Vermont Folklife Center

Broadening, strengthening, and deepening our understanding of Vermont; assuring a repository for our collective cultural memory; and strengthening communities by building connections among the diverse peoples of Vermont.

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Film Screening

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Stories of Hope Rwanda Travel Study Program. For the past four years, we have been working with students from Harwood Union HS, in Duxbury, VT--bringing an ethnographic and media-making approach to Harwood's "Stories of Hope" travel study program in Rwanda.

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Exhibition

Faces of Our Community. A photo-documentary exhibit created through a collaborative effort between Green Mountain College students and the Poutlney Earth Fair.

The exhibition at the Vision and Voice Gallery showcases photographs and text from community members in Poultney, VT, that were nominated for recognition by their community. RECEPTION: 4/26, 5-7PM EXHIBIT: 4/2 - 4/27, Vermont Folklife Center, Vision  Voice Gallery, Hours: Tues-Sat 10AM-5PM

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Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Celebration--a success! Hundreds of curious visitors streamed through Union Station in Burlington this past Saturday to see the fruits of 20 years of support to traditional artists in VT through our Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

If you missed us on Saturday, but want to learn more--you can view multimedia stories about Lucian and several of the other participants on our website: www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/education/apprenticeship/

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Celebrate Vermont Traditional Arts!

1:00 Lucian Avery, New England Blacksmithing

1:30 Mediha Jusufagic, founder and director, Bosnia Lilies Dance Troupe

2:00 George Kurjanowicz and Heather Milne Richie. Barre granite sculpting

2:30 Jesse Larocque, Abenaki black ash pounding and finishing

3:00 Jeanne Brink, Abenaki brown ash and sweet grass basketmaking

3:30 Michiko Oishi and Ikue Suzuki, Ikebana, Japanese flower arranging

Performances:

1:00 Hilari Farrington, Irish button accordion, and Benedict Koehler, Irish Uillean pipes

1:30 Beth Telford, Cape Breton fiddling

2:00 Aline Niyonzima, leader, Burundian Dance Project

2:30 Beny Nduwayo, Burundian song

3:00 Kyoko Davis and Michiko Oishi, Japanese koto

3:30 Michele Choiniere, Franco American song

Ongoing demonstrations (All afternoon): Outside:

Fred X Brownstein, marble sculpting

Jerry Carruba, New England blacksmithing

Inside:

Ela Kabura, Burundian embroider

Rose Diamond, New England handweaving

Jeanne Brink and apprentices Valerie, Megan, and Emily Boles, Abenaki brown ash and sweet grass basketmaking

Special performance from 4:00 to 5:30, Somali Bantu wedding band, Walinja.

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14th Annual Gingerbread Competition-Winner's Announced! Thank you to everyone who participated this year...and everyone that visited (we tallied almost 2,000 people coming through our door during the exhibition)!  The gingerbread creations were a true sight of creativity, ingenuity, and in some cases, gingerbread engineering.  We're already looking forward to next year! Read more to see the winners.

Organization "Hansel & Gretel Arrive"

By: Helen Porter Nursing Home Residents & Staff

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Most Delicious "Hansel & Gretel Cottage & Cookie Cottage"

By: Tina Wiles

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Best in Show "Forest Bird Family"

By: Eileen & Krystian Gombosi

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Most Creative Application of Theme "Witches Stew"

By: Harley Downey-Teachout, Rachel & Denny DeCoff

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People’s Choice "Christmas Cruise"

By: Emma & Catriona Craven-Mathews, Nora McLaughlin, Carolyn Craven, & Peter Mathews

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Adult Amateur "Trojan Sheep (Lamb-a-lot)"

By: Michael Pockette

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Family with Children 12 and older "Christmas Cruise"

By: Emma & Catriona Craven-Mathews, Nora McLaughlin, Carolyn Craven, & Peter Mathews

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Family with Children 11 & younger "Santa’s Fire House"

By: Connor, Alison, & Steve McNamara

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Children "The Gingerbread Schoolhouse"

By: Daniel Wiles

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Wolfgang Mieder delivers a lighthearted Lecture on a Grim(m) Topic. The front room of the Vision and Voice Gallery was filled to capacity for Wolfgang Mieder's Lecture, Hansel & Gretel: Grim(m) Variations on a Popular Fairy Tale.  With energy and whit, Professor Mieder, took the audience on an adventure of sorts from the origins of the Hansel & Gretel story to present day iterations and meanings. We were delighted to host Professor Mieder and extent our thanks to him--and to all of you that joined us!

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Pete Sutherland Fills VFC with Music and Art. On November 29th, Pete Sutherland treated an eager audience toballads and folksongs from the Flanders collection, along with fiddle music learned from area players of old.

The mini-concert was planned in parallel with an exhibition of Pete's work in the Vermont Folklife Center's Sales Gallery. A late bloomer as a visual artist, Pete has been making collage art for the past 10 years. Known to an ever-widening fan base for his annual wall calendars, he has mounted shows of original work at area coffeehouses and galleries and has received commissions for portraits and CD art.

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DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS CELEBRATION SUCCESS! Community members packed the building on Saturday night for the Day of the Dead Celebration at the Vermont Folklife Center. 

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Photographs from the Day of the Dead Altar at the Vermont Folklife Center--constructed by community members under the direction of Irma Valeriano of the University of Vermont.  Today, Thursday November 8th is your last chance to view the altar--visit the Vermont Folklife Center at 88 Main Street in Middlebury, VT before 5PM!

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'A View from the Backstretch' Heads to the Flynn—Amy E. Tarrant Gallery

We are excited to see A View from the Backstretch moving on from our Vision and Voice Documentary Workspace to its next stop at the Flynn’s Amy E. Tarrant Gallery in Burlington, VT.  The exhibit pairs work by award winning photographer Dona Ann McAdams and a group of Saratoga Race Course backstretch workers with whom she collaborated, including exercise riders, hot walkers, maintenance personnel, a trainer, and a groom.

Though these two bodies of work have been previously exhibited independently (McAdams photographs at an independent gallery in Salem, NY, and the backstretch workers images in a separate show produced by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga, NY)—the creation of A View from the Backstretch is he first time these works have been exhibited in tandem—thanks to a collaborative exhibit co-production between McAdams and the Vermont Folklife Center.  The exhibit is fantastic and we are proud to have been given the opportunity to work with such a dynamic artist in McAdams (not to mention the work of her students and co-exhibitors from the backstretch)!  If you didn’t catch the show in Middlebury—or if you want to see it again—it will be on display at the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery from November 2, 2012 to January 26, 2013, with an artist reception being held November 2 from 5:30-8:00PM. And, check out a recent blog post about the show from the Flynn’s Executive Director, John Killacky: http://www.flynncenter.org/blog/2012/10/on-the-backstretch-with-award-winning-photographer-dona-ann-mcadams

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CRAFTING COMMUNITY VIDEO PROJECTS

A two-day workshop on Saturday October 13 and Sunday, October 14; 10 am to 4 pm. Read more for details.

For registration and tuition information call [phone] or visit www.vermontfolklifecenter.org. The deadline for registration is October 10, 2012.

This workshop gives participants the opportunity to create a short multi-media documentary project from start to finish. The workshop will begin with conceptualizing a piece and end with publishing it digitally. The workshop will also survey ethics, aesthetics, and technique before developing and producing a project. With historic Middlebury, Vermont, as the location, workshop participants will use photography, video, and audio recording to create a unique and artistic media piece that reflects the character of the place, the values of the local residents, and the aesthetics of the filmmakers. Day One: The first morning the group will decide on a topic and then create a project structure --leading to a storyboard-- to plan how various media (still images, audio, and moving images) will blend to form the piece. In the afternoon participants will go outside and work in teams recording around town, some shooting stills, others pursuing interviews, others recording ambient audio or shooting video. Day Two: This day will be dedicated to editing the project using Final Cut Pro. Familiarity with the software and Macintosh computers is recommended, but not required. Participants will work in groups of two to edit individual aspects of the project as decided on the original storyboard. By the afternoon the groups will reconvene to put the components together and upload the finished piece onto Vimeo for the world to see. Instructor Scott Miller is a documentary photographer and filmmaker originally from Vermont and Kenya. He has extensive international field  experience, having completed photographic and ethnographic projects in Kerala (India), southern Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Queens, NY.

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JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT FILM - LOS QUE SE QUEDAN (Those Who Stay Behind) WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES Thursday, October 18, 7-9 pm at Vermont Folklife Center

"The intimacy that the directors capture in the film, in terms of people’s feelings as well as the relationships they have with their loved ones, is what gives "Those Who Remain" its poetic tone...," says the LA Times.

Please join us.

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PLEASE JOIN US! And Mexican Consul Daniel Hernandez Joseph in celebrating El Emigrante and his artwork. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2012 5:00 – 7:00 PM

Vermont Folklife Center

88 Main Street, Middlebury VT

802-388-4964

  www.vermontfolklifecenter.org

(to learn more about the artist: http://vtdigger.org/2012/09/19/imagines-de-mi-alma-images-from-my-soul-at-the-vermont-folklife-center/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=imagines-de-mi-alma-images-from-my-soul-at-the-vermont-folklife-center)

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NEW GALLERY! NEW EXHIBIT! Come and visit us in Middlebury. Artists of the Forest is an extraordinary exhibit and we're so happy with our new gallery and sales gallery. We want to share it with you!