Destination Vermont

VERMONT

DESTINATION VERMONT

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ulitzer- and Nobel-prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck once noted about her adopted state, “Vermont is a jewel state, small but precious.” And it’s true, especially if you enjoy art. Rumor has it that the Green Mountain State has almost as many art galleries as towns. Artists abound here, inspired by the landscape, with its mountains, lakes, spectacular fall foliage and bucolic farms. Galleries and museums offer a range of artistic experiences, from traditional to contemporary, from paintings and photography to folk art and sculpture. It’s indeed a jewel waiting to be discovered. Start your art tour in Brattleboro, in the southeast corner of the state. The quaint town has a thriving arts and cultural scene thanks in large part to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. A non-collecting contemporary art venue, the museum features six exhibits, one in each of its galleries. “We try to strike a balance showcasing our region’s artistic talent,” says director Danny Lichtenfeld. Among the exhibitions continuing through June 16 are Sandy Sokoloff: Emanation featuring the Vermont artist’s large-scale, vibrantly hued paintings; Amy Bennett: Nuclear Family, paintings based on 3D models created by the artist; and Glasstastic 2019, a show of glass sculptures by New England artists, inspired by drawings submitted by 1200 children (the drawings are shown alongside the sculpture). A short walk from the museum is Mitchell • Giddings Fine Arts, a gallery owned by artists Petria Mitchell and Jim Giddings. Showing innovative works by mid-career and established artists, the gallery’s schedule includes, through June 9, a solo show of watercolors by David Rohn. “Most of the paintings are still lifes and they’re very large—up to seven feet long,” says Giddings. “He rebelled against the art world’s expectations of abstract paintings he did in the ‘70s. Now he paints what he sees—he calls it ‘stalking still life’.” Opening June 15 is an exhibition of large-scale woodblock prints by New Hampshire artist Lyell Castonguay, featuring avian subjects and “weird creations from his fertile imagination,” says Giddings. Castonguay is also the founder of Big Ink, a travelling project that he takes around the country, encouraging students and interested artists to try large-scale woodblock printing.

50    Art New England

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May/June 2019

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Southern Vermont Arts Center Campus.

A little further down Main Street is Vermont Artisan Designs, a fine art and contemporary American craft gallery that’s showcased the work of several hundred New England artists for 40 years. In 11 galleries on two floors are paintings, sculpture and handmade crafts, including glass, jewelry, pottery, wrought iron, fiber art, lamps and furniture. This May, the gallery participates in Vermont’s Open Studio weekend May 25–26, featuring landscapes in oil by Claire Payne, who’s based in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, as well as interiors and landscapes by Carol Gobin, whose paintings reflect her interest in architecture and historical homes. In June, the gallery features contemporary paintings and sports portraits by painter Dane Tilghman as well as landscapes by Woody Jackson. The gallery is also a stop on Brattleboro’s First Friday Gallery Walk. Wind your way west along Route 9 (also known as the Molly Stark Byway), past the famous three-state-overlook at Hogback Mountain, through the Green Mountain National Forest, to the town of Bennington,

Celebrating 40 Years!

named one of the “Top 40 Most Vibrant Arts Communities in America” by the National Center for Arts Research. An anchor of the artistic community is the Bennington Museum, which has the largest public collections of 19thcentury Bennington pottery and paintings by American folk artist Grandma Moses. Presented together this summer are two shows examining Modernism: Color / Gesture: Early Works by Emily Mason, opening May 11, features early works on paper by the abstract artist, who attended Bennington College; and Color Fields: 1960s Bennington Modernism, opening June 29, focusing on pioneering artists in Color Field-based sculpture and painting, including Pat Adams, Helen Frankenthaler and Jules Olitski. Up Home: HandColored Photographs by Susanne and Neil Rappaport, continuing through June 11, is an intriguing look at one family’s life, captured in the 1980s by photographer Neil Rappaport (his wife Susanne hand-colored the photographs). Notice any of the exhibition banners at the Bennington Museum? Chances are they were produced by GVH Studio, Inc., a large-format

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