BRATTLEBORO-Those who grew up as baby boomers might remember “think big” as a phrase that seemed to guide the pursuits of a whole generation. It was the handle for an economic strategy, it added too many floors to skyscraper design, it was the moniker of a favored racehorse, it was even the title of a book by Donald Trump.
Bigger is better? Hmm. Some might say that’s where we’ve derailed.
This season, you can find an antidote in the Brattleboro Festival of Miniatures, an idea sparked by a life-long collector of small things: Melany Kahn of West Brattleboro and West Chesterfield, New Hampshire.
Billed as “a free town-wide celebration of small scenes with big imagination” in festival promotion, it’s been touted widely as townspeople and visitors alike are welcomed to “discover more than [87] store windows brimming with magical miniature scenes, darling doll houses, tiny terrariums, and steaming model trains.”
Exhibits are as varied as the storefronts they grace.
One display is a miniature structure rescued from the Chesterfield dump; 14 were made at HatchSpace to be customized by students at each area school. Some displays come from attics, others from barns.
At Retreat Farm is a cluster of gingerbread barns — a miniature farm. Restaurants are offering tiny menus, the New England Youth Theatre’s holiday show is Little Women, and Brooks Memorial Library has posted a “Miniature Masterpiece” flash fiction competition.
Countless artists are represented through venues up and down Main Street; onto Flat, Elliot, and High Streets; along Putney Road and Western Avenue, and as far as the Winston Prouty campus.
‘Dollhouse therapy’
Kahn inherited the family farm in West Brattleboro from her parents, acclaimed contemporary artists Emily Mason and Wolf Kahn. Its pastures are still grazed, and its ambience is evocative of a far-less-complicated time.
While Kahn’s parents were painters, her penchant since childhood has been for 3D, for miniatures. Following her parents’ deaths — her mother’s in 2019 and her father’s in 2020 — Kahn established the cluster of fields and buildings known as Stark Farm as an arts retreat of sorts, one where inspiration is palpable as one looks uphill from the farmhouse to see Mason’s studio, then down a steep slope to Kahn’s.
“It was kind of a mess when I inherited [it] five years ago, so we cleaned it up, and I brought my childhood dollhouse up here,” Kahn told The Commons. “My friends and I created something called Dollhouse Clubhouse — where we came to work on it together, to craft it, and just have fun.”
Kahn never outgrew her love of miniatures, so she welcomes the camaraderie.
“Just a bunch of us get together,” she said. “There’s a lot of laughter, a lot of just silliness.”
Zeroing in on every detail, from wallpaper to copper flashing to parquet flooring, she notes how the enthusiasts revel in the fantasy.
“There’re no real problems at Dollhouse Clubhouse: They’re all fake problems [and] your troubles sort of melt away. It’s like therapy.”
Dollhouse therapy.
Kahn had recently been resurrecting her own miniatures collections when her niece’s family dollhouse wended its way through her niece and daughter’s generation and ended up with her.
“We went nuts on this one,” she recalled. “Then we started making jokes about, ‘Oh, the viewers will love this.’ And then we said, ‘Well, you know, we don’t actually have viewers.’”
Then, last March, Kahn had a big idea — a miniatures festival.
She approached Kate Trzaskos, executive director of the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance (DBA), late last spring and soon she and DBA’s creative director, Erin Scaggs, became, as Kahn puts it, “the engine behind the whole project.”
Kahn credits that team for the festival’s anticipated success and for so much more of Brattleboro’s recent cultural advancement.
She started networking and found herself among people who were pretty thrilled with the idea.
“It started to take shape as dozens of artists and business owners jumped on board,” she said, and each was struck, it’s said, with a sense of nostalgia: “a desire to bring out the old train set or the little miniature teacup set that they got from their grandmother.”
The festival involves “basically, every business downtown plus empty storefronts,” Trzaskos explained. “We’re really making a splash, filling it top to bottom.” When business owners were introduced to the idea, “you could just see the little light bulbs start clicking on,” she said.
Each venue has had freedom to create its own display.
“It’s about taking the inspiration of this and applying it to your business,” said Trzaskos. “The products you sell, what you’re all about.”
One store is doing a display of fashion dolls, and “we’ve got people bringing in their childhood train sets. We’ve got little log cabins,” she said.
“It’s meant to be an invitation from the window into the shop, and that enhances what they’re doing [inside],” Trzaskos added.
An artsy dollhouse filled with tiny art
Kahn had stopped on a walk one day to share “a really big idea having to do with a very large dollhouse” with her neighbor, Petey Mitchell, co-proprietor of Brattleboro’s Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts (MGFA).
Kahn asked if she’d be interested in the gallery being the focal point — the place to display the family Victorian dollhouse that started the event.
Mitchell was all in.
As the project was taking shape, she saw how many artists could be featured and its potential for a collaborative effort among businesspeople in town.
“It’s turned into an incredible community event,” Mitchell said.
She uses the word “delight” to describe the contagious spirit it’s generated. “So many people are uplifted by this whole project,” she said. “It’s just really exciting to see how many people are involved.”
Anticipating the town-wide event will be a boon to business, Mitchell adds, “it’s a really good learning curve showing how people can work together creatively […]. I think people were just ripe for doing something uplifting — different from what we’re all reading and feeling.”
Now, in that refurbished 3-foot-tall Victorian doll house in the window of MGFA, at 181-183 Main St., one can eye many pieces from Kahn’s collecting distributed in nine rooms and on exterior surfaces and stairwells.
Pointing to a tiny flour sifter — that works — Kahn then showed “an old toaster that belonged to my grandmother, pieces that were part of my upbringing and childhood, and some newer pieces that have come along.”
Kahn’s criteria? “If it makes me laugh, then I put it in my dollhouse.” If it’s quirky or if it has an old vibe? Even better.
The rest is filled with original works of 110 artisans — a collection of pottery, paintings, blown glass, woven rugs, stitched quilts, miniature baskets, furniture, clothing, accessories — “all lovingly local.”
There’s no set concept, theme, or time period for the centerpiece collection at MGFA. “I gave artists completely free [rein] to do whatever they wanted,” says Kahn, noting the different floors in each room and the variety of wallpapers throughout.
One spies a teeny Deidre Scherer thread-on-fabric work, mini overalls by Sandy Klein, a rug by Kris McDermet, a George Sawyer bench, a Sandglass Theater creation, a Steven Meyer teddy bear.
There are works by Natalie Blake, Charlie Hunter, Andy Yoder, Lily Lyons, Steve Procter, T. Breeze Verdant, Christie Herbert, Laura Zindel — the list goes on.
In total, it’s a stunning collection, a big labor of love, and a vivid testimony to the richness of the area arts scene.
To complement the miniatures festival, MGFA has mounted a Small Works show, including art of Matt Brown, Deidre Scherer, Paul Bowen, Liz Chalfin, Willa Cox, and Chuck Olson, among several others. Its opening — and the festival — will be celebrated at Gallery Walk on Friday, Dec. 5 from 5 to 9 p.m.
A museum of tiny things
In the Latchis Gallery at 50 Main St., local theater artist Dory Hamm will return to the space he once knew well as an early player with NEYT, which operated from the storefront. This time, he’ll be there with his Museum of Things Tiny and Found.
When Kahn got wind of Hamm’s love of miniatures and his esoteric home collection, she urged his going public to create the Museum — a collection of tiny stages, scenes, and many printers trays filled with an eclectic collection of ephemera to which over 15 area artists have contributed.
Pointing to a teeny figurine in a tray cubby which was given to him when he was 2 years old, Hamm professes a lifelong love of miniatures, particularly for the stories they hold.
“I think there’s something inherently human about the loving of and collecting of small things: There’s a story in every small thing,” Hamm said.
Recalling his own experience with stories that drew him to the stage, he added, “You’d be hard pressed to find someone that did not have something small in their life [that matters. It] could be jewelry, a little photo, a seashell, a rock, a piece of glass, some just little keepsake.” Tangible and controllable, small things create a fondness that’s universal and ubiquitous.
Of the pull between large and small scale, Hamm observed that “there’s something inherently happy about tiny things, but I think we’re obsessed with the two opposites, like the very big also brings us awe, and then very small — it really pulls us in.”
Observing that we “live in a very heady, scary time,” Hamm pointed out that seeing a world in miniature “brings us out of our heads. There’s something inherently grounding and meditative about tiny things.”
Offering a miniature business card, Hamm said the Museum will be open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings and all day Saturday and Sunday with mini-tours, a scavenger hunt, and other interactive activities.
The festival’s executive producer, Nancy Vitale, has been key in coordinating all the moving parts working with Kahn, the creators, the DBA, and the many community partners.
A day before opening, Vitale said she and Kahn were taking a walk around to see if some windows need “a little extra love” — or one of Kahn’s “extraordinary scenes.”
Kahn reported that she spotted a family at one of the windows admiring the scene in detail. As it turned out, they came from a small town north of Springfield, Vermont, and they had come specifically for the festival and then for a meal in town.
Such, said Kahn, is what has been the hope: a boon to Brattleboro.
A full schedule of related events coordinated by DBA (see sidebar) includes puppet shows, tea parties, mini-baking contests, and more.
Visit brattleboro.com/ministroll for more information.
And think small.
This News item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.