides, and a supply of reader’s guides. (If you want to order more copies of the book, the Arts Council has a very affordable source.)
Each school or library can determine how to best use this opportunity and these resources. Since the project spans January-May 2009, the book can be integrated into your programming anytime this winter.
The Arts Council is partnering with the Brownell Library in Essex Junction to present this year's Big Read program. Vermont's Big Read is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Community Foundation.
If your school or organization is interested in participating in Vermont's Big Read, please contact Lindsey Harty-Carlson at 828-3292. Or, if you are already participating, and want to let us know about your Big Read event, click here.
CHECK OUT OUR BIG READ BLOG!
 In one of literature's most haunting denunciations of censorship, Ray Bradbury takes the materials of pulp fiction and transforms them into a visionary parable of a society gone awry. Firemen are forced to burn books and the state suppresses learning while the citizenry sits by in a drug-induced and media-saturated indifference. Written in 1953 and more relevant than ever a half-century later, Fahrenheit 451 has achieved the rare distinction of being both a literary classic and a perennial bestseller.
In addition to encouraging people to read the book, the Arts Council hopes schools, libraries and community groups will use Fahrenheit 451 as a platform for discussing how artists use their work as social commentary, to provoke public awareness and in some cases, effect social change.
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Interested in participating? See the list of libraries and schools below to find out where you can get a copy of Fahrenheit 451.
  About the Book |
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| Information for Teachers |
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| Participating Libraries & Organizations |
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Library/Organization Name
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Contact
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City
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Phone
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ADDISON COUNTY
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| Bixby Memorial Free Library |
Rachel Plant |
Vergennes |
802-877-2211 |
| New Haven Community Library |
Deborah Lundbech |
New Haven |
802-453-4015 |
| The Lincoln Library |
Harriet Szanto |
Lincoln |
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BENNINGTON COUNTY
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| Lisa B. Tuttle Memorial Library |
Merlyn Miller |
Manchester |
802-362-1775 |
| Solomon Wright Public Library |
Linda Hall |
Pownal |
802-823-5400 |
| Oxcart Projects |
John Hadden |
Londonderry |
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CALEDONIA COUNTY
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| Barnet Public Library |
Sherry Tolle |
Barnet |
802-633-4880 |
| Cobleigh Public Library |
Cindy Karasinski |
Lyndonville |
802-626-5475 |
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CHITTENDEN COUNTY
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| Burnham Memorial Library |
Gizelle Guyette |
Colchester |
802-878-0313 |
| Bish Productions |
Heather Bischoff |
Burlington |
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| Carpenter-Carse Library |
Tom Stamp |
Hinesburg |
802-482-2878 |
| Essex Free Library |
Cassie Germain |
Essex |
802-879-0313 |
| Vermont Business Roundtable |
Lisa Ventriss |
South Burlington |
802-865-0410 |
| Westford Public Library |
Victoria Tibbits |
Westford |
802-878-5639 |
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ESSEX COUNTY
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| Alice M. Ward Memorial Library |
Deborah Gadwah-Lambert |
Canaan |
802-266-7135 |
| Island Pond Public Library |
John Zuppa |
Island Pond |
802-723-6134 |
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FRANKLIN COUNTY
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| Arvin A. Brown |
Susan Smolinsky |
Richford |
802-848-3313 |
| Bent Northrop Memorial Library |
Kristen Hughes |
Fairfield |
802-827-3945 |
| Swanton Public Library |
Marilyn Barney |
Swanton |
802-868-7656 |
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GRAND ISLE COUNTY
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| Alburgh Public Library |
Gina Lewis |
Alburgh |
802-796-6077 |
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LAMOILLE COUNTY
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| Johnson Public Library |
Sarah Snow |
Johnson |
802-635-7141 |
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ORANGE COUNTY
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| Blake Memorial Library |
Ken Linge |
E. Corinth |
802-439-5338 |
| Fairlee Public Library |
Debra Edmands |
Fairlee |
802-333-4716 |
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ORLEANS COUNTY
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| Greensboro Free Library |
Mary Metcalf |
Greensboro |
802-533-2531 |
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RUTLAND COUNTY
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| Middletown Springs Public Library |
Kimberly Mathewson |
Middletown Springs |
802-235-2435 |
| Poultney Public Library |
Rebecca Cook |
Poultney |
802-287-5556 |
| Roger Clark Memorial Library |
Marion Abrams |
Pittsfield |
802-746-4067 |
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WASHINGTON COUNTY
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| Aldrich Public Library |
Karen Lane |
Barre |
802-476-7550x307 |
| Cabot Public Library |
Connie Koeller |
Cabot |
802-563-2721 |
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WINDHAM COUNTY
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| Vernon Free Library |
Kristine Berberian |
Vernon |
802-257-0150 |
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WINDSOR COUNTY
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| Fletcher Memorial Library |
Megan Emery |
Ludlow |
802-228-3517 |
| Norman Williams Public Library |
Debra Bullock Spackman |
Woodstock |
802-457-2295 |
| Whiting Public Library |
Karen Morris |
Chester |
802-876-2277 |
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| Participating Schools |
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School Name
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Contact
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City
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Phone
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ADDISON COUNTY
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| Mt. Abraham Union High School |
Nancy Kerwin |
Bristol |
802-453-2333 x1100 |
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BENNINGTON COUNTY
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| Long Trail School |
Virginia Morgan |
Dorset |
802-867-5717 x180 |
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CALEDONIA COUNTY
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| Danville School |
Caroline Demaio |
Danville |
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| Miller's Run School Library |
Joyce Valley |
Sheffield |
802-626-9755 |
| St. Johnsbury Academy |
Jean Fournier |
St. Johnsbury |
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CHITTENDEN COUNTY
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| Burlington College |
Jessica Allard |
Burlington |
802-862-9616 |
| Colchester High School Library |
Barbara Marvin |
Colchester |
802-264-5728 |
| Edmunds Middle School |
Carole Renca |
Burlington |
802-864-8487 |
| Essex High School Library |
Jill Abair |
Essex Junction |
802-879-5530 |
| Westford School Library |
Sandy Bochanski |
Westford |
802-878-5932 |
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ESSEX COUNTY
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| Alice M. Ward Memorial Library |
Deborah Gadwah-Lambert |
Canaan |
802-266-7135 |
| Island Pond Public Library |
John Zuppa |
Island Pond |
802-723-6134 |
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FRANKLIN COUNTY
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| Arvin A. Brown |
Susan Smolinsky |
Richford |
802-848-3313 |
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ORANGE COUNTY
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| Chelsea School |
Maria Lamson |
Chelsea |
802-685-4551 |
| Randolph Union High School |
Hannah Dransfield |
Randolph |
802-728-3397 |
| Tunbridge Central School |
Walt Garner |
Tunbridge |
889-3310 |
| Waits River Valley School |
Krista Ainsworth |
E. Corinth |
802-439-5534 |
| Williamstown Middle High School |
Gladys McElroy |
Williamstown |
802-433-4350 |
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ORLEANS COUNTY
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| Craftsbury Academy |
Jody Buzzell |
Craftsbury Common |
802-586-2541 |
| North Country UHS Library |
Marsha Middleton |
Newport |
802-334-7921x3040 |
| Sterling College |
Petra Vogel |
Craftsbury Common |
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| Wheeler Mountain Academy |
Douglas Safford |
Barton |
802-525-4157 |
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RUTLAND COUNTY
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| Mount St. Joseph Academy |
Donna Butman |
Rutland |
802-775-0151 |
| Proctor Jr/Sr High School |
Zach Eastman |
Proctor |
802-459-3353x2125 |
| Rutland High School |
Luvia Webster |
Rutland |
802-770-1010 |
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WASHINGTON COUNTY
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| Main Street Middle School |
Lauren Chabot |
Montpelier |
802-225-8651 |
| Montpelier Public Schools |
Linda MacDonald |
Montpelier |
802-225-8037 |
| Spaulding High School |
Linda McSweeney |
Barre |
802-476-4811 |
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WINDHAM COUNTY
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| Brattleboro Union High School |
Marilee Attley |
Brattleboro, VT |
802-451-3471 |
| Leland & Gray UHS |
Barbara Marchant |
Townshend |
802-365-7937 |
| Twin Valley High School Library |
Anna Bolognani |
Wilmington |
802-464-5255 x119 |
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WINDSOR COUNTY
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| Woodstock Union High School/Middle School |
Patricia Bick |
Woodstock |
802-457-1317x153 |
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| Participation Ideas |
Schools, libraries and community groups are encouraged to explore creative ways to engage students and community members in this project. Here are some suggestions:
- Form a community book study group
- Get 451 people to read the book
- Show the 1966 film version of Fahrenheit 451
- Create a short story or bookmark making contest
- Host a “read-a-thon”
- Invite Vermont artists (writers, visual artists, performing artists) to talk about how they have used their art as social commentary
- Facilitate a forum or debate on the book’s themes
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 Amy Goodman, producer and host of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, was the keynote speaker at the Vermont Arts Council’s 2009 Big Read program kick-off on January 24th. The topic of her address was based on the themes of her latest book, Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times.
The kick-off event also included a video interview with Ray Bradbury and a preview of a new documentary by filmmaker Deb Ellis. The film features interviews with Vermont artists whose work targets social issues including performing artist Janice Perry, filmmakers Alan Dater and Lisa Merton, papermaker Drew Cameron, poet Major Jackson, and Bread & Puppet’s Peter Schumann. Schumann will attend the kick-off event with a performance piece on the crisis in Gaza.
As host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, Goodman was honored with a 2007 Gracie Award by American Women in Radio and Television. Goodman has written three books with her brother, journalist David Goodman of Waterbury, VT. The latest is the NY Times bestseller Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. Their two previous books are also New York Times bestsellers Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back, and The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them. Independent bookstores chose it as the #1 political book of the 2004 election season.
Goodman writes a weekly column (also produced as an audio podcast) syndicated by King Features, for which she was recognized in 2007 with the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Reporting. The Progressive and Yes! Magazines have featured cover stories on Goodman and Democracy Now! O, The Oprah Magazine, featured Goodman in "A Million Ways to Save the World."
If you missed the Big Read kick-off, you can click here to view the program online.
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Documentary Debuts in Burlington
You will soon be able to check out a documentary by a Vermont filmmaker at your local library.
Six Vermont Artists in Conversation is part of the Vermont Arts Council "Big Read" project. The project aims to increase literacy by promoting one particular book each year and finding a number of artistic pieces that go along with it. This year that book is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It is a classic book that looks at a failing society.
"The piece can be used in conjunction with a discussion about Fahrenheit 451 or it can be used completely separate," says filmmaker, Deb Ellis. "Each one of the segments can also be used separately, so you can watch a 7 to 8 minute piece in the classroom or in a group discussion and not have to commit yourself to 45 minutes. So it was interesting making a piece that had to fit those constraints as well."
Ellis says her film is about the relationship between the arts and society.
Information is Power, Collect and Use it, Speaker Says
By Matt Sutkoski • Free Press Staff Writer • January 25, 2009
ESSEX JUNCTION -- Information is power -- power that belongs in everyone's hands, said Amy Goodman, the author, syndicated columnist and executive producer of the "Democracy Now!" radio program.
Goodman made her remarks Saturday at Essex Junction High School for the start of Vermont's Big Read, a nationwide effort to encourage reading and reverse what was until recently a decline in literary reading. In Vermont, the Vermont Arts Council is having as many people as possible read "Fahrenheit 451," the Ray Bradbury novel about a society where books are routinely burned, the government suppresses learning and citizens stay in a drug-induced and media-saturated state of indifference.
The Arts Council hopes the book will spur discussions on the spread of information, how artists help people think about social and political issues, and the kinds of societal changes that can grow from the artists' work.
Goodman focused her discussion on how writers, artists and regular citizens make a difference through their actions, and how inaction stifles needed change. She celebrated those who made sure important stories and information got out, or as she put it, "people who don't go looking for trouble but when it comes to them, they stand up."
She showcased Connecticut high school theater students who tried to stage a play about Iraq war veterans' experiences. Their principal wouldn't let them proceed, they resisted, and were later rewarded by putting on the play in New York's theater district. She discussed librarians in Connecticut who resisted a Bush administration National Security Letter that demanded information on library patrons' Internet searches.
The Barack Obama administration bodes well for more open, responsive government, but only if people hold the president's feet to the fire, Goodman said. The rich and powerful will lobby Obama as they do all presidents. Obama must be able to tell the lobbyists, "If we do that, they will storm the Bastille," Goodman said.
Goodman also brought up the case of Raed Jarrar, an American citizen who was ordered by Transportation Security Authority to cover up his T-shirt at New York's JFK Airport in 2006 as he prepared to board a JetBlue flight to Oakland, Calif. The T-shirt had writing on it, in Arabic that stated "We will not be silent."
Earlier this month, Jarrar was awarded $240,000 in compensation for the incident. "We will not be silent" refers to a pamphlet members of a Nazi resistance movement in World War II Germany wrote. The authors were executed by the Nazis, Goodman said.
She said the media must step up and challenge those in charge. "We need a media that covers power, not covers for the power," Goodman said.
The "we will not be silent" phrase "should be the Hippocratic Oath of the media today," Goodman said.
Check out Vermont's Big Read Blog. Find out more about the Big Read in Vermont, leave your comments about the book, the project or an event that you attended.
Wanna go there?
By Mike Ives
Vermont kicks off “The Big Read” on Saturday, January 24, at Essex High School Auditorium at 2 p.m. Free and open to the public. Info, 878-6955, 828-3292 or lharty@vermontartscouncil.org.
“Can a book be a weapon? And if so, should it be removed from society?”
That’s a question Kat Redniss, a young-adult librarian at the Brownell Library in Essex Junction, will be asking adolescents this spring. Why? Because “The Big Read” is coming to the Brownell, and this year’s featured title for the statewide, federally funded reading project is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a 1953 classic that addresses the subject of censorship.
The ambitious initiative — imagine your book group on steroids — promotes reading for “pleasure and enlightenment.” It is underwritten in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The Vermont Arts Council first applied for “Read” funds last year, when the featured title was Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 detective novel The Maltese Falcon. Funds for this year’s project have been doled out to about 300 communities nationwide, notes Diane Scolaro, communications and development director for the arts council. Vermont’s grant is the only one administered on a statewide scale.
Scolaro notes that the VAC is enhancing its “Big Read” project with a few local touches. Last year’s participants will recall that the council asked Montpelier’s Lost Nation Theater to stage dramatic Falcon readings, and recruited local mystery authors such as Newfane’s Archer Mayor to talk about the craft. This year, Scolaro explains, the council is planning a kickoff event that explores the theme of “social commentary.”
Aptly, alt-media queen and “Democracy Now!” radio host Amy Goodman was chosen to deliver the keynote “Big Read” address this Saturday at the Essex High School Auditorium. Then Middlebury filmmaker Deb Ellis will preview a film about artsy local activists; Peter Schumann of Bread and Puppet Theater and Drew Cameron, an antiwar artist from Burlington’s Green Door Studio, will also perform.
Later, librarians and teachers across the state will stage their own Fahrenheit-inspired events. At the Brownell Library, for example, Redniss is thinking of putting on a “Read and Recite Night” to which guests bring a book — or a passage — they’d want to preserve in the face of censorship. “I’m a librarian,” she states. “I think we should have as many books as possible.”
Scolaro says this year’s project seems to have “struck a nerve” with Green Mountain bibliophiles; the arts council’s biggest challenge has been getting enough books to meet the demand. As of last week, Scolaro had received requests for 750 copies of Fahrenheit 451 from more than 60 institutions around the state. In 2008, by comparison, she gave away fewer than 500 copies of The Maltese Falcon to 31 libraries and six high schools.
Maybe the election of author Barack Obama has already made reading cool?
Vermont Prepares for "The Big Read"
Jack Thurston - WCAX News
The Vermont Arts Council is getting ready for a statewide reading initiative called "The Big Read." The National Endowment for the Arts estimates less than half of Americans read for pleasure. This winter the Arts Council is encouraging Vermonters to pick up Ray Bradbury's 1950s classic Fahrenheit 451. It's about a future in which critical thinking is outlawed.
Vermont is home to several writers and artists like the Bread and Puppet Theater whose work, as the book did, has provoked political and cultural debate. The Arts Council will also spotlight some of those artists at events around the state.
Alex Aldrich, executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, explains, "Great literature is done by artists. So we feel it was okay to take it beyond the literary framework and move it into creative writing, creative thinking, and creative engagement."
The kickoff for "The Big Read" is this Saturday, January 24 at 2:00 in the Essex High School auditorium. Radio host Amy Goodman of the show Democracy Now! will speak. That's when the Arts Council starts distributing copies of Fahrenheit 451 free to schools, libraries, and community groups.
It's not too late to sign up. For more information, contact the Arts Council in Montpelier.
Fiery rhetoric
As producer and host of the radio program "Democracy Now!" Amy Goodman is just the kind of instigator whose books a nervous government might want to burn.
Appropriately, she'll be the keynote speaker for the kickoff of a statewide reading program focusing on Ray Bradbury's classic futuristic novel of book burning, "Fahrenheit 451."
The Vermont Arts Council chose that title for this year's version of its Big Read program, in which Vermonters are encouraged to read the same book, discuss it with each other and attend events designed to expand their appreciation. In "Fahrenheit 451," Bradbury used his art form to critique what he saw as an increasingly dysfunctional American society.
The free kickoff event will be Jan. 24 at Essex High School Auditorium in Essex Junction; Goodman is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m.
The event will include a video interview with Ray Bradbury and a preview of a new documentary by filmmaker Deb Ellis. The film features interviews with Vermont artists whose work targets social issues. One of the subjects, Bread & Puppet Theater's Peter Schumann, will attend with a performance piece on the crisis in Gaza.
For more information on Vermont's Big Read and a list of participating libraries, visit www.vermontartscouncil.org.
Vermont’s Big Read begins on January 24th with a kickoff event featuring a keynote address by Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman. The event will also include a video interview with Ray Bradbury, a preview of a new documentary by Vermont filmmaker Deb Ellis, and performance pieces by Peter Schumann of Bread & Puppet and papermaker Drew Cameron.
When: Saturday, January 24, 2009
Where: Essex High School Auditorium, Essex Jct., VT
Time: 2 PM
Admission: Free
Goodman, is the producer and host of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, the largest public media collaboration in the U.S. The program is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR stations, low power FM, College and Community Radio stations as well as Public Access TV and PBS stations, and on TV satellite networks.
Goodman has written three books with her brother, journalist David Goodman of Waterbury, VT. The latest is the NY Times bestseller Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. Their two previous books are also New York Times bestsellers Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back, and The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them. Independent bookstores chose it as the #1 political book of the 2004 election season.
Democracy Now! airs on eight Vermont stations:
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