southern
vermont’s
leading
ladies
S
outhern Vermont’s arts scene is thriving. Local playhouses,
art centers, and theatre festivals draw international talent
and attention to the region, bringing world-class art, music,
and theatre to the delight of both out-of-town visitors and local
Vermonters.
What many people may not know is that this is primarily
happening under female leadership.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th
amendment (which granted women the right to vote), we sat
down and spoke with the strong female leaders who run some
of Southern Vermont’s most prominent and influential artistic
organizations.
Anne Corso
Anne Corso is the Executive Director of the Southern Vermont Arts Center.
She holds a degree in Art History from Rosemont College, and a master’s
in museum education from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She
has served as the director of education for the Reading Public Museum in
Pennsylvania, and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. She
is passionate about community building and has brought new life to the
Southern Vermont Arts Center, forging powerful connections that have
provided exciting opportunities for cooperation with other local artistic
organizations.
On Persistence
“When I was a little girl, my mom used to take me on the train into Center
City, Philadelphia, and we would go to the art museum. I knew from the time
that I was a little girl that I wanted to work in an art museum. When I was
in high school, I told my teachers and my guidance counselors I wanted to
major in art history, and they said, ‘Well, you can’t do that. No one gets paid
doing that. That’s ridiculous. I don’t even know where you would go.’ So I
cracked open my books, and I found the place where I could go, and found
a little community as I was making my way through undergraduate and
graduate school. Eventually, I realized, ‘Hey, you know, these people were
wrong. You really can make a living in the arts.’ I’ve had an incredible career
in art centers and art museums, teaching art and talking about art and living
in it and around it every day.”
On The Southern Vermont Arts Center
BY JOSHUA SHERMAN, MD
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRYCE BOYER
AT OLD MILL ROAD RECORDING
“At Southern Vermont Arts Center I am fortunate enough to be in a position
where I was able to build a new team. [I] brought on a couple of [people in]
key positions, one of them being my manager of education, who has really,
really dialed it up in terms of all of our programming efforts. I think that
where we’ve been able to start to change things and accomplish things is
[by] making people realize that we do want to be there for the community.
And we want to program both for them and with them. We have a year-
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