Layers of interest: Chocolatiers of Vermont
By Nicole S. Colson Biting into a rich, creamy, and delicious piece of chocolate is one of life’s biggest pleasures. Visiting the place where the chocolate was made—maybe watching it made before your eyes—adds to that experience. Connoisseurs can appreciate that chocolate made in Vermont is made not only with quality ingredients but also in a way that is both environmentally and socially conscious. This extra layer of enjoyment comes...
The art of craft in a digital world
Might it be that the more we digitize the more we risk losing what’s human? By Ann C. Landenberger At a recent regional juried craft show a woodworker received an award for a table featuring inlaid maple leaves. Kudos to the craftsman. But wait. On closer examination, one sees that each maple leaf is identical: perfect. And the inlay is razor-edged precise. The woodworker’s website boasts that his shop’s work is achieved by skilled...
Publisher on a mission: Dede Cummings and Green Writers Press
The award-winning Green Writers Press represents the intersection of Dede Cummings’ passions for the published word and a sustainable future for the Earth. By Valerie Stuart Green Writers Press was born in 2014 out of the devastation of 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene and one local woman’s determination to stem the tide of global climate change. Brattleboro’s Dede Cummings, inspired by fellow Vermonter Bill McKibben and active in his...
Fueled by nature: Laura Zindel Design
From my earliest memories of wandering the forest and riverbanks to this moment right now, I remain enamored of the flora and fauna of this world—its light side as well as the dark. — Laura Zindel By Ann C. Landenberger It starts with a highly articulated pencil drawing. From there the image is transferred to clay in any one of myriad shapes and forms — each in balance, both functional and beautiful. Every handmade form is fabricated...
The happy cows of Jersey Girls Dairy
By Cicely M. Eastman The ladies of Lisa Kaiman’s Jersey Girls Dairy herd might very well be the happiest cows on Earth—at the very least, of Chester, Vermont. Grazing on grass growing lush on rock river bottomland of the Williams River, undisturbed by the occasional freight train and seasonal Green Mountain Flyer, the 20 to 25 registered Jerseys wander open pastureland. Lisa’s cows, loved, love life. She invites visitors to see for...
On covered bridges, trout streams, and becoming a Vermonter
I caught my first trout in Paran Creek. And from that first experience… I was hooked By Jonah Spivak When I moved to Vermont from New York in the winter of 1976, Jimmy Carter was president, a gallon of gas cost 99 cents, and there were more cows here than people. For a kid from Mahopac this was a huge change! My parents were part of the back-to-the-land movement that had its origins in the late 1960s and peaked in the ‘70s. For them,...
Lasting impact: Exhibits trace Vermont’s counterculture ever forward
By Yvonne Daley Arguably no state was more greatly influenced by the counterculture than Vermont as tens of thousands of young people loosely associated with the movement moved to Vermont during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, eventually blending into communities small and large, both embracing the local culture and impacting it with their ideas and ideals. In acknowledging that phenomenon, the Bennington Museum’s dual...
Bookmarks: Reviews of two new Vermont page-turners
By Kevin O’Connor of VTDigger The annual Brattleboro Literary Festival, set for Oct. 17–20 at downtown locations (see our feature, page TKTKTK) promises speakers and subjects from around the world — and, in these two cases, from right here, then and now: If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years The late Nobel Prize in Literature winner Rudyard Kipling wrote his classic works The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous at the...
Putney Craft Tour
Putney Craft Tour Locations around Putney and Saxtons River Nov 29–Dec 1 http://www.putneycrafts.com 802 387-4032 The 41st Annual Putney Craft Tour, the oldest continuing crafts tour in the country, is held during the long Thanksgiving weekend and gives shoppers, visitors and collectors another reason to be thankful. Glass blowers, potters, jewelers, weavers, painters, woodworkers—even artisan cheesemakers, and winemakers—invite...
Music, Theater, and Puppetry
Brattleboro Music Center 38 Walnut St., Brattleboro http://www.bmcvt.org 802 257-4523 Oct. 11, 13: Blanche Moyse Chorale in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sandy’s Cantatas. Nov. 3: Windham Orchestra (at Latchis Theatre, Brattleboro). Nov. 10: Jenny Lin on the piano performs the music of Philip Glass. Nov. 15: In Stile Moderno: Lute Songs of John Dowland and Contemporaries. Nov. 23: Northern Roots Presents A Breton Evening. Nov. 29: Sarasa...
At the Museums
Bennington Museum 75 Main St., Route 9, Bennington Thru October, 10a–5p daily; November–December, Tue–Thurs 10a–5p http://www.benningtonmuseum.org 802 447-1571 Thru Nov. 3: Fields of Change: 1960s Vermont. Thru Dec. 30: Visible in Vermont: Our Stories, Our Voices, multi-generational photo and story exhibition highlighting experiences of people of color living and going to school in Vermont. Sept. 21–Dec. 30: Asa Cheffetz: Vermont Wood...
At the Galleries
Canal Street Gallery 23 Canal St., Bellows Falls 11a–5p, Wed–Sat http://www.canalstreetartgallery.com 802 289-0104 Thru Nov 9: A World Suspended in Color: a collection of glass art from the region’s many nationally renowned glass artists, including Vermont Glass Guild and League of NH Craftsmen members. Crowell Gallery at the Moore Free Library 23 West St., Newfane 1–5p Tue, Wed, Fri; 2–7p Thu; 10a–1p Sat...
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