Town Arts Fund Grantees Announced

The Arts Council of Windham County announced some recent grantees and the projects that are being funded:

“The 2021 TAF Grantees include:

Puppet Companions (Shoshana Bass, Sandglass Theater) Sandglass Theater and Garden Path Elder Living team up to combat loneliness, promote creativity, and inspire story telling in residential care facilities through the magic of puppetry. Sandglass will create a collection of inviting puppets and accessories, along with a series of guided play suggestions for residents at Holton Home and Bradley House. Puppet makers will also bring Sandglass puppeteers and puppets for window visits with residents.


Sandglass’ Winter Sunshine Series Goes Virtual

Putney, Vermont- This year Sandglass’ Winter Sunshine series is going virtual to bring family fun right into the coziness of your home. Throughout March, Winter Sunshine series will present the work of regional performance artists with weekly performances and activities including: a puppet show, a workshop, two family activities, online engagement and, during the final week, an invitation to light up your community in the dark winter months with a Lantern Parade.


Keeping Local Arts Alive At The Latchis

Latchis Theatre Marquee

Like many of us, I’ve been staying safe during the pandemic and not participating too much in social events.  But I still stay in the loop with as many local organizations as I can.  Many of us with a connection to the arts worry that public performance art — of which cinema is one — may be busted back to the stone age, to put it bluntly, by our inability to gather in groups and the lack of funding that results.  The Latchis finds itself in this boat, and while they continue to show films under all the current rules for safe gathering in theatres, they have obviously taken a hit.    

Lately, I’ve been enjoying their newsletters wherein Jon Potter, director of Latchis Arts, tells it like it is to his audience of people who like movies, music, and dance.  His most recent letter, which came out January 14, notes that arts groups are starting to regroup as it were, as we all adjust to the new circumstances we find ourselves in.  Adapt or die, is pretty much the story, and artists are trying to do that.  


Virtual Putney Craft Tour

Shop the Annual Putney Craft Tour Collection from the comfort of your home: 19 Artisans…3 Days Glass blowers, Potters, Jewelers, Weavers, Painters, Woodworkers – even Artisan Cheesemakers, and Winemakers. Crafters will open their virtual studio doors, offering video demonstrations, personal shopping experiences and studio visits via Zoom. Some artists are scheduling in person studio visits or virtual video chats by appointment. Shops open: Fri, Nov 27 at 10:00 a.m. sharp through Sun, Nov 29 at 5:00 p.m. In the meantime, shoppers are free to browse the site and discover more about Vermont’s most accomplished artisans.


Celebrate Men’s Day

Celebrate Life: Viva La Vida by Namaya Art Rat Peace

To all the loving men in my life, who have inspired and nurtured me. Thank you all. Happy Men’s Day. #MensDay. from my book “Celebrate Life: Viva La Vida”

“Naches: The Pride One has in their Children”


Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities COVID-19 Relief

MONTPELIER, VT—Arts and humanities organizations in Vermont facing hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic can now apply for emergency relief funding through a new partnership between the Vermont Arts Council and Vermont Humanities.

The new COVID-19 Cultural Relief Grant Program is seeded with more than $700,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.

Grant awards are based on organization size:

Annual operating budgets of up to $200,000: $5,000.
Annual operating budgets between $200,000 and $750,000: $7,500
Annual operating budget larger than $750,000: $10,000


Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts Responds to COVID 19

Following advice and common sense, Mitchell-Giddings has made the difficult decision to temporarily close our doors until further notice even as we remain open online for purchases and gallery activities (or at 802-251-8290).

We gladly welcome scheduled gallery visits by appointment.


I AM…2020 Important Update – Rescheduled for May 2021

IMPORTANT UPDATE ABOUT : I AM…2020 – The Statewide Exhibition
Coming to Southern Vermont (Posted to the Calendar for May 1 – May 31)
*NOW RESCHEDULED FOR MAY 2021*

Given the current landscape with COVID-19 we want to be cautious and will be rescheduling the I AM… exhibition to coincide with Diversity Day celebrations in May 2021. If you have questions, please inbox curator, Shanta Lee Gander.


Can Word, Language, and/or Poetry be Possible Pathways to Compassion?

This question is being explored in an event taking place on Wednesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Brooks Memorial Library as a part of the Compassionate Brattleboro discussion series.

If we look closely at the words we are bringing together within the title of this discussion, compassion has its Latin roots com- together with + pati to suffer which means suffering together. A poet, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a poet is: “writer of verse distinguished by particular insight, inspiration, or sensibility, or by remarkable powers of imagination, creativity, or expression…” There are many key words, one of them being sensibility from sensibili or the French etymology, both linking to the senses and feeling.


Announcing The 2020 Brattleboro Town Arts Fund Grantees

ACWC is pleased to announce the award of $15,000 through the Brattleboro Town Arts Fund to support six community-focused creative initiatives. The six grantees were selected from a competitive field of 39 proposals received in this first year of the Town Arts Fund (TAF) program. View the full press release.

The 2020 TAF grantees are:


Art for Social Change Program at River Gallery School 2020

The River Gallery School of Art has received funding from The Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Foundation, The Vermont Community Foundation, Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, The Anne Slade Frey Fund, and the Windham Foundation to continue their Art for Social Change Program. The program, which started in 2019 focuses on the healing aspects of art and mindfulness for marginalized populations, community caregivers and the general public. The emphasis of these classes, offered free of charge, is not on art technique but offering an opportunity to play with art materials in a relaxed, supportive environment.


Lunar New Year of China, Korea, and Vietnam

Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) celebrates the Lunar New Year of China, Korea and Vietnam Sunday, January 26thth, 1-3:00. You don’t have to be Asian or know anything about Asia to participate! Join us at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center to usher in the year of the White Metal Rat. The Rat is the first sign in the Chinese zodiac, and it marks new beginnings, fresh hope, and rising excitement.


The Root Brings Award-Winning Producer & Artist Daniel Laurent to 118 Elliot, Saturday 12/14 at 7PM

Please join The ROOT’s Youth 4 Change and BIPOCC in welcoming Daniel Laurent, Boston-based artist and award-winning producer of the short documentary & music Video OUTSIDE. This will be an unplugged-type event with screening of the 20 min film, Artist’s Talk, Live Performance, Q&A and a community discussion on creative, therapeutic, and artistic responses to violence.


Mount Island Announces the Lucy Terry Prince Prize

If you are not a poet, but know someone who might be interested, please re-share. This prize honors the life of Lucy Terry Prince who was an orator, activist, and first known African American poet in the U.S. This prize is being judged by celebrated poet Major Jackson who has authored five books of poetry collections and received a range of fellowships. Any individual who is a poet of color hailing from or living in a rural place is welcome to apply.


Next Stage Arts Project Hires New Executive Director

Next Stage Arts Project announced it has hired Keith Marks to be the next Executive Director following a nationwide search. He will assume leadership of the Putney, Vermont-based nonprofit presenting arts organization in January of 2020.

Marks will be moving from Jacksonville, Florida, where he founded Avant, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching community through the power of diverse arts experiences. His efforts earned him the 2019 Arts Innovator Award from the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville.


Annual Crankie Celebration Week

PUTNEY – This December Sandglass Theater brings you a celebration of the art of the crankie. A crankie, known in the 19th century as a moving panorama, is an old storytelling art form that has found new audiences and enthusiasts with performances and festivals across the country. This 7th Annual Crankie Celebration includes performances, a special event and a crankie building workshop. Experience the mystique and low-tech charm of pairing song and story with scrolling pictures.


When I Put On Your Glove

Sandglass Theater presents When I Put On Your Glove by Shoshana Bass as part of the Thanksgiving Weekend Putney Craft Tour. This puppetry, dance and spoken word piece explores a daughter’s relationship to her father’s work and builds upon a premise that puppets are containers of memory. In it, a daughter explores what it means to slip into her father’s art – not just the form, but also the actual pieces.


Artist Reception – Michaela Harlow: “A Mind Of Winter” Paintings, Drawings and Mixed-Media Collage

The Gallery at Next Stage presents A Mind of Winter by Michaela Harlow, November 14th through February 11, 2020. The Gallery is open for viewing 30 minutes before each Next Stage event, as well as Saturdays from 10:00 am–1:00 pm, and by appointment with the artist.

Artist Statement:
Earlier this year, a writer friend reminded me of a favorite old poem: Wallace Stevens’ “The Snow Man”. I recall the first time I read the line “a mind of winter”’ nodding in agreement as I pictured shadow-blue branches dancing across the snow on a brisk January day.


New Exhibition: Gordon Jones Landscapes, Cai Xi Portraits

Sunday November 10th, 2-4pm, at C.X. Silver Gallery, 814 Western Avenue, Brattleboro, VT for the opening reception of Gordon Jones Landscapes and Cai Xi Portraits – Works on Paper.

“Many of my remembrances have, indeed, settings perhaps best forgotten—times of grim weather, of cloggy mud and wet feet, of ruined and rutted roads. … Many, even most, of my paintings are to some extent about water … and the reflections we find in the depths of its surface are really my subject: … the capacity of the settled or turbid surface of water to bring us to our own depths.” – Gordon Jones


Isopodology: New Works In Cardboard Based On Amazing Animals From The Deep by Art Costa

Please come join sculptor, Art Costa,  at the River Gallery School “Gallery 34” November 1st Gallery Walk reception from 5:30pm-8pm. New Works in cardboard based on amazing animals being discovered in the deep seas. The show runs the entire month of November and is always visible at this wonderful store front gallery on Main St. Brattleboro.