The Saxtons River Art Guild will host a one-day workshop with Vermont watercolorist John Dimick on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the United Church of Bellows Falls, 8 School St., from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Workshop fees are $70 for SRAG members and $90 for nonmembers.
The theme of the workshop is "Painting Urban Landscapes." This is open to all abilities with some watercolor experience suggested. Participants will need to bring a completed drawing, as well as a 1-inch flat brush. Dimick will guide a value study of buildings, starting with underpainting in Payne's gray, followed by splattering the background, and then painting the local color.
Artists interested in the urban landscape theme and work in other media can contact Dimick to discuss the possibilities of registering for this workshop. In addition to working in watercolors, he has painted urban and architectural scenes in oils.
Dimick has won awards at various juried shows. Vermont Artisans Designs in Brattleboro carries many of his paintings, prints, and notecards. He was the cover artist featured in the January/February edition of Monadnock Table magazine. Writer Diana Damato described his work as ranging from "nature-based scenes to city sites, including locations in downtown Brattleboro, machine shops, unique perspectives of bridges, and western United States and European settings."...
On Sunday, Oct. 22, at 2:30 p.m., the Vernon Historians will present a program of photographic images at Vernon Union Church, 2631 Fort Bridgman Rd., illustrating the history of the area once known as Vernon Center. The slides will include the Whithed Building, which served many functions in town...
Obituaries • Sylvia J. Barton, 99, of Springfield, Vermont. Died on Oct. 11, 2023 of Covid. Sylvia was the second of four daughters born to George R. and Gladys (Ward) Braley at home on West Hill in Putney on April 8, 1924. Her family moved to the Braley Farm...
Meg Mott, former Marlboro College professor will lead a discussion entitled "Must Free Speech Endure Hate Speech?" at Putney Public Library, 55 Main St., on Oct. 25, at 6:30 p.m. Everyone loves free speech in theory, she says, but trouble often comes when someone else's speech disturbs social norms. According to organizers, "Why should Nazis be given permission to march through a predominantly Jewish neighborhood? Why should anti-gay zealots be allowed to protest military funerals? The short answer to these...
New England Center for Circus Arts' circus coaches will be performing a family-friendly, Halloween-themed extravaganza on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m., and October 22 at 4 p.m. The Circus Spooktacular is a "high-energy circus romp," say organizers, "full of acrobatics, aerials, and stunts featuring elite instructors and special guests of the New England Center for Circus Arts. This creative cauldron is led by Evil Red and the Wolf and is sure to be a frighteningly good time."
Canal Street Art Gallery (CSAG), 23 Canal St., presents Martha & John: a love story of yoga and art, exhibiting oil paintings of the Vermont landscape by the late Martha Nichols and abstract mathematical designs inspired by the yogic tradition of the yantra painted by John van der Does. Martha & John opens Oct. 20 and is on view through Dec. 9. There will be an opening reception during 3rd Friday Gallery Night in Historic Downtown Bellows Falls from 5...
Edible Brattleboro invites the public to experience what they call Climate Optimism at a series of screenings and discussions at Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St., of Regenerating Life, a feature-length documentary that takes an ecological approach to unraveling the climate crisis. The film's thesis is that humankind's relentless destruction of nature has caused the climate crisis, and it proposes that we can reverse this destructive process by regenerating life. Filmmaker John Feldman explores how life regulates the climate through...
On Saturday, Oct. 28, at 10 a.m., Arts Alive invites artists and creatives to connect to Brattleboro through its local arts spaces. This field trip will convene at 10 a.m. at the River Gallery School of Art on Main Street. With the community art school's gallery as the backdrop, participants will hear about a few local visual arts programs and businesses directly from the arts leaders who run them. Afterwards, visitors will tour the nearby Vermont Artisan Designs and Stone...
Epsilon Spires, 190 Main St., presents "Freyja's Wisdom: Spirit Magic Ritual and Rune Divination," in partnership with In Situ Polyculture Commons, a new artist residency in Westminster. The performance will take place at Epsilon Spires on Saturday, Oct. 21, from 7 to 10 p.m. Heiðsær (pronounced Hathe-sire)is a group of touring witches reviving the Old Norse vǫlur traveling seeress tradition. Their first Vermont event will be an immersive experience incorporating ritual, song, and divination as performance. "Freyja's Wisdom" is an...
As part of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) "Hidden in the Hills" series that celebrates southern Vermont artists, painter Julia Jensen opens her Westminster West studio to the public on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 3 p.m. Jensen will give visitors a tour of the studio and discuss her work, which she describes as focusing on expressive, dreamlike landscapes that are filled with light and movement. Jensen divides her time between southern Vermont and Nantucket, and her oil paintings...
In 2004, Carolyn Peck created We Remember Dr. Grace Burnett, a film about the fifth woman to practice medicine in Vermont and Brattleboro's first female physician. Burnett, one of the town's most beloved citizens, delivered the filmmaker, who lived across the street from her and her family, and who employed her mother in the medical office. The film was shown locally and was eventually donated to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. But amid the chaos of renovations to the hospital campus at...
Canal Street Art Gallery, 24 Canal St., presents Linden Eller, the newest artist to participate in the Working Artist Program. Eller's work is on view through Dec. 8. The artist, based in Mount Holly, says she uses mixed media and painting to create work centering around the theme of memory architecture - its process of alterations, renewals, and inaccuracies. The Working Artist Program now provides two artist studios and exhibition spaces within the Art Gallery. Artists process their own sales...
The KaneLoggiaHypothesis presents "Masters of Sonic Liberation," a new performance series highlighting artists in the field of experimental music at 118 Elliot on three Saturdays: Oct. 28, Nov. 18, and Dec. 16. "Arising from the modes of improvisation, free jazz, noise, avant-garde, modern composition, electronics, electro-acoustic, vocal work, and traditional instrumentation," say organizers, "the unifying principle of these artists is their dedication to exploratory, hypothetical, investigational, probing, observational, theoretical, innovative, inventive, radical, avant-garde, anti-normative, alternative, fringe, unfamiliar, unorthodox, unconventional, unusual,
Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill, presents a double bill featuring the reimagined historic spirituals and hymns of Walter Parks & The Unlawful Assembly, and the "guitar noir/crime jazz" of Big Lazy, on Friday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m. "Walter's work with Richie Havens has informed a lot of his career, and he has become an educator on the history of blues, roots, and Americana. The pairing with Big Lazy is an evening of music that won't be easily forgotten,"
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening of contemporary folk music with Antje Duvekot and Pete Bernhard at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer-songwriter whose songs "have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism, and street-smart romanticism," organizers note in a news release. They continue: "Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving...
For over 30 years, Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC) has been producing the Forest of Mystery as a major fundraiser for the nonprofit that connects area people to the natural world. "But it has become so much more than that," says Belle Coles, BEEC's board president. "To be out in the woods on an October night on a torchlit trail is magic enough, and then when you add the high-quality community theater and storytelling, the work of a community of...
Reeling after two big losses to Hartford and Keene, the Brattleboro Bears varsity football team have dusted themselves off and are now starting to play their best at the right time of the season. After outlasting Bellows Falls for a win on Oct. 6, the Bears put together another solid effort in defeating Rutland, 21-7, in the Senior Night game at Natowich Field on Oct. 13. Against Rutland, it was Bears running back Noah Perusse's time to shine. He ran...
Like so many, I was horrified when I heard about the Hamas attack on Israel. My first thought: How could Hamas possibly justify such brutality toward Israeli citizens and care so little about the people of Gaza, given Israel's well-known history of over-the-top retaliation against any Palestinian uprisings, be they peaceful or violent? If the images and descriptions of heinous cruelty doesn't keep one up at night, what would? My second thought: What the hell did anyone expect? The whole...
On Oct. 11, National Coming Out Day, the LGBTQ community celebrated the relocation of the Andrews Inn historic marker on The Square. The event also celebrated the naming of what now is the Andrews Inn Lounge, part of the Ciao Popolo Restaurant, and the installation of a plaque and photos there commemorating the building's history. Andrews Inn was a historic gay bar, nightclub, and inn that operated from 1973 to 1984, one of the few safe places for LGBTQ people...
A plan to make the town "an inclusive, safe and resilient rural community where residents, businesses and organizations thrive, and live life in harmony with nature and each other" will be presented for public comment at hearings scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 24 and Wednesday, Nov. 8. Both meetings start at 5:30 p.m. in Town Hall. The Planning Commission's draft of the 2023 Putney Town Plan addresses this vision via several "strategic directions/priorities." They include: • Create a sustainable village and...
The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents a concert of traditional Japanese taiko drumming with Burlington Taiko, on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 3 p.m., at Cooper Field, 41 Sand Hill Rd. For more than 30 years, Burlington Taiko has educated New England communities about Japanese culture and entertained them with traditional Taiko drumming. "There is something unique about Japanese Taiko drumming, from its style to its sound," Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release.
Vermont Blues Society 2022 Contest winner and singer-songwriter Jesse Lepkoff will present an afternoon of original songs in both Brazilian bossa nova and blues styles at the South Newfane Schoolhouse, 387 Dover Rd., on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 4 p.m. Lepkoff's songs have been described by organizers as having "the sophistication of art song or the knee-slapping earthiness of 1930s-style blues. His lyrics can be romantic, humorous, witty, or ironic, depending on the song." They note he has been honored...
In honor of the vintage English nursery rhyme ("Thursday's child has far to go"), Epsilon Spires presents a midweek lineup on Thursday, Oct. 19, of three far-ranging musical acts, each one pushing the boundaries of song styles and genres. The common denominator? All earned the bulk of their musical cred in New England. Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang of Damon & Naomi began playing music together in the late 1980s as the rhythm section, co-songwriters, and sometimes singers, with guitarist...
Is it a park bench? A playground? A place of comfort and serenity? "Land Lift"- the sculpture made of steel, earth, and grass by landscape artist Bob Boemig that lies in front of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) - is all those things. Originally intended to last only a few weeks, the sculpture turns 30 this year. To mark the occasion, Boemig will give a talk at BMAC on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 3 p.m. He will discuss...
After decades of active engagement between the United States and China, the relationship has recently been characterized by conflict and mutual suspicion. How did we get here? Are we in a new cold war? For the Windham World Affairs Council's monthly lecture, Sara Newland, an assistant professor of government at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, will speak on Friday, Oct. 20, at 6:30 p.m. at 118 Elliot to address these questions, describe the trajectory of the U.S.-China relationship, and explore...
Paving underway on Frost, Elm streets BRATTLEBORO - Northeast Paving (a contractor for Brattleboro Public Works) will continue paving work on Frost and Elm street and Lynde Place this week through Friday, Oct. 20. The work is expected to be completed this week, weather permitting. Crews will be working between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. No parking will be allowed on the streets, and motorists should expect delays in the area and seek alternate routes. For more information or questions,
Vets Town Hall, a Vermont-based nonprofit that aims to increase understanding between veterans and civilians, is partnering with local organizations to host five events in Brattleboro and other sites around the state in early November. According to a news release, veterans of all eras "are invited to speak for up to 10 minutes each about what their service means to them. Non-veterans are encouraged to attend and listen. These events are free and nonpolitical, and all perspectives are valued." The...
Recently, in my bookstore in Brattleboro, a belligerent man came blustering up to the front desk to yell at us for displaying a Black Lives Matter sign in our window. Why? Because he claimed that Black Lives Matter stands for murdering "my people" at this terrible time. My staff and I all made it clear to this man that our sign stays up because actual Black lives matter to us. And, as I am every bit as Jewish as this...
When I was an adolescent in the 1980s, one of the great contemporary prophets was Bono, the front singer in the Irish rock band U2, which would later be considered the greatest rock band in the world. I felt that Bono represented me. He cared about people and was upset with the powers that be. In my understanding, he wanted change without violence. One of my favorite songs was "I Threw a Brick Through a Window." I particularly liked the...
Hide, a psychological thriller about a resilient woman fighting back against her husband's escalating gaslighting and abuse during the pandemic lockdown, is coming to the Latchis Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 21. The screening of the feature-length film, written and directed by Ben Samuels, is in collaboration with the Women's Freedom Center (WFC) in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Samuels, based in Brooklyn, New York, is a 2009 graduate of Tufts University, where he double-majored in psychology and drama, "but...
Matthew Schibley has been appointed to the Windham Southeast School District School Board by unanimous vote to fill a vacant seat until the March election. Schibley was one of seven candidates for the seat left open when former board member Lana Dever resigned in June, citing her need to focus on her family. The executive director at The NEARI School in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Schibley started that position in August. The NEARI School - officially, the New England Adolescent Research Institute...
Dan Welden, master printmaker, painter, author, and educator, will exhibit his largest solo show to date - "Dan Welden: Solo 100" - of 15 paintings and works on canvas and paper at Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts. On Saturday, Oct. 21 - the show's opening day - the public is invited to the premier screening of a documentary film, Lasting Impressions: The Dan Welden Documentary, at 3:30 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The film, directed by...
On Oct. 10, a giant yellow machine called a "concrete cracker" turned a building at the former Vermont Yankee nuclear plant into rubble. Workers have been deconstructing the building, which formerly housed a steam turbine, for several weeks. It was one component of the boiling-water reactor system that, at one time, produced 35% of the state's electric needs. The nuclear plant operated from 1972 until 2014, when its then-owner, Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, closed the plant after it was no...