Posted By Sadie Williams on Wed, May 31, 2017 at 7:00 PM

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Courtesy of Shelburne Craft School

Ceramics by Rik Rolla

A new call to craft artists comes from the unlikely collaboration of the Shelburne Craft School, a nonprofit that teaches traditional art and craft skills, and April Cornell, a Burlington-based clothing designer.

On July 16, the two will host Art on the Water, an outdoor fine arts and crafts event in the parking lot behind April Cornell's retail outlet on Battery Street. It will feature up to 15 juried vendors, live music, art activities and food courtesy of the ArtsRiot food truck.

Tags: Shelburne Craft School , April Cornell , Rik Rolla , Burlington waterfront , Image , Web Only

Posted By Dan Bolles on Tue, May 30, 2017 at 12:09 PM

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Matt Thorsen

Nectar's

Pssst. Wanna buy a nightclub?  A pretty famous one in Burlington has just hit the market: Nectar's.

Last week, Seven Days reported that the building at 188 Main St., which houses both Nectar's and Club Metronome, was for sale. Unclear at the time was whether the nightclubs were also on the table. In a recent phone call, representatives from Nectar's Entertainment Group, which owns the building and both clubs, confirmed that the business is also for sale.

Tags: Nectar's , Club Metronome , Nectar's Entertainment Group , Burlington , real estate , Image , Web Only

Posted By Kymelya Sari on Sun, May 28, 2017 at 10:49 PM

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Kymelya Sari

Cast and crew of 'Juniya 2'

A couple of weeks ago, my colleague Dan Bolles wrote about Punjabi singer Shael's latest video, "Meri Jaaan," which was filmed in Burlington. The video's producer, Razaq Baloch, said many viewers wanted to know where it was shot. While Shael's video might have piqued Bollywood fans' interest in the Queen City, Vermont is familiar to Banllywood fans.

Since 2009, Muktar Aden and Mohamed Muktar have made six feature films and distributed them through their own production company, Banllywood Entertainment. The pair also has a weekly news program, "Somali Bantu TV," which is filmed at the studio of the Vermont Community Access Media in Burlington and runs on Channel 15.

Last Saturday, Aden invited me to watch them film their seventh movie, Juniya 2, at Ethan Allen Park. Besides headlining the film, Aden, known as Muktar America among Banllywood fans, is also the producer and action-scene instructor. Mohamed Muktar is the cameraman and has a supporting role.

Tags: Somali Bantu TV , Banllywood Company , Juniya , Vermont Community Access Media , Mara Abaz , Muktar Aden , Muhidin Abdi , Abow Ibrahim , Fatuma Mohamed , Mohamed Muktar , Image , Web Only , Video

Posted By Rachel Elizabeth Jones on Sat, May 27, 2017 at 8:05 PM

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Courtesy of Grace Spring & Cassandra Corcoran

Grace Spring with sculpture

When artist and activist Grace Spring was in her fifties, she began a one-woman protest vigil: Every Friday for more than 20 years, she would show up in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., bearing a "Free Tibet" sign. Today Spring, now 84,  is the subject of a pop-up retrospective organized by her daughter, Monkton resident Cassandra Corcoran.

For this weekend only, Bristol's WalkOver Gallery is featuring a selection of Spring's artworks, from life-size, hand-painted papier-mâché sculptures to portraits of Tibetans on cotton scroll, to black-and-white photographs of tabletop clay sculptures of mythical beasts and ample allegorical suggestions.

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Rachel Jones

From left: Grace Spring, sculpture by Spring, Cassandra Corcoran

Spring's works are warm and gentle, woven inextricably with artifacts from her longtime engagement with Tibet. These include an album of thank-you notes and drawings from Tibetan children that the artist received in 1989, snapshots of her travels in the region, and "Free Tibet" stickers.

Three of Spring's  human figures appear to be congregating happily by the gallery's window, beneath a colorful Tibetan prayer flag. At one point early Saturday evening, guests huddled around a laptop that was playing video from a visit the Dalai Lama paid to the U.S.  — across the room from Spring's rendering of His Holiness as a puppet.

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Rachel Jones

Sculpture by Grace Spring

One signature of her mother's life, writes Corcoran, was her "quest for inner peace and the cultivation of her spiritual life." Before Spring "found the Tibetan Buddhist path" in the ’80s, she was a follower of Indian spiritual guide Kirpal Singh, as well as the mystic Gurdjieff.

Spring's preoccupation with spirituality — grace, if you will — emanates strongly from her body of work. Angels appear in multiple forms, from a sculpture of a youthful, almost sly, kneeling angel to a 1992 sketch of a more traditional European angel.

Even works without direct religious references, such as a sculpture of a young boy, embody archetypal, existentially loaded positions. The boy, for example, kneels and examines his upturned palms, suggesting the contemplation of his own human form, as well as the stance of the beggar and the repentant sinner.

One of Spring's most striking sculptures is of

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Rachel Jones

Sculpture by Grace Spring: "I am You and You are Me — There Is No Separation"

 herself. It is listed as "Painted  paper mache sculpture of woman standing with mirror: "I am You and You are Me — There Is No Separation." The figure is a young woman holding a mirror outstretched in her right hand. As if enacting a mudra, her left hand is extended with the palm up. The "mirror" she holds has no glass; the barrier has been removed, or was never there.

Affecting in its intimacy, this show celebrates the slow, soft and unwavering contemplation of finding one's place,  not only in relation to others but to oneself, to the cosmos and to the here and now.

Tags: art , grace spring , walkover gallery , bristol , buddhism , dalai lama , tibet , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Sat, May 27, 2017 at 11:20 AM

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Courtesy of Jon Testa

Jon Testa

In case you missed our first installation of Style Points last week, here's another chance to dig into the Vermont fashion scene. We're back with another local designer killing it in an international market.

Tags: Jon Testa , Mean Folk , Battery Street Jeans , fashion , Image , Web Only

Posted By Amelia Devoid on Fri, May 26, 2017 at 9:01 AM

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Amelia Devoid

Hey there, dew drops. I've been scouting the internet for nice local tracks to set the tone for your spring flings. You know, the kinds of songs that make you want to share your earbuds while swinging on a waterfront bench at sunset.

Tags: electronic , Burlington , Williston , Guthrie Galileo , JPom , Stace Brandt , neo-soul , ambient , Image , Web Only

Posted By Rachel Elizabeth Jones on Tue, May 23, 2017 at 2:08 PM

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Courtesy of Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center

Wendy James and John Brickels

In 1986, sculptor John Brickels was juried into Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center. His wife, artist and Essex High School art teacher Wendy James, began to show her work at the gallery in 2011. Now, after decades of working within and supporting the Vermont arts community, the couple have announced they will be moving to Massachusetts in June, following James' retirement from her teaching career.

To bid the pair bon voyage and honor their contributions to the state,  Frog Hollow will mount the exhibition "Here to There," opening Thursday, June 1, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The show will include an array of works spanning the artists' careers, including Brickels' celebrated architectural clay sculpture and later steampunk-themed pieces, and a selection of James' paintings and photomontages.

Tags: wendy james , john brickels , frog hollow vermont state craft center , burlington , Image , Web Only

Posted By Dan Bolles on Tue, May 23, 2017 at 1:41 PM

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File photo: Matthew Thorsen

Nectar's

The building that houses iconic Burlington nightclub Nectar's is up for sale. In a conference call Tuesday morning, representatives from Nectar's Entertainment Group confirmed that its three-story building at 188 Main Street, which also houses Club Metronome, is on the market. NEG, which also owns the Nectar's brand, has owned the building since 2012.

Tags: Nectar's , Nectar's Entertainment Group , Nectar Rorris , Alex Budney , Jason Gelrud , Noel Donnellan , Chris Walsh , real estate , Image , Web Only

Posted By Dan Bolles on Mon, May 22, 2017 at 12:30 PM

Tags: Jared Hall , humor , standup , Vermont comedy , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Tue, May 16, 2017 at 6:07 PM

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Burlington City Arts

Andrew Krebbs and Andrew DesForges

On Monday, Burlington City Arts announced the newest additions to its administrative team, art director Andrew DesForges and communication director Andrew Krebbs.

Krebbs fills the position left by the departure of communication director Llu Mulvaney-Stanak in March this year. Mulvaney-Stanak held the post for just 10 months before leaving to become the interim executive director of Outright Vermont; longtime director Eric Ford left it in 2016 for a position as senior manager of local programming at Vermont PBS.

BCA's previous art director was Ted Olson, who worked at the organization from 2010 to 2015. He left BCA in 2015 to start his own branding firm, Tally Ho Design, but continued to freelance for BCA, as did Bobby Hackney Jr.

DesForges, 32, is originally from Killington. He spent 10 years away in cities across the country, earning his MFA from the University of Iowa. DesForges returned to Vermont last year to be closer to his family. He has been working as a designer for A&S Brewing, as well as on freelance projects. Local music lovers will have seen DesForges' work on posters for the band Madaila.

Krebbs, 35, is originally from Indiana but spent the last 12 years in Birmingham, Ala. There he was the marketing director for the 67.5-acre Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a popular tourist destination. Krebbs moved to Vermont last November with his partner, Jason Garvey, who took a faculty position at the University of Vermont.

Part of his job, Krebbs said, is to make the BCA customer experience better. "We want to make it really easy to take classes, really easy for you to join or donate, to volunteer," he noted.

Krebbs added that he and his partner were drawn to Vermont because "the quality of life is just so amazing here. And BCA fits right into that."

For his part, DesForges said that his role is to visualize and convey to the public what the organization is all about. "A lot of people I talk to don't know all that BCA offers," he said. "We're either just a clay studio or a gallery [to them], but we have so much more going on."

Outside of work, DesForges said he enjoys skateboarding, snowboarding, the fine arts and live music. His most recent discovery was the local band Iron Eyes Cody.

Krebbs said he's excited for his first full summer in Vermont. He said he enjoys being outdoors and spending time with his three dogs.

Being one of two Andrews is confusing for both new hires, who sit right next to each other in BCA's third-floor offices. DesForges suggested Top Gun-themed nicknames: "Goose" for him and "Maverick" for Krebbs. Whether or not the names stick, it seems that BCA has found its wingmen.

Tags: Burlington City Arts , Andrew Krebbs , Andrew DesForges , Image , Web Only