Art New England Magazine: Focus On Northern Vermont

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FOCUS ON NORTHERN VERMONT

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rom Lake Champlain to the Green Mountains and across its valleys, visitors who seek Vermont’s natural beauty are often surprised—and always delighted—to discover a thriving and dynamic cultural landscape. There are more galleries, museums, and performance spaces than ever before. It’s not surprising that so many artists, musicians, performers, and writers make Vermont their home. It’s as if there’s something in the air that invites creativity. The light, the landscape, and the seasonal changes conspire to make magic.

Yet no matter where you’re from, Vermont is a destination that feels like home as soon as you arrive.

While the sense of place and tradition that calls to our imagination is still there, Vermonters are making products with a sophistication of style, design, and taste that appeals to the modern traveler. Look for the fascinating stories behind companies like Telescopes of Vermont, Shelburne Vineyards, and Jasper Hill Farm, who have created products with that cachet of quality Vermont is known for. And look to the artists and artisans, the galleries and museums for both timeless, traditional gifts and contemporary classics.

The Artisans Hand Craft Gallery in downtown Montpelier is a designated Vermont State Craft Center. This distinction is given to a select few galleries that meet strict standards for quality and diversity. This fall Artisans Hand celebrates thirty-five years of existence promoting Vermont’s fine contemporary crafts. Its collection ranges from clay and fiber through gold

BigTown Gallery interior. Photo: Gene Ogami, 2012.

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and silver. Visitors will appreciate how Janet Zug’s blown glass vases light up the room with color, and how Bud Shriner’s transparent glass bowls and platters are both exquisite and functional. Iconic images of Vermont can travel home as Kevin Ruelle faux vintage posters in archival giclée prints. The gallery’s lovely walking neighborhood offers great architecture, restaurants, and bookstores.

The nearby Vermont Arts Council (VAC) mounts a rotating exhibition of contemporary Vermont art for its outdoor Sculpture Garden.

Currently, curator Lindsey Carlson has selected works by Thea Alvin, Ria Blaas, Rob Hitzig, Steve Procter, Brian-Jon Swift and James Irving Westermann. Two small galleries are also located inside the building. Any drive into Montpelier takes you past the Vermont State House, easily recognizable for its gold dome heralding neoclassical and Greek revival architecture. Inside, you can find contemporary art in the state house galleries.

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Over the past few decades, Vermont has become a national and international leader in low-residency education, especially in the arts.

In fact, Goddard College was the first college to develop a low-residency model for higher education. Today it offers various accredited degree programs from its 175-acre main campus in Plainfield. Widely known for its interesting, talented alumni, Goddard offers one-on-one mentoring from experienced faculty advisors, rigorous on-campus residencies, and the freedom to study from any location.

Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) also recognizes the arts as a foundation for a healthy and creative society. VCFA educates emerging and established artists through its low-residency model, likewise among the first of its kind. MFA degrees are offered in Visual Art through Music Composition. Its notable faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award winners, Guggenheim Fellowship and Fulbright Program fellows, and Ford Foundation grant recipients.

PORTER GARDEN TELESCOPE Designed in 1923, a Smithsonian treasure An optically superb reflecting telescope with removable optics A permanent outdoor installation A working sundial Limited and serial numbered Solid bronze, 70" overall

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NORTHERN VERMONT The Porter Garden Telescope, a working, beautiful, and unusual Art Nouveau bronze sculpture was created in the early 1920s by Russell Porter, designer of the Palomar Mountain Observatory 200-inch Hale Telescope. Today, Telescopes of Vermont has faithfully recreated The Porter Garden Telescope in hand-finished cast bronze, with improved twenty-first century optics.

The instrument would make a stunning acquisition for the art collector, garden lover, astronomy buff or devotee of fine craftsmanship and design. Numbered and limited to two hundred pieces, the telescope shows superb hand-wrought craftsmanship and the cachet of rarity. Over four hundred hours of custom work are lavished on each object. A rare example of the original is held in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

Jericho isn’t far from Montpelier, Burlington or even Stowe yet it’s just far enough off the beaten path to recommend as a side trip.

Jericho was the lifelong home of Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley (1865–1931), an American farmer who photographed over five thousand snow crystals.

Nearby, the Emile A. Gruppé Gallery, Inc. is located in a renovated 1860s English Sheep barn.

The gallery shows and sells the works of noted landscape artist Gruppé as well as local New England artists. Gruppé is best known for his impressionistic landscapes, and he is considered among the most prominent of the Cape Ann school of artists. The Gruppé Gallery will enliven spring with an exhibition of Adrienne-Yellow Patenaude's dynamic expressions of color in sometimes-whimsical Vermont landscapes.

Exhibition Runs: March 1 through May 31 Works by

Judith Tuttle Robert Huntoon

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March/April 2013

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NORTHERN VERMONT More than thirty prominent regional artists are exhibited in the Queen Anne Victorian where the Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery (FSG) is housed. Owner Joan Furchgott presents regularly changing solo and two-person shows in addition to an ongoing exhibition program of stylistically diverse work. Lately Furchgott has been mixing things up by inviting guest curators. “Their strong visions create dynamic exhibitions and they've showcased artists new to the gallery, too,� she says. FSG is just a twominute drive from Shelburne Museum. “Where craft is made, since 1945.� This simple statement has guided the Shelburne Craft School (SCS) since its inception. Nearly seventy years later the school inspires creativity with its hands-on education programs. SCS provides tools for making, and art instruction through an abundance of classes so everyone can discover “that working with one’s hands is an

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essential part of a well-rounded life.� Come summer, SCS rocks with events like their annual live art competition, Wall to Canvas, where artists compete before a live audience to produce street-style artwork on canvas.

A consistent winner in awards and taste, Shelburne Vineyard offers daily tours of their state-of-the-art winery and tasting room. Sip wines made from Northern Varietals (bred for their superior cold hardiness), and relax against the backdrop of Vermont’s beautiful agricultural landscape. Water-themed paintings

by Robert Huntoon and Judith Tuttle are featured in the Tasting Room Gallery through May, and Shelburne Vineyard keeps a busy calendar with music and tasting events.

Location scouts for weddings or events may find their spot right here.

Shelburne Museum is one of North America’s finest, most diverse and unconventional museums of art, design and Americana.

Its extensive collection is exhibited in some

forty buildings, nearly half of which were relocated there. View Shelburne’s Impressionist paintings (including Monet, Manet, Degas, and Cassatt) exhibited in the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building, where the interiors were re-created from the museum founder’s 1930s Park Avenue, New York apartment.

When the Shelburne Museum reopens on May 12, 2013, it will remain open year-round. It adds a new 16,000-square foot Center for Art and Education this fall. Two new galleries, a 130-seat auditorium and classroom space will allow for frequent temporary exhibitions and events.

The Robert Hull Fleming Museum of Art houses Vermont’s most comprehensive collection of art and anthropological artifacts on the campus of the University of Vermont. With more than 20,000 objects, the Fleming’s collection offers a unique opportunity to study visual cultures from early Mesopotamia through contemporary America. From didgeridoo and

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Michel de Broin, Dead Star, 2008. Batteries, urethane, polystyrene. Courtesy of bitforms gallery, nyc

FFeb eb 12 - M May May 19, 20 22013 13 JULIAN CARDINAL FINE ART Burlington, VT • 508.237.0651 info@juliancardinal.com juliancardinal.com

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gamelan music performances to painted word poetry in the museum’s Marble Court to an upcoming show of mixed media “high trash” sculpture, the Fleming Museum engages audiences with fresh ideas in the context of the history of civilization.

Frog Hollow is dedicated to the exposure and appreciation of Vermont fine craftsmanship, and works statewide to enhance art education.

Distinguished as the nation’s first state affiliated craft center, Frog Hollow’s Burlington gallery offers a unique collection of fine, traditional, and contemporary Vermont art and craft representing a community of more than two hundred Vermont artisans, from Dug Nap’s cartoons to Celtic-inspired jewelry of Deirdre Donnelly to Kate Pond’s Corten steel sculptures. Its Church Street location is an open invitation for the discovery of Vermont art and artisans.

Artist Julian Cardinal spent his early years observing the studio of his father, landscape painter, Robert Cardinal. “My father would just

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paint and talk and go over structural things,” Cardinal said. “I picked up on how to build with color and light.” In 2011, Cardinal graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.A. in English and minor in Studio Art. At UVM he began figure drawing, diverting from his father’s subject matter, yet “we have a similar color palette with very earthy tones.” Julian Cardinal also counts the work of motherdaughter artists Cynthia and Anne Packard, among his influences. He is represented by the Kiley Court Gallery (Provincetown, MA) and Chasen Galleries of Fine Art (Richmond, VA).

Creative Women stimulates jobs in communities where sustainable jobs are rare, while bringing simple, rustic, natural textilesto the Western market. This Vermont-based, womenowned company has worked in partnership with textile studios in Ethiopia, Swaziland, Afghanistan, Senegal, Mali, Bolivia, and Peru.

“I believe that beautiful things are more beautiful when the people who make them are paid

NORTHERN VERMONT well and work in a safe environment,” founder Ellen Dorsch explains. “Creative Women allows me to do all three…by buying directly from women-owned businesses, by expanding markets for hand-woven textiles, and by paying fair prices for our goods.”

Since 2003, BigTown Gallery has brought to Vermont exhibitions by artists deeply dedicated to an exploration of what fine art means: both to create and to experience. Owner Anni Mackay has devoted her energies to bringing the arts together with their community. The gallery space and its featured exhibitions, performance art, and reading series are the culmination-to-date of an uncompromising belief in the soundness of that partnership. BigTown Gallery is located in the very center of Vermont on Route 100’s still-unchanged rural corridor, in beautiful downtown Rochester. Stop in for the Members Show through March 30.

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gostowe.com March/April 2013

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With Vermont’s highest mountain, Mount Mansfield, in its backyard, Stowe is touted as a mecca for skiing, snowboarding, and winter activities. It has also long attracted artists and adventurers of every stripe. Whether those adventures are bicycling the mountain or packing an easel and paints to go plein air, Stowe embodies a mystique that draws visitors from around the world whatever the reason or season. Over the decades, Stowe’s arts community has developed a national and international reputation for its artists and institutions, a tremendous feat for a small mountain community.

The Stowe Area Association (SAA) is a window to everything Stowe, easily recognizable in its red and white visitors center. SAA offers much more than information. Its lovely storefront regularly presents the work of Vermont artists and artisans, and serves as a cultural guide to the visual arts, crafts, dance, theater, music, and film so prevalent here. Stowe is now as well known for its galleries, art shows,

performing arts, and cultural landscape as it was originally known for its skiing and mountain terrain.

The West Branch Gallery and Sculpture Center consistently delivers inspired contemporary work.

An oasis from traditional New England art, visitors describe the gallery’s “exciting diversity and great energy” and its art as “thrilling, complex, and unique.” Now, in addition to four interior galleries, a series of monthly rotating exhibitions feature new work in two renovated galleries. New work by artists Galen Cheney, Sheryl Trainor, Aline Ordman, Helen Shulman, and Mariella Bisson are scheduled to appear this spring.

Outside, on their three-acre sculpture park that hugs the river, massive granite sculptures by Chris Curtis, monumental painted steel constructions by David Strohmeyer, and elegant sweeping bronze gestures by Richard Erdman encourage audiences to be embraced by the work.

From its beginning as a community project to save an historic building, the Helen Day Art

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Photos: Susan Teare

On the opposite side of the mountain, the Middlebury College Museum of Art (MCMA), annually presents five to six premier loan exhibitions as well as works from its permanent collection. Canadian Edward Burtynsky’s pursuit of conceptual subjects—from oil extraction to shipbreaking—began in 1991 in Vermont’s granite quarries. A selection of his monumental quarry photographs, including two he took in the extensive underground quarries in Danby, will be shown through April 21. Opening on May 23, Edward Hopper in Vermont assembles, for the first time, twenty-three of Hopper’s known Vermont watercolors and six known drawings. “These particular works, relatively unknown to most and rarely on view, are pure landscapes with few traces of architectural form.” The museum itself, designed by the New York architectural firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, is alone worth the visit.

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Center (HDAC) has developed into a prominent presenter of provocative exhibitions. In addition to exhibiting national and international artists, HDAC’s commitment to Vermont artists is steadfast, as witnessed by the current Source: Guild of VT Furniture Makers. HDAC’s curatorial interest in how the source of all elements collaborate to make the final piece exemplifies what distinguishes the Helen Day as a presenter of work and ideas. Exhibitions often feature the perspective of journalists, dissidents, environmentalists, travelers, and cartoonists.

In a related vein, Stowe’s Cushman Design Group provides integrated architectural design services, specializing in all aspects of high quality residential, commercial, interior, site planning and landscape design. Milford Cushman, the company's founder, is at a phase in his career where he now finds, “…it’s even more important to help clients make healthy, healing, mindful decisions about their design solutions.” As an outgrowth of this, speaks more

Andy and Mateo Kehler’s familyowned dairy farm with a herd of 45 pastured Ayrshire cows—creating a diverse and unique collection of cheeses while presenting compelling insight into artisan cheesemaking in Vermont and New England.

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and more to clients about the “just big enough” house, addressing energy efficiency as a central component of the design discussion.

Theater, dance, music, film, lectures, comedy, and arts education are all on the ambitious agenda of the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center (Spruce Peak). At just over two years old, this center intends to be “the creative and cultural soul” of Stowe as its imaginative and diverse spectrum attests. From composer Itzhak Perlman to bluesman Taj Mahal, Spruce Peak has kept its promise of presenting outstanding work. A variety of films that serve up blistering social and political commentary as well as variety-style performances with “talking” dogs tackle both contemporary thinking and fun. Fans say the 420-seat theatre “doesn’t have a bad seat in the house,” and that may be something found only in Vermont.

Conceived as a tribute to skiing history, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum is an ingenious institution. Beyond the long skis and

Become a member today — vtssm.com Stowe Vermont USA

Visions of Vermont Fine Art Galleries

Eric Tobin, 24 x 30", painting, The Porter Farm

100 Main Street, Jeffersonville, Vt. www.visionsofvermont.com

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802 253 9911

“In the Heart of the Village”

64 South Main Street, Stowe 802.253.1818 open every day except Tuesday from 11am–6pm.

greenmountainfineart.com

NORTHERN VERMONT snowflake sweaters of yesteryear, the museum vows to create visually stimulating, historically in-depth displays. From heroic WWII stories of the famous skiing troops of the 10th Mountain Division to its fine art collection of original paintings, drawings, sculpture, posters and graphics, the VSSM celebrates skiing. A testament to its contemporary relevance, the VSSM launched the annual Stowe Mountain Film Festival and this year will present its 10th festival.

Housed in an 1828 federal style building in the National Historic District, Green Mountain Fine Art connects Vermont’s artisan past to its artistic present. Owners Sandra and Scott Noble use the building’s historic post-andbeam structure to advantage by creating an open and inviting exhibition space. Their roster includes Vermont and New England artists across a variety of media, creating work from highly representational landscapes to stunning abstractions. Notably, the gallery includes several Cape Ann artists, including Donald Allen Mosher.

On nearby Jeffersonville’s Main Street, two restored 1878 Victorian buildings house Visions of Vermont. The gallery features several internationally-known Vermont painters: Eric Tobin is shown in the carriage house, and Karen and Jack Winslow are in the main house. Owners Jane and Terry Shaw are also committed to showing a roster of works by other well-known painters from the region. A third gallery building, The Sugarhouse, focuses on one-person and special shows like the Northern Vermont Juried Show. “Just as the land brings great painters to Jeffersonville,” Jane Shaw said, “it is Visions of Vermont’s intent to bring the painted interpretation of those landscapes to those who appreciate fine art.”

Lastly, the story of Jasper Hill Farm is one that resonates throughout Vermont. Andy and Mateo Kehler started the farm “to find meaningful work in a place they love.” Their distinctive cheeses are often named after people and places, like Bayley Hazen Blue, a natural-rinded blue cheese named for the iconic Bayley Hazen Military Road that traverses Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom or Alpha Tolman, a burly Alpine-style cheese whose name pays homage to a philanthropic dairy farmer responsible for enriching his community. Jasper Hill Farm’s delectable cheeses are a national phenomenon.

They can be found in stores across the country or ordered online.

—Meg Brazill March/April 2013

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