Photograph by Todd R. Lockwood
Watch a video of the Prize presentation event
produced by Media Factory
A tribute to Jay Craven
Here on the cusp of the 10th annual Herb Lockwood Prize, we have begun to see a pattern. A person without fame or wealth or influence hatches an idea, and either grows it in Vermont or brings it here when it’s still in its infancy. Something about the culture here, the high value Vermonters place on art, creativity, and iconoclastic self-expression, merges with a landscape that helps the mind to enlarge its aspirations. Suddenly there is a new art form, a new voice, and almost simultaneously, a new audience for it. A novel, a poem, a painting, a way of teaching acting, a unique puppet enterprise, a jazz interpretation that brings new energy to a classic song, and raising the bar statewide.
This year’s Herb Lockwood Prize winner exemplifies this pattern. He sent his first signal with the creation of Catamount Arts in 1975. It was an unusual acorn to plant, and in stony soil. At that time, the performing arts were not prized in rural areas for their ability to build and foster community, nor for their capacity to strengthen a local economy. He was literally ahead of his time.
Catamount Arts today is testimony to how that idea works in Vermont, and for Vermont. What began as a staging and production idea has become a vast enterprise -- with the central venue of the Community Arts Center in St. Johnsbury, and with connections to more than 40 other arts organizations around the region. A partial list: the Tap into Film 48-hour Student Film Slam, Circus Smirkus St. Johnsbury, the Levitt AMP Music Series, the St J Bluegrass Festival, First Night North, plus arts education programs at every school in the region, from open mic events for teens to violin intensives designed to lift children out of poverty. Add the countless arts interns from Northern Vermont University and elsewhere, and Catamount Arts engages with thousands of students every year. The acorn has become an oak.
But the impresario had already envisioned a forest. If the arts could flourish in the Northeast Kingdom, could filmmaking be liberated from the high-gloss, high-cost methods of Hollywood?
The answer to that question, posed by the creation of Kingdom County Productions in 1991, has been ten dramatic films, and glowing recognition across the country. (It must be noted, however, to show respect that is entirely deserved, this visionary had a co-conspirator, a partner in many, many ways, who has produced 11 documentaries of her own astonishing merit). We can only imagine the level of conversation around that dinner table.
Think of it – 21 films made in New England, most containing all kinds of allegiances. That is, starting with a novel by an iconic Vermont writer, adding some of the state’s finest actors, supported with music by local musicians, comes a film shot mostly in Vermont, edited here too, and welcomed by audiences across the state and beyond. The titles are as familiar as the names of some Vermont towns: Where the Rivers Flow North, A Stranger in the Kingdom, Northern Borders and many more. While cinema is one of the most expensive forms of art – especially compared with a writer and her laptop, a painter and his canvases -- this director managed to work with tight budgets and generally local funding, squeezing six cents out of every nickel.
The resulting films all had one important element in common, as a direct result of all the collaboration and inclusion, a form of cinematic gold the major studios can only dream of: authenticity.
Yes there were stars – many: Kris Kristofferson, Genevieve Bujold, Rip Torn, Jacqueline Bisset, Martin Sheen, Tantoo Cardinal. Yet the aesthetic core was to celebrate this state, and to mine its artistic riches. Cultivating this sort of village of talent is central to who Herb Lockwood was: a person who gathered artists of every stripe and kind, connected them, inspired them, and watched how they lifted one another’s work.
The forest continues to grow. Now students by the score participate in the filmmaking -- some 40 college students involved in the last film by this year’s winner. Now a film festival adorns Middlebury every August, each year gaining in audiences and acclaim. Herb would be smiling.
All over Vermont, you can find artistic trees as a result of this impresario’s invention, imagination, and inspiration. Now that he foresees the end of his filmmaking days, it’s important to recognize not only his success, but the success he has enabled for others. Lights, camera, action for a Vermont institution, this year’s winner of the Herb Lockwood Prize, Jay Craven.
2023 Winner
Jay Craven
