BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug 9 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and singer-songwriter Grace Potter hosted two town meetings on the arts last Saturday in White River Junction and South Burlington with young Vermont artists and Vermonters from across the state. The events featured performances by Potter, as well as up-and-coming Vermont artists Kingdom All Stars, Sound Check, and Catherine Viner. Following the performances, the young musicians joined Sanders and Potter for a panel discussion about how to advance the arts in Vermont and create more opportunities for young Vermont artists. Said Bulle, a member of the group A2VT also joined the discussion in South Burlington.

“These are difficult times,” said Sanders. “School boards are being forced to face unacceptable decisions – whether they have enough funds for the arts, for a language teacher, for athletic programs. Some of them are choosing not to have the arts at all. But I think it is pretty clear to all of us – from today and from what we experience in our daily lives and in the daily lives of our children, our families, and our communities – not only should we not be cutting back on the arts, we should be expanding them. What can we do about this? Well, first things first, I will do everything I can to bring essential federal funding to strengthen arts programs in our schools. And second, on the local level, one thing we must all do together is tell our school boards, ‘You know what, arts are important. Don’t get rid of the arts.’”

Said Grace Potter: “I’m honored to have been invited to take part in the Town Hall events with Bernie this past weekend. While the two gatherings were unique, they both shined a light on the many challenges facing Vermonters, Americans, and indeed the world surrounding the arts. It’s time to bring dignity to the teachers and professionals working tirelessly to inspire young generations to explore their creative force. It’s time to build Arts programs centered around a purposeful, responsible, inspired society. Our planet is in crisis; and coming together to address the problem is not always easy; but we humans ALSO have a rare and powerful capacity to connect the dots through creative expression. We can even harness our competitive nature to inspire one another to reimagine our world. The arts are there to help us FEEL what our minds so often forget – that we live in a world worth saving.”

During both discussions, Sanders heard from the young musicians about what art means to them, how they got involved in music, and if they felt supported in their schools. Some of the young artists spoke to how music and the arts are an important outlet for their mental health, while others spoke to the importance of arts teachers.

“It’s such a great creative outlet for me,” said Catherine Viner, a musician who recently graduated from Rice Memorial High School. “Like when I can’t put things into words, I put them into songs.”

“My music teacher worked really hard,” said Jazmine Bogie, member of the Kingdom All Stars, a Vermont student band from the Northeast Kingdom. “She worked at three different schools to make sure that we all could have a music teacher.”

Sanders also opened the discussion up to take questions from the audience on a range of issues from the flood recovery effort to struggling school budgets, after-school programming for young people, teacher pay, community spaces for performance, the arts as a positive tool in mental health infrastructure, and more.

After the event Catherine Viner said: “Having the opportunity to share my music in front of a captivated audience who truly understood and supported the arts was an amazing experience. It gives me hope that as we continue to shed light on the importance of the arts in Vermont, others will feel the support I felt while performing in this event.”

As Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Sanders introduced legislation this year that would begin to address the major teacher pay crisis in America and ensure that all public-school teachers earn a livable and competitive wage that is at least $60,000 a year and increases over the course of their career.

For photos of the event, see here.