Bullish on Vermont Vermont Culture
Bullish on Vermont Culture
Investing in Vermont — and the arts — comes naturally to the people here. In Putney, Next Stage Arts has launched a performing arts center in a historic church in the center of town. In Guilford, Sara Coffey’s Vermont Performance Lab offers residency programs for contemporary artists, provides them support, fosters their work, and connects them with local townspeople and communities — hopefully in an exchange of knowledge and ideas. In Chester, there is one person determined to bring attention to contemporary art. It is Robert Sarly. VTica is his vision.
Next Stage — An Historic Church Repurposed
by Katherine P. Cox
Next Stage Arts, a non-profit group formed in 2009 to look into converting the former United Church of Putney building into a performing arts center, has already done extensive work on the building and has hosted many musical performances produced by Yellow Barn Music and Twilight Music. There’s also an ongoing film series — every Friday night and a matinee on Saturday — that’s helping to make the center a vibrant part of the revitalization of Putney.
A grant from Fresh Sound Foundation to fund a feasibility study brought together an assortment of talented townspeople to tackle questions of finances, programming, community support, and whether such an undertaking was indeed feasible. The advisory group included Chip Greenberg, an architect; Billy Straus, an independent music producer; Eric Bass, co-founder of Sandglass Theater; John Burt, an independent theatrical producer; and Barry Stockwell, head of the concert production company Twilight Music.
Straus, who was tasked with studying comparable community arts organizations, found all the facilities were thriving, from the very small to the large. “It was very interesting. It was inspiring that all had found a balance in which they were able to carry out their vision within their communities,” he said.
Next up: gauging community support. Several meetings were held where the pubic weighed in, and the response was enthusiastic and supportive. It was important to get community consensus because the building is central to the community of Putney, Straus said. “It’s important to a lot of folks and families in Putney,” he said. But, “the building is in dire need of tender loving care. The use of the building spoke to a possible future, but also came with challenges”: changing and updating an old structure and a historical building.
After careful consideration and discussion about how Next Stage would fit into Putney’s commercial and cultural life, basic renovations were made to the building to make it ready for concerts and movies. The distinctive, historic, round-backed pews stayed, but a provisional stage was installed, as was Surround Sound, lighting, room darkening shades, curtains and safety improvements, always “keeping in mind the historical nature of the building,” said Eric Bass. The 22-foot-wide screen was donated by Landmark College. A lot of work remains to be done, Bass said, particularly making it handicap accessible. “Until we are fully accessible, we can’t serve the whole community.”
Full accessibility is part of the next phase, which calls for a better stage for theatrical productions, rearrangements of entrances and exits, including a lift so it’s accessible, better integration of the performance space and the downstairs kitchen, and creating a green room. Total cost: $1.3 million.
Fund-raising events and performances, and grants from several foundations, have been key in getting Next Stage up and running. The Fresh Sound Foundation, which is interested in community arts as a way to help revitalize rural communities, has donated $39,000, and a $25,000 grant from the AKC Fund has helped to offset costs from programming and licensing to improvements at the church. Community members have been generous, as well, contributing $7,000 so far. Benefit events such as the Community Artist Performance Series is bringing in local and regional artists to support the cause — and raise their profiles, as well.
“We’re penny-wise about what we’re doing,” Straus said. “Our events right now are self-sustaining.”
According to Straus, Next Stage ended 2011 in the black. “A lot of that is due to the tremendous amount of volunteer effort,” he said.
He added that 2012 will be a big year for fund-raising, with plans to create Next Stage memberships, “which will allow community members to enjoy the benefits of Next Stage programming while helping support our annual budget needs. And of course revenues from our events have been and will remain vital in helping support our programming going forward.”
Despite the shoestring budget, the 160-seat performing arts center has successfully engaged the community in its programming, with robust attendance at its shows and film offerings since it officially opened last March. On a recent December night, 120-130 people attended a Yellow Barn concert the same night Sandglass Theater was sold out. The General Store was open and people were shopping. “It’s really doing what it’s supposed to do: to help revitalize downtown Putney both commercially and culturally,” Bass said.
Revitalization was a central goal when Next Stage formed, as well as preserving a historic building. But Bass said another purpose is to help grow Putney’s cultural identity; to make Putney a cultural destination, collaborating with the many other civic and cultural organizations in the area, such as Yellow Barn Music and Twilight Music. Such collaborations unite performing arts organizations, rather than foster competition, Bass said. Yellow Barn, for example can extend their performance opportunities beyond the summer. For Barry Stockwell, who runs Twilight Music and has brought concerts by international, national and regional performers to Next Stage, it provides another venue for his productions. “It’s an exciting opportunity to unify the numerous Putney area arts organizations and bolster the creative economy that already exists here,” he said. Stockwell produces the Twilight on the Tavern Lawn summer music series and hopes to build on that success, “to present concerts of all kinds in Putney year round. Next Stage works perfectly for Twilight Music because of its size and great acoustics.”
A couple of Next Stage performances have already engaged the local school community with the performers, providing greater exposure to the arts for local students. Last year independent filmmaker Joel Katz brought his film, “Strange Fruit,” to Putney, a documentary of the jazz classic about lynching in the South and race and racial politics in the early 1900s. After the feature showing, Katz stayed in town and screened it again at Next Stage, this time for the 8th-graders at the Putney Central School and the Putney Grammar School. Likewise, writer Bob Morris came to town to do a spoken-word performance and visited with 1st and 2nd — graders at the Putney Central School. Next Stage hopes to expand such tie-ins with the schools and programming where artists go into the community. A bookstore next door also offers opportunities for author readings.
In the meantime, with full-scale theatrical performances still two or three years away, Twilight Music shows and Yellow Barn concerts will share the line-up with spoken-word performances and thematic films series, which are more exciting if they’re part of a series, Bass said, such as epics “you want to see on the big screen.”
“Epics you must see on the big screen,” adds Straus.
For more information go online at nextstagearts.org to get on the mailing list.
Upcoming shows:
Fri. 1/27 7p: “Giant” (Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean)
Upcoming Concerts:
Fri. 2/10 Twilight Music presents Sweethearts’ Night Out: Darol Anger & Emy Phelps, Lissa Schneckenberger & Corey DiMario and Brittany Haas & Kai Welch —
Musical Couples play (mostly) songs of love for Valentines Day.
Sat. 2/25 Twilight Music presents Caravan of Thieves: Acoustic swing and alt gypsy jazz quartet. Other upcoming Twilight Music productions: Prydein, Tony Trischka, Jonathan Edwards, Cheryl Wheeler and more.
Sat. 3/24 8p: Yellow Barn presents The Crumb Madrigals Project.
Sat. 4/14 8p: Yellow Barn presents The Beethoven Cello Sonatas
Sat. 5/26 8p: Next Stage Arts presents Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez: a night of high energy R&B with the Beehive Queen.
