Posted By Kymelya Sari on Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 4:09 PM

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Kymelya Sari

Interpreter Poe Poh (left) and Thaw Theet at Leddy Park in Burlington

For the last seven years, Thaw Theet has always attended local festivities to commemorate World Refugee Day, which is observed across the world on June 20.

"I came here as a refugee," said the South Burlington resident. "Even though I am now a U.S. citizen, I will never forget where I came from." Though Theet understands English, she's shy about conversing in the language and chose to speak through an interpreter instead.

Theet, an ethnic-Karen from Myanmar, isn't alone in wanting to honor her history. Last Saturday, upward of 300 people — refugees, former refugees, social service providers and community partners — gathered at Burlington's Leddy Park to celebrate World Refugee Day.

"It's a happy day for me," said Theet, 33.

Tags: World Refugee Day , Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program/USCRI , Association of Africans Living in Vermont , Green Mountain Bhutanese Organization , Leddy Park , Amila Merdzanovic , Image , Web Only

Posted By Kymelya Sari on Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 12:58 PM

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Courtesy of Betsy LeBlanc

Betsy LeBlanc and Sam

Elisabeth "Betsy" LeBlanc remembers being five years old and scrawling "I want to die" on plastic decorative balloons in her room. Months later, the self-abuse began. When she was in third grade, her family doctor noticed the bruises and bite marks on LeBlanc's arms. She had her first major crisis in high school and got help through therapy.

"You might ask why would a five-year-old want to die," says LeBlanc, now 40, in a video that she uploaded on Facebook. "I genuinely believed people would be better off without me."

LeBlanc continues that she was "properly medicated" for the first time when she was 27. It was also the first time she was able to experience anything other than depression, she adds.

Tags: Betsy LeBlanc , Vermont Suicide Prevention Center , Northwestern Counseling & Support Services , Heliand Consort , suicide , suicide prevention , awareness , Image , Web Only

Posted By Rachel Elizabeth Jones on Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 12:07 PM

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Courtesy of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History

Silhouettes of Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant, circa 1805–15

Vermont’s pioneering fight to legalize civil unions in 2000 cemented the state’s place amidst the landscape of American queer and civil rights history. Within just the past several years, the Green Mountain State has emerged as home to another gay cultural landmark: a handmade silhouette considered to be the earliest image of a same-sex couple.

The small, intimate portrait of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, which dates to the early 1800s, is now on view in “Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now” at the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Tags: Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History , Sylvia Drake , Charity Bryant , National Portrait Gallery , Eva Garcelon-Hart , Image , Web Only

Posted By Pamela Polston on Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 7:00 PM

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Massimo Schuster

Peter Schumann

The fifth annual Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts has gone to Peter Schumann, visionary artist/activist and founder of beloved Glover-based Bread and Puppet Theater. He was presented with the $10,000 award — the largest arts prize in Vermont — in a small ceremony Tuesday afternoon at the BCA Center.

The aim of the Lockwood Prize is to "reward the pinnacle of arts leadership in Vermont by honoring the state's most influential artists," according to Todd R. Lockwood. He created the award in 2014 and named it for his younger brother, Herb, an artist and musician who died in a workplace accident in 1987 at age 27.

Tags: Bread and Puppet Theater , Herb Lockwood Prize , Todd R. Lockwood , Burlington City Arts , arts grants , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Sun, Jun 17, 2018 at 4:44 PM

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Sadie Williams

Dancers kicking off "Traces" at the top of Church Street

On Saturday, June 16, Burlington was struck by a confluence of dance-related events: "Traces," an all-day, multi-venue, outdoor performance hosted by the Vermont Dance Alliance, and "Lime Peach Mint: High Crimes Misdemeanors, Bountiful Performances" by Artists' Imperative at Maglianero. What follows is a diary of observations from the day.

Tags: Avi Waring , Marc Wennberg , Clare Byrne , Chong Ho Kim , Annette Urbschat , Heliand Consort , Vermont Dance Alliance , Artists' Imperative , Church Street Marketplace , Maglianero , Image , Web Only

Posted By Luke Baynes on Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 1:43 PM

Tags: Harry Goldhagen , Nightingale Chronicles , Merrill's Roxy Cinemas , Image , Web Only , Video

Posted By Ken Picard on Mon, Jun 11, 2018 at 12:43 PM

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Courtesy of the Flynn Center

Anna Maria Gewirtz

The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts has a new leader at the helm.  Anna Marie Gewirtz, recent acting president and CEO at State Theatre New Jersey, brings to Burlington two decades of experience in Garden State arts and culture.

Gewirtz replaces outgoing executive director and CEO John Killacky, who announced in September that he would be leaving  the Flynn after eight years. In April, Killacky, who lives in South Burlington, declared his candidacy for the Vermont House of Representatives.

Tags: Flynn Center for the Performing Arts , John Killacky , Anna Marie Gewirtz , arts organizations , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Fri, Jun 8, 2018 at 3:24 PM

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Courtesy of Generator

Elliott Katz

On Thursday afternoon, Generator announced the newest addition to its team:  Elliott Katz, who will be the new shop operations manager. Katz is an artist who previously worked as an adjunct professor and sculpture technician at the University of Hartford and managed the Seven Below Arts Initiative residency — a collaboration between Phish's Trey Anastasio and Burlington City Arts that ended last year. 

That gig also brought Katz into contact with then-BCA curator and current Generator director Christopher Thompson. Additionally, Thompson included Katz in the BCA show "Human = Landscape" in 2009. Thompson was the chief curator at BCA from 2008 to 2012, and joined Generator in August last year.

In a recent phone interview, Katz said he's excited to get started in the Generator shop facilities, which currently include basic wood and metalworking.

"Everything needs a deep reordering and cleaning," he said. After that, he plans to build out the forge and add a foundry — a facility for melting and shaping metal.

His primary responsibility will be "to do whatever people want," Katz said.

"[Education director Sarah Sprague] and Chris have very clear visions of what the community is hungry for, and I think I'll just implement their goals," Katz said. Essentially, makers gonna make — but they need the stuff to make with. So Katz will make that. 

Katz said that what he learned at Hartford will likely prove useful at Generator. "We had a foundry, a glass-blowing studio that was new to me," he said. "I love that material — it's so immediate."

Whether or not Generator expands into glass, some of Katz's new colleagues —contemporary artists and fabricators — may very well come to visit. He hinted that Colin McMullen, who built a mobile sugar shack and conducted sugaring demonstrations in a low-income area of Hartford, could be one of them.

Tags: Elliott Katz , Generator , Chris Thompson , maker space , makers , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Fri, Jun 1, 2018 at 12:12 PM

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Daniel Cardon

Image of "Output/Input" by Erika Senft Miller and Alder.

Anyone who frequents Burlington's  Maglianero will be familiar with the hip downtown café's funky vault-cum-reading nook. Normally, the old metal vault houses shelves of books — which are all for sale and curated by Speaking Volumes — as well as two rough-hewn tree trunk stools and a table and chairs.

But last week, the space transformed into an unusual art installation. Now the vault boasts a fragrant carpet of slowly decaying (and alternately, sprouting) sod, barren white walls, and two interactive features. The installation, titled "Output/Input," is also the launch of artist Erika Senft Miller's new website, which is a collaboration of Miller and  Alder, the design outfit of Jasmine Parsia and Chris Norris. All three work out of the Karma Bird House office and coworking spaces upstairs from Maglianero.

Tags: Art , Karma Bird House , Maglianero , Chris Norris , Jasmine Parsia , Erika Senft Miller , installation , Image , Web Only