 Good evening. We start this evening by acknowledging that we are in the unceded traditional land of the Abenaki people, one of the five Wabanaki nations who have a continual and enduring presence here since time immemorial. In Abenaki, Waban is the white light flickering in the sky. And Aki is the word for land or earth. So Wabanaki are the people of the Don land. We acknowledge their ancestors, their history, and their presence, which continues to this day. I'm Susan Evans-McClure, the executive director of the Vermont Arts Council. And welcome to the 2023 Vermont Arts Awards. Before we begin, please make note of the emergency exits closest to you. There are two doors at the front of the theater to your left over here. That's why I wore the sequined dress to point at things. When exiting these doors, take a left and use the doors to the right under the mural to exit the building. There are also two exit doors at the back of the theater that will bring you to the lake lobby where you can exit to your immediate right. Do not use the elevator. The emergency lighting in the aisle will stay illuminated. And if you need to exit the theater before the event is complete, please do so at the back of the theater between presentations. Also, please be sure to silence your cell phones and keep the aisles clear of arms, legs, and any belongings as there will be performers moving in and out of the aisles during the event, which makes you excited about the performers, huh? Our thanks to Main Street Landing for welcoming us to the film house and for co-sponsoring the 2023 Vermont Arts Awards. Members of the staff here have worked closely with the council to ensure that tonight's event is perfect in every way. We extend a special thank you to our wonderful jazz quartet for providing us with some amazing music to start our evening. The L.A.R. Jeff Salisbury and Clyde Stats were just a great way to start the night and get us excited about the amazing talent that exists in our creative state. We also wish to thank Sugar Snap Catering, a clover and 1B florist, and Sarah Pete Photography. I'm pleased to introduce Mark Foley, vice chair of the board of trustees of the Vermont Arts Council. Mark. Thank you, Susan. Good evening, everyone. And as Susan said, I'm Mark Foley. I'm the vice chair of the Vermont Arts Council. I'm standing in tonight for Becky McMeek and our tremendous board chair on her behalf and on behalf of the board of directors, it's my pleasure to honor and honor to welcome you to the 2023 Vermont Arts Awards. The Vermont Arts Council has been the state's primary provider of arts funding, advocacy, and information since 1965. Our work is based on the understanding that the arts transform individual lives, connect people more deeply to each other, energize the economy, and sustain the vibrant culture landscape that makes Vermont a great place to visit and live. Thank you all for being part of that cultural landscape. And congratulations in particular tonight to the incredible people that we're honoring. The past few years have been especially challenging for the arts in Vermont. And the Arts Council has been at the forefront of supporting, building, and sustaining a vibrant cultural life for our state. I don't need to remind all of you about the immense impact that COVID-19 had on the arts and culture sector. Throughout the pandemic, the Arts Council successfully brought together the creative sector, community leaders, along with state, federal, and private funders to ensure that the arts were a vital part of our state's economy and community recovery. Since 2020, the Arts Council has distributed over $14 million in COVID relief funding to artists, cultural organizations, and the broader creative sector. And it's helped to ensure that Vermont's creative sector is emerging ready to lead the way as we work to build resilient, vibrant, and inclusive communities for the future. And when we thought we were back to normal, then the summer came flooding and severe weather which shook our state again. The Arts Council was ready to step up and support the creative sector once again, this time launching our own emergency flood relief grants directly to impacted artists. With the support of generous private donors, many of whom are in this room with us tonight, the Arts Council has granted over $50,000 directly to affected artists so far. So thank you for supporting this vital piece of Vermont's flood recovery. Thanks also to our incredibly dedicated, talented, and hardworking team. We've gotten very good at responding to crises over these past few years. However, our work is really about looking forward and creating the future for the arts and cultural life of our state. We're expanding cultural opportunities for all of Vermont and we're building the capacity of creative organizations and artists to do their best work. This year, we welcome Susan's Evan McClure as our new executive director. And we're absolutely thrilled to have her leadership and her expertise charting a course for our creative state. As I turn it back over to Susan, I'll offer another congratulations to all of the tonight's honorees. Thank you. Susan? Thank you, Mark. And thank you to all of our board members who shape the future of our vital statewide work. Tonight is all about celebrating and honoring the exceptional artists who are the heartbeat of Vermont's creative community. The arts and creativity in Vermont drive our economy, but they're also key to building the workforce we need for the future. And even more importantly, the arts make our communities strong. They bring people together across divides. They shape our identity. They attract and keep people here. They help us connect with the most human and complicated parts of ourselves. The arts, culture, and creativity are essential to Vermont's identity, to Vermont's recovery, and to Vermont's resilience. Vermont needs the people we're honoring this evening. And we need all of you to continue bringing your creativity, your passion, and your vision to building the inclusive future for this state that we love so much. Thank you all for being part of that. Every year, since 1967, the Vermont Arts Council, in association with the governor's office, recognizes outstanding individual and organizational contribution to the arts in Vermont. And I can't say how thrilled I am to be gathering in person again after three long pandemic years to celebrate the best of Vermont's artists and creative sector. Celebrating these exceptional Vermont artists and their impact on our state's cultural landscape is truly one of the joys of this role that I have taken on recently. And while our in-person celebrations may have paused over the past three years, the Vermont Arts Awards certainly did not. In the audience tonight are many of the recipients of the last three years of arts awards. These talented, committed artists, educators, and advocates were recognized online and with great digital media pieces, but nothing beats a round of live applause. So I'd like to ask the recipients of the Vermont Arts Awards from 2020, 2021, and 2022, who are with us tonight to please stand and be recognized. Our celebration this evening, we are fortunate to have a special performance by J. Coulou, Vermont's premier West African dance and drum theater since 1993. Yeah. What if tonight's award winners is a longtime teacher and founder of J. Coulou, Siddiqui Silla, who you'll hear more about very soon. A longtime member of our roster of teaching artists at the Arts Council, J. Coulou offers traditional rhythms and dances from Guinea, Senegal, and Mali to learners of all ages. We are delighted to have them perform here to kick off the 2023 Arts Awards. So with our incredible performers, please make your way to the stage and get going. I have canceled. We're so happy to be here for my brother, my big brother, Siddiqui. I'm so grateful. We've been in Vermont for a long time and all the people came. Now we're here. Even Senegal, Mali, Coulou, Paprika. So Mali, everywhere. Yes. Thank you for having us. Let's have fun, right? You ready? Yeah. Also, we have our J. Coulou member and also some student. They're all here for Siddiqui. Yeah. We've been here for a long time. So, book us. School residency show. Also, we have in J. Coulou dance, dance festivals. 21. Number third is S. Third is S. Third, fourth, fifth. Third, fourth, fifth. And Siddiqui is gonna be great. Check it out. And come evening, you know, dancing, safe, listen to the great, beautiful music, and everybody come together. This is drum. Bring all of us together. Come on. We have in our state, we are so lucky to have J. Coulou as part of our state's cultural community. What a Vermont treasure they are. And thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing that with us tonight. Al, we're heading into the awards part of the awards evening. Still, there's more to come. That was incredible. So, presenting the first award tonight, the Arthur Williams Award for Meritorious, I think I'm saying it right. Service in the Arts is Michelle Bailey. Michelle is the Vermont Arts Council's Senior Program Manager, and has known our awardee for more than 30 years. Michelle. Hello, thank you, Susan. All right, this award is named after the Council's Founding Executive Director, Arthur Williams. In addition to his critical work at the Arts Council, Williams' long career included public school teaching, serving in the Vermont legislature, chairing the effort to restore the Vermont Statehouse. The award is chosen by the staff of the Vermont Arts Council, and is presented each year to an individual who reflects Williams' selfless public service and devotion to artistic excellence as a vital ingredient in building strong Vermont communities, as well as his desire to see the arts thrive. There's no one who better defines these qualities than Matthew Perry. Matthew is the co-founder and executive director of the Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington, whose mission, since its founding in 1994, is to engage communities and neighborhoods through the arts by bringing art education, exhibition, and performance opportunities to people of all ages, abilities, and income. The Arts Exchange has a strong community presence through its art bus, which travels throughout Vermont and in towns at various pop-ups and processions organized by Matthew. I've personally had the honor to see Matthew in action, teaching art classes for youth and for veterans and presenting at conferences about his work. I also witnessed his approach to community engagement, when in 2009, in the town of Starksboro, they brought him in as an artist in residence for 10 months to increase community participation in the town's visioning process that would inform planning decisions, including development of zoning bylaws and land use. His first priority, of course, is to get to know the people, including everyone from the firemen, the artists in town and schools, to the residents of the area mobile home parks. With this art bus, he engaged people in what he called roadside conversations to make them feel comfortable in sharing their ideas. He was somewhat of a pied piper in getting people excited about art, creative problem solving, and in talking about their community vision. He even mentored local artists to help them carry on the work after he was gone. Matthew is a master at community engagement, in partnering and in connecting with people at so many levels. He creates a sense of social connection and community pride wherever he goes. And it warms my heart to acknowledge his kind and thoughtful approach to reaching people through the arts. Therefore, it is my distinct honor to give the Arthur Williams Award to Matthew Perry. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, everyone. I had to write some stuff down, otherwise I'd go on babbling about my cat or something. So thank you. I'm very grateful to be here tonight in a room with so many creative, supportive people in the arts, and it feels good and makes me very happy. I've been very happy for ever since I got the call from Michelle. I got a phone message, and she left a message saying I have something to talk to you about. And the first thing I thought of was, oh, shit, I have a grant report that's overdue, and what is it, you know? But that wasn't the case. I called her back. Hearing the good news from her meant a lot to me, and I didn't know she was gonna be presenting this award, but I'm very happy about that. I've known her for my work for the past 30 years at the Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington, and she's been at the Arts Council for, I think, 35 years, and so that's commendable. I think that deserves a round of applause. I came to understand that this award was the staff of the Arts Council who receives it, so that also is meaningful to me as I see them as kind of the mothership of the arts in the state of Vermont, fighting for funding in the trenches and doing all the good work. So I wanna thank you and each and every one of the Arts Council and the board as you work hard to support the creative sector. At times when we are surprised with a pandemic or a flood that was mentioned earlier, you just get stronger, and that is inspiring to all of us. I'm also honored to be in such good company between the past recipients and my fellow artists tonight, Leslie, Eva, Orly, Siddiqui. I'd like to give a shout out to my community, way down in the southwest corner of Vermont, southern Vermont. Anyone from southern Vermont here? All right, let's have a couple. My wife, I see, thank you. I'm also honored to be, and I already read that. Last, I wanna thank everyone I work with down there at VAE and who allow my visions to have no boundaries. They, along with my family, my wife, Diane, make it possible for me to continue to be happy and love my work, so thank you all very much. Congratulations, Matthew. Next is the Margaret L. Peggy Cannonstein Award for Arts Advocacy, which honors Vermonters committed to furthering the arts in a wide range of fields, accessibility, administration, education, philanthropy, and wellness. We're here to celebrate so many incredible artists, and we also are here to celebrate the amazing people who allow arts and creativity to flourish. Peggy Cannonstein was a former Vermont Arts Council board member and a passionate chair, sorry, Vermont board chair and passionate arts advocate for whom this award is named. Unfortunately, Peggy was not able to attend this evening. This year, the award is presented by seven days co-founder, Pamela Poulston. Pamela was also the 2021 Walter Surf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts recipient. Thank you, Pamela. And me in welcoming Pamela Poulston to present the award. Come on up. Hello, everybody. I should probably confess that just to calm my nerves, I'm imagining you all naked. Okay, that's enough. So as Susan said, the Margaret L. Cannon-Stead Award for Arts Advocacy is presented to an individual who has an established and well-deserved reputation in Vermont as an advocate for the arts and their impact on the state. Honestly, I would happily give all the prizes in the universe to Ava Solberger for her video series, Stuck in Vermont. Don't cry. You're not allowed to cry yet. She's already received a number of awards from regional and national media associations. Stuck in Vermont episodes appear on platforms, including the Seven Days website, YouTube and WCIX. As the senior multimedia producer for Seven Days, Ava has been making these videos nearly every week since 2007. I know. Those of you who have not seen Stuck in Vermont have a lot of catching up to do. Because Ava is about to make her number 700 video. And she has allowed me to reveal that it will be centered on her almost 90-year-old mother and the topic of aging. None of us can relate to that, of course. Stuck in Vermont is usually a celebration of something quirky and uniquely Vermont-y, such as kids in a turkey calling contest or women who plunge into freezing like Champlain in the winter or folks who run dairy farms or rural drivers who literally get stuck in Vermont during mud season. Sometimes Ava addresses a more somber topic such as the aftermath of devastating floods. But either way, she always touches viewers with compelling visuals and storytelling, infectious enthusiasm and a very big heart. Ava makes her craft look easy, but it's not. For every production she interviews her subjects on camera and then she spends 40 hours or more, probably, labors to edit all of that footage down to a cohesive 10 minutes or less. Most of the time she does this work entirely alone, but I'm sure with the assistance of her two cats. So what do Ava's visual stories have to do with arts advocacy? I would suggest that her work advocates for the power of art to affect our lives. She shows us our humanity, our sense of community and the essence of this state. And she illustrates in every episode that Vermont is a pretty great place in which to be stuck. For all of that, Ava, thank you. It is my honor and pleasure to present to you the Margaret L. Kennenstein Award for Arts Advocacy. That was amazing, Pamela Poston, you're my hero. My heart is overflowing. Thanks so much for everyone who came and said hello to me today, I've covered a lot of you or I've interviewed a lot of you, you know who you are. When I moved here 20 years ago, I grew up here, but I moved back 20 years ago. I didn't know anyone and it was really scary and I was really welcomed into this vibrant, creative, artistic community and I have all of you to thank and now I know everyone, just about, right? And that's what's so great about Vermont is that we do connect and communicate and I love featuring artists like Pamela, she's been in my videos a few times. I love featuring artists and just asking them 10 million questions about who they are and why they do what they do because it's not easy. All you artists know that. And I'm so grateful to Seven Days and Pamela Polston and Paula Routley and Kathy Resmer, they're here tonight. I'm so grateful that I found a home for me and my video series and I was able to buy a home thanks to having a job so that's pretty great, right? And I found a job that has meaning and I feel like I have a purpose and I don't really know what else you want from life past that. I really wanna thank the Vermont Arts Council for this honor but also just for cultivating arts in our state because it's why I wanna be stuck here, it's why people come here and I hope that we welcome more artists in the future and thank you all very much. Congratulations, Ava. Our next award is the Ellen McCulloch Level Award in Arts Education and this award recognizes an arts educator, teaching artist or administrator whose work has substantially deepened student engagement in the arts. The award is named after Ellen McCulloch Level, former executive director of the Vermont Arts Council and president of Marlboro College. Unfortunately, Ellen could not be with us this evening. However, we are happy to have a special guest presenting the award, a student of Siddiqui's, Christina Erickson. Please join me in welcoming Christina to present the award. Good evening, everyone. First, I just want to acknowledge that it has been a challenging year for the J. Kulu community and what you just saw is the love and joy that Siddiqui and the community brings together. So hopefully you felt a little sense of that coming in tonight. Yes, yes. I will admit that I am an occasional student of Siddiqui's because there's lots to do in life and I can't get there every week but some of these folks here with us tonight are there every week, sometimes twice a week, for years, for decades and it is truly a testament to what Siddiqui has been able to bring to this community. Siddiqui Sila is a master dancer and choreographer and the artistic director of J. Kulu Dance and Drum Theater. Originally from Guinea, Siddiqui has been a resident of Vermont since 1997. Before arriving in Vermont, Siddiqui was a member of the premier dance troupe of Guinea, the Joliba National Ballet. J. Kulu performers studied with Siddiqui in Guinea and were able to bring him on an artist visa to Burlington where he has since settled. For 25 years, Siddiqui and the J. Kulu team have held performances, taught weekly dance and drum classes, conducted artist residencies and workshops for schools and other organizations throughout Vermont and have hosted the annual J. Kulu Dance and Drum Festival, again, upcoming in early November, right up at City Hall. Siddiqui teaches the complex West African dances with much creativity and patience, I will say, especially for me, always going the wrong way, doing variations in choreography, singing and drumming, sometimes simultaneously. J. Kulu's educational programs have been a memorable learning experience for students of all ages and have enriched the lives of all who have participated in them. For Siddiqui's longtime contributions to teaching the joy of dance and music to Vermonters of all ages and enriching the lives of school children, parents, teachers and regular people like me for more than 20 years, it is my pleasure to give this award to Siddiqui Sila. Sorry about my English. I can't speak to loud, because I'm now 100%, but I'm so happy. Please thank her for being here. I don't know what I'm gonna say. I'm so happy. Thank you for everybody. Thank you for you, Kulu. Thank you for everybody, whatever can come on here tonight. I cannot say that to everybody, I have to talk to Sila. God bless everybody. I hope we can do this no more. Thank you, everybody. God bless. Congratulations, Siddiqui. Now it is my pleasure to get to present an award, too. I am presenting the Walter Surf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, which is awarded to an individual who has made sustained contributions to the arts and has a profound impact on Vermont's cultural life. This year's award goes to Orly Yadin. Because you must stand next to me, I think I jumped the gun by inviting you up, but you should stand here while I'm talking about you. Sorry. Orly, I know I jumped ahead, but you should be here to hear me say these sad things about you. Okay. Orly, who's right here now, is an award-winning filmmaker and producer of documentaries and animation films since 2012 and executive director of the Vermont International Film Festival until stepping down in June this year to pursue other projects. Under her leadership, VTIF has grown to include year-round programming, monthly screenings, and three film festivals. In 2021, Orly initiated VTIF's launch of the Made Here Film Festival, the only film festival dedicated exclusively to films and filmmakers from Northern New England and Quebec. In 2013, Orly began VTIF's Global Roots Film Festival, a four-day event with speakers and educational activities focusing on bringing great films from the countries of many of the new American communities in Vermont. In service of Vermont's film culture, Orly, with support from archivists, film historians, and filmmakers, created the Vermont Archive Movie Project, whose mission is to locate, digitize, catalog, and exhibit Vermont films. Orly has led collaborations with media and film organizations around the state, including the Brattleboro Film Festival, WRIF, the Savoy Theater, and the Green Mountain Film Festival in Montpelier. You may wonder how she has time to do absolutely anything else because on top of all of that, she is also a wonderful person, tremendous friend, and hugely supportive of the arts in Vermont. For Orly's sustained contribution, and someone I am making deeply embarrassed right now. For Orly's sustained contribution to the arts and its impact on Vermont's cultural life, it is my pleasure to give the Walter Surf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts to Orly Yadine. This is really strange. The monitor here is showing my face. What you see up there, I'm actually looking at here. These are my notes. Thank you, Susan. Thank you, the Arts Council. Thank you, anyone who was involved in creating this most amazing event tonight. And also, thank you for thinking that I was deserving of the Walter Surf Award. When Susan called me and told me about this, I was incredibly surprised. But the last few days I was thinking, oh, my God, I'm going to have to say something. What am I going to say? So I thought I'd better find out a little bit more about Walter Surf. I mean, he's giving me this award, isn't he? So I don't know. You probably all know about Walter Surf, but I didn't. But like me, he came to the United States from another country. Walter Surf actually escaped from Germany in 1936 and came to the US, escaped from Nazi Germany, I should say. But he was already a philosopher in Germany. And then when he came here at Princeton, he got a second PhD in philosophy. And then he went on to translate and write books about all these most amazing German philosophers like Hegel and Schelling and Fichte and God knows what. So he seems to have been a most amazing person. And then after the war, when he managed to get some of the money that was confiscated from his family back in Germany, he decided to give it all away. Now, the similarity between me and him is only because that we both came from Europe. I don't have a PhD in anything. And I certainly don't have millions and millions to give away. But I'm very grateful to him and on behalf, not just of me, of course, because I didn't get the millions, but that he donated to Vermont, to the culture in Vermont, as well as in other states, that he saw the importance of culture. And that really he just gave all his fortune away to what I certainly, and we all here, I'm sure, consider the most important thing in life, which is art and culture. Because it does so much more than just draw lines and show a little entertainment or and so on. It's brings us all together. This is also what we've been trying to do at VEATIF, the Vermont International Film Festival, or Foundation, as we're sometimes known. And I just, you know, it's also not only is it sort of, you know, thinking, you know, this guy Walter Cerf. But also, I look to see who got the Walter Cerf Award in past years. I'm an amazing, amazing company. So, and many of them are here, including the president of the board of VEATIF, Arnie Molina. So, it's great. What can I say? It's great. And I promised I'll keep this short. So I'm going to stop now. But there was one other thing I wanted to say, and I just can't remember it. So continue enjoying the evening. Thank you. Congratulations, Orly. As the official Vermont State Arts Agency, we are pleased to work with the elected officials and public servants who serve the state of Vermont, all of whom appreciate the power of the arts and the potential of creative enterprises to build a strong future for Vermont, both culturally and economically. Since 1967, the Arts Council and the governor have worked together to select and honor those who have made significant and lasting contributions to the arts in Vermont. The Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts is the most distinguished recognition bestowed to an artist by the state of Vermont. And while Governor Phil Scott could not join us this evening, I am so pleased to introduce State Treasurer, Mike Pichek, to present the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. Under Treasurer Pichek's leadership, the Office of the State Treasurer is making unprecedented investments in Vermont's housing and retirement sectors and demonstrating a deep commitment to transparency and accountability for public funding. With so much of the arts funded through public dollars, we all benefit when our state leadership takes that responsibility seriously and invest our public funds in a way that benefits all of us, in the arts community and beyond. Welcome, State Treasurer, Mike Pichek, to present the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. Well, thank you very much, Susan. It's really an honor to be here with everyone this evening, and it's really a unique honor to be presenting the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. This award is really special for a number of reasons, but you really don't have to look too far past the previous award winners to understand why. Saberfield, Jay Craven, Howard Frank Moser, Grace Potter, and a favorite of mine being from Brattleboro, Archie Mayer. And now it's an honor to add Leslie Fry to that esteemed list. It's also a special award because this award does not just recognize the impact and influence that the artist has had in Vermont, but it recognizes the impact and influence that artist has exported from Vermont to the region, to the nation, and in Leslie's case, across the world. And that means this honor, honors an individual who through their art has exported the spirit of Vermont, our sense of community, and the unique beauty of our state. And there's no time in our country's history that we needed more of what makes Vermont beautiful across our country. As state treasurer, I also appreciate that our artistic community does not just enrich our culture and our communities, but it also benefits our pocketbooks. Creative industries provide jobs, encourage tourism, and boost revenues for local businesses. That's why all of us in the state need to support and lift up our great artists like Leslie Fry. Leslie's public sculptures within Vermont and around the world have no doubt made a lasting impression on all those who have seen her work firsthand. Leslie was born in Montreal and raised in Stowe. She makes her home in Winooski, and I'm glad that you're a neighbor of mine. Where she has turned her secluded yard into a semi-public sculpture garden, melding flora and fauna with concrete and bronze castings. My dog often wonders what's going on in that lawn, so now I know. Over the course of her 46-year career, through mediums from intimate drawings to public sculptures to street performances, Fry's art explores representations of the female body throughout history and makes connections between the natural world and constructed realities. Fry has won numerous residencies and fellowships in the United States, in Europe, and in South Korea. She aspires to make sculpture that is accessible to all, and her public sculptures have been commissioned in New York, South Korea, Montreal, Florida, Wisconsin, and here in Vermont. Public collections include Tufts University, Freehand New York, Kohler Art Center, Tampa Museum of Art, the Fleming Museum of Art, and the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Art as well. Of her public art commissioned in Burlington area, the best known is the circle of concrete sphinxes in Parmalo Park right on Shelburne Road. For her ability to showcase deep connections between humans and nature, and her passion for sharing in the power of public art with others, it is my distinct honor to bestow upon Leslie Fry the 2023 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. Leslie? As gifts are unexpected as was this award, you keep your head down, carrying on with your work, feeling invisible, and then out of the blue you are recognized. And I'm saying you because I am surrounded by dedicated, hardworking artists and all disciplines right here in this room as well as in the entire state. I've known, I mean it was so nice tonight to have music by Paul Aspel, Jeff Salisbury, Clyde Statz, and Chuck Eller who I've known for decades. And in the audience right now are filmmakers, dancers, photographers, painters, print makers, sculptors, musicians, and writers. And all have kept the faith despite hard times over the years. Being in the same boat with each other solidifies the feeling of community that I'm grateful for and that has sustained me. And being from Vermont binds me to a larger community with shared values of hard work and individualism that has formed me along with the landscape and climate. I drank a lot of prosecco and talked a lot before this, so I'm kind of losing my voice. Pardon me. Growing up at the foot of Mount Mansfield is a big reason I'm a sculptor. I took in its profile every day and learned its contours by skiing the nosedive and hiking the chin. Vermont's mountains, hills, and valleys are all sculptures to me, and that's the truth. I am truly moved to be honored by my home state. Thank you, Treasurer Mike Bicek and Senator Welch, Governor Scott, Health Commissioner Levine, and all the state officials for their ongoing hard work and whose calm, patient voices got us through the onset of COVID and represent the down to earth attitude that makes me glad to be a Vermonter. We all know that getting through a tough winter or enduring floods is possible here because our neighbors pitch in. So thanks to the whole state, the Vermont Arts Council, and my comrades for their support, and for all the mountains in my life, real and imagined. Thank you very much. Congratulations, Leslie. And with that, the 2023 Vermont Arts Awards have wrapped up, and we can look forward to much more incredible art, culture, creativity, and community among all of the talented people in our state for another year to come. So thank you all for being here. Thank you for being part of Vermont's creative community, and go out there and enjoy some art. Be part of making it, be part of supporting it, and be part of loving it with the people around you. Thank you so much for coming tonight.