SPRUCE PEAK ARTS
Our region’s curated window to the world, using the stage to expand perspectives and enrich lives.OUR MISSION
To inspire, educate and entertain all of us, all year round.
Spruce Peak Arts is dedicated to uncovering the profound in each performance it brings to the stage. We seek to inspire the imagination of both audience and artist(s) through unforgettable shared experiences.
OUR VISION
To serve as a community living room. One where all our various communities are welcome to engage in rich, one-of-a-kind arts experiences. One that presents great performances as a platform to community building, education, and critical conversations.
Exceptional performers, an intimate venue, breathtakingly beautiful surroundings combined with the enormous hearts and minds of the people in our small resort community are what makes this all possible.
About Us
Spruce Peak Arts curates engaging experiences for all ages that connect audiences to the performing arts in deep, meaningful, and delightful ways. A year-round presenter of performing arts and educational and family programs, Spruce Peak Arts’ home base is the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe, VT. Our 420-seat multi-use modern performance center boasts pristine acoustics and state-of-the-art technical systems. Our technical offerings have recently been updated to provide the high-quality live streaming and recording features required to not just survive, but flourish, in the post-covid world. Like so many organizations, Spruce Peak discovered the fluidity of its reach, once untethered from limitations of the physical space. Our home base is now a launching pad for achieving our mission to inspire, educate and entertain all of us, all year round – and now – all around the world.
Spruce Peak Arts strives to broaden horizons for spectators of the arts while providing opportunities for artists to interact with our communities through school visits, classes, workshops, residencies, and performance immersion experiences for all ages. From artists like Natalie Merchant to the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Freedom House to Arlo Guthrie, Warren Miller to Orebolo, Spruce Peak Arts uses its artistic platform to educate and inspire our community.
The Spruce Peak Arts Community & Education Fund provides access to our programming through deeply discounted tickets for central and Northern Vermont students, families, and community organizations. These events happen year-round and include student matinee performances, school visits, classes, workshops, and residencies for all ages.
To supplement the enjoyment and use of our facility on non-performance days, Spruce Peak Arts front of house features a mixed-use lobby/gallery and exhibition space that features curated visual arts programs. Founded in 2018, The Spruce Peak Arts Gallery adds another level of creative energy and collaboration to the beautiful theater setting. In the Summer of 2021, Spruce Peak Arts presented the exhibition Exploring Earth, the third in an environmental art series, that began with Exploring Air in 2018 and Exploring Water in 2019. Visual artists from this series of exhibitions have been collaborating in the Spruce Peak Arts’ virtual panel discussion series Being a BIPOC Artist in Vermont. We can also host small events, receptions, readings, and lectures in this communal space.
Outside of our theater, Spruce Peak Arts has hosted two Ice Dance International Residencies featuring classes, workshops, school tours, and public performances including the repertory pieces created during the residencies. During the height of Covid, we brought music to our surrounding communities by driving bands on a flatbed truck through the streets of small towns in Vermont. These experiences reinforced that we can bring what we do directly to our audiences – we don’t have to wait for them to find or travel to us. This is a new form of access and has inspired our organization to think more creatively about how to deliver our mission and passion.
Spruce Peak Arts is led by Executive Director Seth Soloway and is governed by a 13-member board of directors led by Chair Dianne Brown. For the fiscal year ending October 31, 2022, the organization reported total revenue of $1,746,943, with $1,448,901 from contributions and grants and $298,062 from program services. Total expenses were $1,086,608.