“I think it’s great to have a conference in this part of the state.” “These workshops are all in different places about town?” “What a beautiful country inn I’ m staying at.” “The food is fabulous.”

This is only a sampling of the positive comments from attendees at the 2002 Spring Arts Conference held in Chester, VT on April 5th and 6th.  An extension of the Fall Conference of the Vermont Alliance for Arts in Education held each September on Bread Loaf Campus in Ripton; a whole town hosted the spring conference this year.  With country inns, art galleries, churches, schools, and area businesses opening their doors for both arts and non-arts professionals across the state, participants arrived Friday afternoon and  registered at The Fullerton Inn, which acted as the central point of the conference.  Attending participants were treated to breakfast, dinner, and supper as well as mid afternoon snacks in luxurious style in the formal dining room and gracious, comfortable lobby of the Fullerton.  

Even a cold blast of leftover late winter chill did not dampen their enthusiasm as art,   music, dance, drama and classroom teachers, as well as administrators, local artists, and community members strolled up and down the town common, or “Green,” on their way to some twenty workshop offerings.  

Reed Gallery opened their doors to a watercolor class, Japanese brush painting, and clay work while the Chester Art Guild hosted two sessions of silk scarf painting.  Chester-Andover Elementary School housed maskmaking, bookmaking, music activities, clay work, and dance.  A session on arts advocacy was presented in front of the fireplace of the Chester House Inn. The First Baptist Church hosted the keynote address and workshops by Creative Leaps International, a talented group of performers who address Fortune 500 companies with the importance of arts in education and society.  NewsBank, a local business, was the site of workshops on computer technology and visual thinking strategies, as well as gatherings focused on standards and assessment.

With special funding from the Green Mountain Festival Series, the nationally known group, Creative Leaps International were brought in for both the keynote address and workshops in stress reduction, integrating the arts into the general curriculum, and applying one’s personal creativity to whatever work they may be doing.  This dynamic and multi-talented group of musicians got their messages across with music in addition to verbiage as they expressed the absolute necessity of the arts. They also addressed social issues through songs such as “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” and “When Everybody Says Don’t.”  Used to the concert hall and Broadway stage, these artists are equally at home spreading their message before a crowd of teachers and school administrators as they are to season ticket holders.  

Besides rejuvenating their creative spirits, participants were offered a wide variety of workshop topics, a major undertaking, but to successfully host such a conference up and down a New England town common instead of on a self-contained college campus or at a major conference center, was a precedent occasion for Vermont arts educators.  The folks in Chester who hosted, organized, and otherwise contributed to the success of this event are too numerous to mention within graceful confines of this article. Please refer to the Big Thank You list below and consider yourself welcomed to the 2003 Spring Arts Conference, again to be held in a small and picturesque town in southeastern Vermont April 4 & 5, 2003.