Carleton Is Honored
With ‘Ostlund’ Award

Rebecca "Rebbie" Carleton of Bethel, the longtime innovative art teacher at Randolph Elementary School and volunteer extraordinaire at Chandler Center for the Arts, was honored Saturday evening by that organization.

Carleton’s name was placed on a plaque naming her a recipient of the Martha Ostlund Award for her contributions to program activities at Chandler.

Carleton has served on the Gallery Committee at Chandler for years, sometimes serving as chair, and she has curated many of the Gallery’s most exciting exhibits, many of them featuring children’s works.

The award was bestowed at a reception demonstrating the works of ten artists competing for a $20,000 commission to create art as part of the Centennial renovation project.

In remarks, Chandler President Janet Watton said, in part:

"Tonight's honoree is indeed extraordinary. There are so many adjectives that one could line up that describe this extraordinary person. Rebbie is creative, innovative, inspiring, conscientious, and patient. She listens, she thinks, she plans, and then she executes at a most astonishing level.

"There are many examples, but I will give just five that come quickly to mind.

"My first exposure to her work was when I was helping to produce the Terezin Project. Realizing the necessary sensitivity of working with children on such a difficult subject as the Holocaust, we were all a bit nervous. But Rebbie did a beautiful job talking with the elementary school children and encouraging them to put their thoughts visually on paper. It was amazing. "Rebbie is also an unbelievable set designer for the 4th of July show. Each piece that she does is so well done that we can't bear to throw them away afterwards, and so most of them are still downstairs!

"For the Albert's Big Bash 101 premieres last September, she astounded us all by having her little students come out on the stage with an almost stage-wide version of Picasso's painting, "Guernica"—done in puzzle pieces. Picasso had enough trouble painting this—imagine a group of elementary school children reproducing it. But they sure did! "

Then there are all the youth exhibits that Rebbie organizes—the Vermont Arts Council palettes, their Chandler Centennial tribute with all the birthday cakes, masks, and so on.

"And finally, this magnificent exhibit that you see now (in the Chandler Gallery). Rebbie organized this whole project, starting not really very long ago, a project that required lots of decision-making, letter writing, phone calling, emailing, the whole nine yards.

"In short, I'm not sure what we would have done all this while without her creativity and quiet leadership."