Spotlight: Summer at Southern Vermont Arts Center
West Road, Manchester — SVAC.ORG, or 802-362-1405 The Artists of Southern Vermont: A Fresh Look, will open the 2014 season at the Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum. The exhibit is made up of pieces from the Permanent Collection that haven’t been seen for decades. It is the first in a series of exhibitions being planned to commemorate a remarkable legacy of 90 years of artwork and patronage by SVAC’s member artists and their patrons...
The Art/Life Balance
Southern Vermont artists reflect on juggling their creative pursuits and the realities of parenting By Arlene Distler In the first four days after The Atlantic published “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” a remarkable essay by Anne-Marie Slaughter, an academic, foreign policy analyst, and public commentator, in its July/August 2012 issue, the piece whipped through the social media sphere and was debated hotly — among friends...
A new look for the heavens and the earth
The Latchis Hotel and Theatre Building, completed in 1938, was built as a memorial to the life and work of Demetrius P. Latchis. A Greek immigrant, Demetrius had developed Latchis Enterprises from a single fruit stand in Brattleboro into a family chain that at one time included 15 movie theaters and three hotels along the Connecticut River Valley. After his death, his four sons decided to honor their father with a building that would...
Peggy Farabaugh: Success borne of vision and necessity
By Steve Noble Peggy Farabaugh has a different take on that old predictor of retail success – “Location, location, location.” Vermont Woods Studios, the company she founded in 2005, just opened a showcase for the fine Vermont-made furniture it sells on a hilltop that’s accessible but a little off the beaten track in Vernon. Once you get there, the views are spectacular, and the setting is idyllic, but really, Peggy, you opened a...
Gail Grycel: From music to woodworking, with classes for women
By Steve Noble The first time Gail Grycel tried to teach a woodworking class for women, she met more resistance than an axe hitting knotty pine. “No way are women going to use my shop!” she recalls the shop teacher at the public Massachusetts high school where she was going to teach saying. But Grycel persevered. She finally persuaded the teacher to let them use the shop, and the class was a hit. Now, nearly 20 years later, Grycel is...
Charles Shackleton: Writing messages in objects
By Steve Noble Charles Shackleton does not fit the image of the lonely craftsman toiling away in the solitude of a studio “I’m a people person. I really enjoy people. These things that we make are really our way of connecting with people,” said Shackleton, a fine furniture-maker whose studio and gallery are located in an old mill in Bridgewater. “They’re like messages written in objects.” A native of Dublin, Ireland, who followed his...
Popping up
Temporary stores emerge with local art for the holidays …in Wilmington Mother-daughter team Meg Streeter and Charlotte Hoffman with backgrounds in business, art and real estate will open a Holiday Pop Up Shop in Wilmington every weekend in December. The shop, called Display Wilmington, will be located in the historic Home Center at 1 East Main Street. It will feature a selection of art and gifts by artists from Vermont and...
The Hatch: Storytelling with a mission
It is rumored that the state of Vermont has more nonprofits per capita than any other state in the U.S. So why another one? That question was answered over coffee in early 2012 while the four founders of The Hatch were hatching their nonprofit plan, before they realized it was happening. The players were four Dummerston residents: National Public Radio and Motel 6 TV ad personality “We’ll leave the light on for you,” Tom Bodett, Rita...
Airbnb: A New Era of Green Mountain Hospitality
By Troy Shaheen “When I come up to Vermont and stay somewhere through Airbnb, I feel like I’m staying with old friends,” explains Marie O’Brien, a Connecticut resident who travels to Vermont often. She’s headed to Montpelier this week, and will be staying in the home of someone she has never met. Long a cultural staple and economic contributor in the Green Mountain State, the practice of renting out a room in one’s house has evolved...
Wine Observed: A bit of the Vermont terroir
Unique and delicious dessert spirits from the Green Mountain State By Marty Ramsburg For those looking to shop local and support Vermont businesses this holiday season, we have some truly unique and delicious dessert wines and ciders that make great additions to gift baskets. For those adventuresome wine drinkers with whom you want to share a bit of Vermont “terroir,” we highly recommend the following. Putney Mountain, Cassis The...
How Sweet Is Is: Vermont Maple Weekend
Open House Weekend, March 22-23 Plan to visit the 16th Annual Whitingham Maple Festival in Whitingham on March 22 and 23 to learn about sugar making and its historical importance in the town. Whitingham is the birthplace of Brigham Young and there are two monuments in town noting Young’s achievements. In addition that weekend, the town hosts a Craft Fair on Saturday /Sunday, Pancake breakfasts/luncheons on both Saturday and Sunday and...
Local Flavor: A Love Affair with Yeast
By Molly Leuschel — Photos by Emily Hale “Yeast and I are really happy together,” says Rachel Laliberté, owner of a home-based bakery business in Grafton, appropriately named the Grafton Village Bakery. Rachel’s love affair with yeast began nearly ten years ago, shortly after she moved with her husband, Keith Hermiz, to Vermont from the Washington DC area. She had been working as an executive for a national retailer whose headquarters...
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