Posted By Dan Bolles on Fri, Dec 14, 2018 at 4:04 PM

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Courtesy of Charlotte Potter

Charlotte Potter

On January 2, 2019, Charlotte Potter will take over as executive director at Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield. It's a homecoming for the Mad River Valley native, who for the past six years worked as the glass studio manager and program director at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va. She succeeds former Yestermorrow ED Claire Gear, who is now the executive director of the Shelburne Craft School.

Tags: Yestermorrow Design/Build School , Charlotte Potter , craft , design , Image , Web Only

Posted By Chelsea Edgar on Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 3:43 PM

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Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Jerry Williams, left, and Chris Miller

Last evening,  November 14, Gov. Phil Scott and the Vermont Arts Council honored six Vermont artists at the annual Governor’s Arts Awards ceremony, held at the Statehouse in Montpelier.

This year’s Award for Excellence in the Arts went to two recipients, selected by Scott from among 20 nominees: Sculptors Chris Miller and Jerry Williams, who worked together on a new Ceres statue for the top of the Statehouse dome. (The previous one had rotted and was removed earlier this year.) The figure, an allegorical representation of Vermont’s agricultural heritage, will be installed on November 30.

Tags: Governor's Arts Awards , Alison Bechdel , Jerry Williams , Chris Miller , John Willis , Judith Chalmer , Allison Coyne Carroll , Vermont Arts Council , Gov. Phil Scott , Image , Web Only

Posted By Jordan Adams on Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 5:45 PM

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Courtesy of Ben Sarle

Andy "A_Dog" Williams

One of the most important days for Burlington's hip-hop and skateboard community is upon us. Now in its fifth year, the annual A_Dog Day celebrates the life of DJ, artist and skateboarder Andy "A_Dog" Williams, who passed away nearly five years ago. The multifaceted memorial event kicks off on Saturday, August 25, with a multitude of artsy happenings at various locations in downtown Burlington.

Tags: Andy Williams , A_Dog , skate park , hip-hop , Image , Web Only , Video

Posted By Sadie Williams on Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 3:46 PM

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Sadie Williams

April Cornell (left) and Ginny Joyner

An already polychromatic building near the bottom of Main Street in Burlington is becoming much more colorful. Previously painted pastel yellow and pink, the  April Cornell headquarters now sports more than 20 different colors. Depictions of flowers, cats and butterflies adorn the walls. Even the fire escape flaunts radiant multicolored steps.

The new look is prompted in part by a re-branding effort: The 43-year-old company just redesigned its logo. The "retro logo," as the eponymous owner calls the original, still appears on the back of the building. The new one is painted on the front. Cornell says painting the new logo on the squat, blocky building induced her to ask, "How do you take something industrial and make it joyful?" The solution: more color.

Tags: Against the Wall , April Cornell , murals , public art , Burlington , Ginny Joyner , 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 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

Posted By Sadie Williams on Sat, May 26, 2018 at 8:00 AM

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Sadie Williams

Aaron Grossman with mirror mural-in-progress

Anyone driving or walking behind Speeder & Earl's Coffee and the SEABA Center, through the warren of studios off Pine Street, might be in for a surprise. A large brick building that once looked like, well, a large brick building, now reflects the sky. The tricky mural is the work of metalsmith and glass artist Aaron Grossman, whose studio is behind a  black door in the shiny façade.

Grossman started the piece about three weeks ago. He says he was inspired by the ivy that once covered the building; it was removed a year ago because it was damaging the brick.

Grossman's mural uses the remaining dead vines as a guide for arching and bending "branches" that creep across the brick wall. The mirror tree echoes the graceful lines of the ivy but, instead of being dark green, it reflects the white brick of the opposing building and the sky. The cumulative effect makes the building almost disappear.

Tags: Aaron Grossman , murals , Burlington , South End Arts District , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sadie Williams on Fri, May 25, 2018 at 1:10 PM

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Chief Don Stevens

Items given to State of Vermont in 2011: soapstone pipe, fur tobacco pouch, peace wampum belt

In early May, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger's office announced a new partnership with the Vermont Abenaki Alliance. The collaboration grew out of controversial discussions over the "Everyone Loves a Parade!" mural on Church Street, which not everyone loves.

(If you haven't been keeping up: Calling the artwork racist, Albert Petrarca vandalized the mural's identification plaque in October 2017. Since then, community members and City Council representatives have been debating whether to replace or alter the mural to depict a more accurate history of Burlington.)

The focus of the City and Abenaki Alliance collaboration will be public events and education about native people and history. The release notes a July 7 event on Church Street and, in the future, a permanent exhibition at the Burlington International Airport.

Tags: Vermont Abenaki Alliance , Abenaki , Church Street Marketplace , mural , Burlington International Airport , Chief Don Stevens , Image , Web Only