Arts

BRATTLEBORO, VT—As preparations heat up for this year’s Second Annual Southern Vermont Dance Festival slated to take place July 17- 20 in Brattleboro, Vermont, the organization is seeking volunteers to take care of a variety tasks from pre-event organizing to event set up and clean up to the myriad during-event activities.

Brenda Siegel, executive director of the Festival says, “the Festival couldn’t have pulled off last year’s event without the many, many wonderful volunteers who were ready to pitch in no matter what the task.

First Wednesday: Fallingwater, Wednesday 4 June 2014, 7 pm – 9:00

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater is widely considered one of the finest masterpieces of American architecture. H. Nicholas Muller, III, retired executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, shares the story—and controversy—behind the house. 

July 17-20, Second Annual Southern Vermont Dance Festival Draws Top Artists, Top Faculty, Top Dance Companies from all over New England and Offers Over 100 Different Classes, Two Master Classes, Several Lectures and Gala Concerts — all in four days in Brattleboro, Vermont. www.southernvermontdancefestival.com

“Dancing is really important. It’s not just a frivolous thing. Dancing changes lives. It makes the world a better place. It connects people and communities,” says Billbob Brown, director of dance at UMass Amherst.

BRATTLEBORO, VT—From little kids to college students to baby boomers more and more people are interested in dance. This hype has helped draw attention to dance programs at colleges and universities across the country. Brattleboro, Vermont looks to boost economic development and morale following the devastating effects of 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene by bringing back for a second year in a row, a major dance festival —The Second Annual Southern Vermont Dance Festival.

Every month, on the third Friday, Write Action hosts Open Reading. All readers have about 7 minutes to share their readings of either their own work, or works by authors that they especially enjoy. It starts at 7:30 and is free to all writers and those who enjoy the spoken word. If you want to read, or recite, come a little early and drop your name in the hat. We will draw names at random to determine the order of readers.

A retrospective of Barbara Frodenberg’s works will show at the Brooks Memorial Library through the month of May. The collection represents an intimate view into her creative world. Many of the works are prints from an intensely creative period when she lived in Shelton, Washington.

Also included are watercolors and sequence paintings from her time here in Brattleboro. There will be a public reception in the Library’s meeting room beginning at 2 PM on Friday, May 9. Location Reception Meeting Room, 2nd Floor. Exhibit Main Floor. Contact Christine de Vallet, Public Art Coordinator.

Donald Saaf creates collages by carefully integrating torn wallpaper, images from magazines and catalogs, and photocopies of everyday objects with his bold gouache paintings. He has illustrated such popular books as Pushkin Minds the Bundle, Flemenpeo, and Animal Music.

Trained in painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Donald Saaf exhibits his work at the nearby Clark Gallery. He lives with his family in Saxtons River, Vermont.

Tomorrow evening, sixteen local residents will perform a public reading of “Project Unspeakable” at 7pm New England Youth Theater.  A facilitated discussion of the play and the issues, questions and feelings it raises for the audience will follow.

The script, with the exception of two Narrators and a young seeker of truth, is made up of actual quotes attributed to each of the dozens of characters portrayed. Saturday’s cast includes Sophie Bady-Kaye, Frederic Noyes, Daniel Cantor Yalowitz, John Ungerleider, Bob Bady, Leo Schiff, Gary and Leslie Sullivan Sachs, Mary Kay Sigda, Greg Moreau, John O’Neal, Paula Green, RylandWhite, Tim Bullard, Debbie Lynangale and Amilcar Shabazz.

After three rehearsals and indivdual sessions with the director and principal playwright Court Dorsey, we are eager to share this moving and motivating story with the public.

Brattleboro resident Nye Ffarrabas’ 50-year retrospective of her work is being celebrated in a new exhibtion and book just published through C. X. Silver Gallery.

C X Silver Gallery presents Nye Ffarrabas: A Walk on the Inside, an exhibition May 2 to Saturday August 23, 2014. The accompanying publication, with the same name as the exhibition, is part catalogue, part memoir, part monograph, a tribute to an artist and poet whose creative works span more than fifty years from the heyday of Fluxus Art of the sixties and seventies and continue to the present day. Please join us for the opening reception and book launch Sunday afternoon May 4th, 2014, 1-4pm, at the Gallery, 814 Western Avenue, Brattleboro, VT. Some improvisation, readings, and performance pieces may be part of the event.

“Project Unspeakable” Reading Explores Why Our Leaders Died 1964-1968

A dramatic reading of “Project Unspeakable,” a new play about the 1960’s assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy, will be presented on Saturday, May 3 at 7:00pm at New England Youth Theater.

“Project Unspeakable” was inspired by James Douglass’ groundbreaking and meticulously researched book, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.  It was written by playwright Court Dorsey and associate playwrights Debbie Lynangale and Steve Wangh (author of The Laramie Project), based on extensive research.  Like the book, the script focuses not on how the four leaders died, but why.

On exhibit for the month of April at the Brooks Library: Liza Woodruff (In the Children’s Illustrators’ Book Cases, 2nd Floor Hallway, across from the Children’s Room) and t(in the Main Room). 

The Saxtons River Guild was established in 1976 for the purpose of encouraging and stimulating the cultural growth of the arts locally. The Guild is very active and new members are always welcome. Members meet during the fall and winter months at Open Studio to collaborate working in various media of watercolor, oil and pastels, as well as acrylic, collage and drawings in pen/pencil.

Southern Vermont-based The Hatch presents its third Storytellers on a Mission event featuring nationally renowned storytellers who will tell hilarious stories to raise money for a great cause. The event’s recipient is the Morningside Shelter in Brattleboro, Vermont, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. The event will be held on Saturday, April 19 pm at 7:30 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro.

The evening’s storytellers will be hosted by Peter Sagal, Host of NPR’s Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and will feature Cindy Pierce, Elna Baker, Peter Aguero and Ian Chillag, with additional special guests. All performers have performed on critically acclaimed stages that include The Moth, National Public Radio (NPR) shows, Comedy Central programming and much more.

Chamber Music in the Foothills of the Green Mountains

Events are during the days of July 31- August 9, with the opening concert on the night of July 31st, at 7 PM. Events include concerts, family/ community events, and appearances from many talented guest artists and composers, all taking place in the Jamaica Town Hall on Main Street. Admission is free of charge, but donations are welcome. A portion of the donations will be contributed to the Stratton Foundation to benefit Hurricane Irene relief efforts.

Nancy Calicchio Shows Vermont Landscapes Through April

During March and April, Westminster West painter Nancy Calicchio is showing “Landscape Trilogy” in the foyer and other gallery spaces at All Souls Church in West Brattleboro. This exhibition features groups of three paintings of the same subject, each canvas a further interpretation of the landscape. In the larger (36”x36”) works, Nancy explores the balance between earth and sky. She invites the viewer to feel the long view of overlapping hills and the mysterious ambiguity of the far horizon as she searches to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface. Additional paintings round out her study of the earth-sky relationship.

16” x 16” paintings by 27 area artists

Strolling of the Heifers celebrates the opening of its new art gallery at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden Friday evening, March 7 with a reception to introduce the inaugural exhibit, “16 by 16 by 27”.

Curated by artist Caryn King, the show presents the work of 27 artists, each of whom produced a 16-inch by 16-inch square painting on canvas. The paintings reflect a variety of subjects including still life, figurative, landscape, animals, and abstract. 

Hamlet, performed live at the Latchis, 7:00pm Thursday, February 20.

Just realized this wasn’t in the calendar!

Truly Live at the Latchis, don’t miss this production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a collaboration of  two Tony Award winning companies, The Guthrie Theatre and The Acting Company. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts for his father’s murder, setting him on a journey seeking personal meaning and coming to grips with his own mortality. Published between 1601 and 1603, many believe that Hamlet is the best of Shakespeare’s works and the perfect play. It is certainly one of his most well-known and oft-quoted plays.

Guilford, Vt. – On Saturday, February 22, at 3:00 p.m., Friends of Music at Guilford presents “Lucy Terry Prince & The Black Man in Song” at Guilford Community Church (snow date: Feb. 23). Co-sponsored by Guilford Historical Society, this Black History Month event includes a talk by Linda Hecker on early Guilford resident Lucy Terry Prince (1730-1821) and a concert of works by ten African-American composers featuring tenor Irwin Reese and pianist Julia Bady.

African-born Lucy Terry grew up as a slave in the Ebenezer Wells household of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Considered the earliest African-American literary figure, she authored a poem about a 1746 Indian attack on Deerfield that was handed down orally for many years before its first publication. She married Abijah Prince, a free Black man from nearby Northfield, and raised a large family on land they bought in Guilford, Vermont. Lucy’s skills as an orator were legendary.

Human Rights Arts Project in Chile by Namaya, Zoe Kopp, & B 4 Peace Team

The Vermont based artist and poet Namaya,and Zoe Kopp the Program Director for B4 Peace presented a multimedia performance art project at a Peace Park  in Santiago Chile from December 21 through the January 21, 2014^t.  “MEMORIA. HABLAR.DIGNIDAD. 40,” to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of the coup d’etat on September 11, 1973 that lead to eighteen years of a brutal dictatorship. 

We are thoroughly enjoying the incredible, culturally rich, and diverse city of Santiago, Chile.  We wake up in the morning surrounded by the snow covered Andean mountains and do our morning yoga to the rising sun.  Some mornings I stroll out to the main square and play my classical guitar.  It is a city of an old and gracious charm, yet it is vibrant with terrific music, dance, art, and performance. 

This has been a time of great transformation and for Zoe and me to focus even more clearly on our B4 Peace and social transformation projects.  We send you the warmth of the Chilean summer and great joy.

The Brattleboro Women’s Chorus agrees with the late, great Pete Seeger that anyone can sing! They invite you to join them for the spring session that will feature American folk songs, both familiar and lesser known, all within the Chorus’s larger theme of music that is spirited and spiritual; in other words, music for the soul.

For the spring concert, the Chorus welcomes back singer/songwriter Lisa McCormick who will accompany on guitar along with other instrumentalists. And as a tribute to Pete Seeger, a sing-along, sixties-era “hootenanny” will be part of the concert.

Brattleboro Film Festival, Media Release
Contact: Lissa Weinmann (917) 239-8743

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (January 20, 2014): On the heels of a very successful November 2013 event, the Brattleboro Film Festival (BFF) announced the 3rd Annual Brattleboro Film Festival will take place from Thursday October 31 to Sunday November 9, 2014 at the Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont.

BFF is a unique, all volunteer-led and -run festival. The 30 films and accompanying events of the 2013 festival were enthusiastically received by more than 2,200 festival-goers. Enough revenue was brought in by attendance to get a strong start to this year’s fundraising effort, which has already commenced.