Gregg Wapner returns to the Crowell Gallery for the month of June. He will show his most recent works in watercolor of landscapes from in and around Brattleboro, especially the Brattleboro Retreat Walking Trails.
This year's hard winter has inspired his palette and landscape subject matters.
Wapner is a self-taught artist, who has been influenced by the simplicity of subjects and natural imagery of the art work of the Wyeth family. He has lived in Brattleboro for the past 30 years with his wife, Ellen.
The artist will be present for an opening reception on Saturday, May 30, from noon to 2 p.m.
Write Action announces its 12th annual Poetry and Prose Writing Contest. There is no theme this year. Entries in poetry and prose will be judged anonymously. The first place winners in both categories will be awarded $100, second place winners get $50, and third place winners $25 each. All...
It's been a trying season for Colonels softball coach Kelly Markol, but her team is starting to come together at just the right time. Maddy Derosia and Hannah Wilson each hit two-run home runs as Brattleboro cruised past Mill River, 11-1, at Sawyer Field last Friday. The win evened...
The diverse creative work of many younger artists will be featured at the Latchis Theatre in a multidisciplinary Local Artist Showcase on Saturday, May 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. The brainchild of Latchis staff members Austin Rice and Alex Passino and some of their friends, the Local Artist Showcase will feature film, music, stand-up comedy, visual art, and more. Admission is by donation, with proceeds shared between the artists and Latchis Arts. “I personally am a filmmaker and screenwriter,
Sara Coffey, the director and founder of Vermont Performance Lab (VPL), does not want VPL to be an arts organization lost in the the foothills of Vermont's Green Mountains. The Guilford-based nonprofit arts organization is dedicated to supporting artists in the creation and development of new work and bringing artistic experiences to rural Vermont communities. While pursuing the development of avant garde performance projects is central to VPL, community involvement is also crucial. In fact, engagement with Brattleboro and its...
Town needs Auditor GUILFORD - At the May 11 Selectboard meeting, the board accepted Auditor Elly Majonen's resignation. Chair Anne Rider said was prompted by a conflict of interest: Majonen recently took the position of assistant town clerk. The board accepted Majonen's resignation with “extreme gratitude” and sent a letter to her expressing their appreciation for her years of service to the town as a member of the town auditor board. According to the town website, “The town auditors play...
The Wardsboro Public Library's Artist of the Month Exhibition for June is presenting the paintings, ship models, and duck decoy carvings of Bruce Anderson. An artist's reception, with refreshments, is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, June 23, at 7 p.m. The event is free and all are welcome. Anderson of West Wardsboro is a self-taught painter and craftsman. He has expressed his artistic talent in many forms, watercolors, building ship models, and carving ducks. In the early 1980s, when...
In just a few short weeks, the Brattleboro Union High School class of 1965 will be celebrating its 50th reunion. Class activities will encompass the entire weekend of June 19-21. Local members of the class have been planning this event for five years. The class of '65 was one of the largest graduating classes from BUHS, with 241 alumni matriculating. A significant turnout is expected. The class has been diligent in locating members, but we still have been unable to...
The Brattleboro Area Farmers' Market (BAFM) received a $35,000 grant on May 18 through the Windham Regional Commission Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund. BAFM will use the funds this summer to decontaminate the former Planet gas station site at 70 Western Ave. The gas station building and canopy will be removed, and the site will be re-graded and redeveloped, creating additional parking to serve the Saturday farmers' market. The work will also result in a safe green space, a sidewalk, and...
This is a story about a piece of music and the connections among those it has touched. It is a story about music that, when first conceived, used a form and shape previously unknown. This story is about the intersection of art, music, computers, wine, Vermont, Chicago, and Pennsylvania. It is about Charles Dodge, the visionary pioneer of computer-generated music, and his deeply felt sorrow at the loss of a friend. It is about Baird Dodge, Charles's son, who majored...
For the second year in a row, Bellows Falls Union High School was ranked by the US News and World Report Education ranking. In the 2015 US News' Best High School rankings, Bellows Falls Union High School (BFUHS) was ranked sixth and was awarded a silver medal. To be eligible for a state ranking, a school must be awarded a national gold or silver medal. Last year, BFUHS was ranked in the top 15 schools in Vermont. BFUHS Principal Christopher...
College news • The following local students received degrees at Lyndon State College's 103rd Commencement ceremony on May 17: Robin Shannon of Brattleboro, B.S. in applied psychology and human services; Garth LeMessurier of Putney, B.A. in psychology; Ian Murdock of Wilmington, A.S. in business administration; and Cheyenne Wyatt of Wilmington, B.S. in computer information systems. • Conor Madison of Londonderry and Kelsey Patterson of Brattleboro both graduated from the University of New Hampshire on May 16. Madison earned a BSENSC...
Transition Dummerston hosts community picnic DUMMERSTON - For its monthly potluck and program series, Transition Dummerston will hold its second annual Community Picnic at Dutton Pines State Park on Route 5 in East Dummerston, on Friday, May 29, from 5:30 p.m. to dusk. At 5:30 p.m., a campfire will be built. Visitors can hike the Myron Dutton Memorial Nature Trail to work up an appetite for the potluck-picnic that will begin at 6:30 p.m., with local foods encouraged. From 7:30...
One of three teams representing Bellows Falls Union High School in a state environmental science competition will represent Vermont in the North American Envirothon Competition in Springfield, Mo. in July. Bellows Falls sent three teams to the state's annual Envirothon Competition: the A-Team, which won the best overall score for the competition, as well as the B-Team and an Alternates team. Susan Steiner coaches all three teams and joined the students on the three teams, which were among the 17...
Let me start with the obvious: We are in Vermont, home to 626,562 hearty souls spread out over 9,217 square miles (14,747 square kilometers). We are otherwise known as the 0.0019 percent of the general population of these United States of America, the most rural state, and among the states with the most rapidly aging populations in the nation. Not so evident, however, is the fact that Black people have been living in Vermont since the 1600s. • Black people...
On Saturday, May 30, at noon, Jesse Peters will come to the Putney Public Library to kick off his “Tour350: Music, Words, Images Library Tour.” In the spring of 2010, Peters embarked on a cross-country bike trip with the goals of completing a solo, self-contained ride, playing as many gigs as possible, and raising awareness of climate change. That August he crossed the Sierra Nevadas into California, having ridden more than 4,000 miles and performed about 25 times, in settings...
On May 30, Dalem's Chalet celebrates its 50th anniversary with a special dinner featuring European continental cuisine. The Alpine-styled restaurant, banquet hall, and inn, is tucked among the wooded hills of West Brattleboro, just behind the First Congregational Church. Ursula Dalem, the establishment's proprietor, said she has lived in Brattleboro for 58 years. What brought Dalem - born Ursula Golda -ۥ from her childhood home in eastern Germany to southeastern Vermont was the family of Oskar Dalem, her future husband.
Being the painter daughter of one of the prime movers of the post-war New York art scene during the 1960s and 1970s is not an easy position in which to find oneself. Lauren Olitski's father, the late Jules Olitski, known mainly for his minimalist colorfield paintings, has maintained an important place in our nation's history of modern art. Comparisons would be inevitable. While the elder Olitski was reluctant to give advice - he wished his daughter, who graduated from Sarah...
The Greater Falls Warming Shelter recently honored its volunteers for their contributions as nighttime volunteers and meal preparers with a dinner held at Our Place Drop-in Center. Recognized for giving many hours of time at the shelter were Pat Torrey, who was cited for the most number of 1 to 7 a.m. shifts, and Dick Shaw and Jill Newton, who were both noted for volunteering many shifts and hours and for always being ready and willing to fill in when...
Twilight Music begins its 13th annual Twilight on The Tavern Lawn series of folk, world beat, rock, jazz, zydeco, Celtic, swing, blues, and bluegrass summer concerts on Sunday, May 31, with an evening of blues by The Chris Kleeman Band. The seven-concert series continues every other Sunday through Aug. 23. All concerts begin at 6 p.m. in downtown Putney on the Putney Tavern lawn (bring a lawn chair or blanket) or at The Putney Community Center at 10 Christian Square...
The Ladies of the Rainbow will perform songs and stand-up comedy at a benefit drag show on Saturday, May 30. The event, set for 8 p.m. at VFW Carl M. Dessaint Post 1034 at 40 Black Mountain Rd., will feature adult entertainment to raise funds for the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont. The Ladies of the Rainbow have served up lip-synching and laughter to area audiences since first performing at Dummerston's Rainbow Cattle Co. in the late 1990s. Their story...
I recently was in a store, and a guy came in wearing a Marine Corps hat carrying a child of about 2 years old. The child’s face had about 30 stitches from forehead to throat. I won’t mention the breed that did this, except to say that the dog was known to the child, and that 2 million such adult animals are put down per year in the U.S. Including puppies, that would make about 10 million. Of course, people...
The Blue Moose Bistro will be one of more than 1,300 restaurants and bars around the world participating in Negroni Week, June 1-7. The restaurant, at 39 Main St., will be mixing drinks for charity, earmarking a portion of its proceeds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Vermont. Negroni Week, presented by Imbibe magazine and Campari, was launched in 2013 as “a celebration of one of the world's great cocktails and an effort to raise money for charitable causes around the...
I plan a short, peaceful vigil at the Brattleboro post office on my 70th birthday. That should pretty much be a non-event in Brattleboro, where vigils and other expressive activity has regularly taken place on outdoor post office property for decades. But recent threats of arrest for expressive behavior on outdoor Brattleboro post office property does make this one a bit special. Every Saturday morning for the past 12-plus years, Parker Huber has stood with a sign, “Silent Witness for...
Career-staffed fire departments moving to all-volunteer firefighting forces is a “trendâ€? Thorough reporting would fact-check a claim like that, along with other silly claims, such as the one made elsewhere by Bellows Falls Village President Nancy McAuliffe that people are selling their homes and moving because of the $80-a-year cost per-$100,000 home to pay career firefighters. Thankfully, she said nothing quite so silly at Village Meeting, where her plan was voted down soundly, by a 2-to-1 margin. Nothing makes a...
Two established organizations plan to rewrite the rules of mathematics. In an effort to bring greater services to those struggling with homelessness, Morningside Shelter and the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center announced last Friday that they are merging. The new organization is called Groundworks Collaborative. Their tag line is “Meeting Basic Needs With Dignity.” “One plus one can equal three,” said Morningside Board President Carla Lineback. For three years, said Linebeck, Morningside and the Drop In Center have asked, “How...
The first thing Amy Comerchero wants the public to know is, “I'm in perfect health.” With the news that her eponymous bakery and café on Main Street is closing after nearly 15 years of operation, Comerchero said rumors have been flying about her well-being. As she sat outside her shop, trying to eat her lunch on a busy Saturday afternoon, every 30 seconds or so she had to stop chewing to receive messages of condolence and wishes for her well-being...
The annual Memorial Day service is usually held in front of the town's memorial to the people who served in the wars of the 20th century - from World War I to Vietnam. This year, the service paid tribute to the 46 men from Brattleboro who gave their lives in the Civil War on the 150th anniversary of the end of that bloody conflict. That war killed 620,000 Americans, a scale of mass death never before or since experienced by...
They are the same. In my opinion, today's pharmaceutical industry is behaving much like its kissing cousins, the petrochemical industry, and the pesticide industry. All three of them - Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Agra - write the same narrative. Born of the “miracles” of science, they are technologies originated through need, transforming our lives for better and for worse, and advancing at a rate dangerously ahead of our human/earth biology. These industries are booming, creating such riches that the...
Where do creative ideas come from? What inspires? How does one go from the first germ of an idea to a finished composition? Do artists, in their awareness of the creative process, have something to offer others as they create their careers and lives? In the next forum in the local Making it in the Arts series sponsored by Brattleboro-West Arts and the Arts Council of Windham County, musician Eugene Uman will offer his perspective on these questions at 7:30...
On a 0 to 9 scale, the Arch Bridge rates a 4, meaning it is considered in poor condition. Selectboard members discussed the condition of the historic span and the status of the project during a visit from two representatives from the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) at the May 18 Selectboard meeting. The Depot Road bridge, which spans the Rock River at the intersection of Grimes Hill and Dover roads, was built in 1908 and is considered the top...
Civil War historian Howard Coffin held a battered old pistol in his hand. The revolver, more than a century and a half old, didn't look like much. But Coffin told an audience at the River Garden on Sunday that it was the pistol that ended the Civil War. The story of that pistol, and the Vermonter who carried it, was one of several talks related to various aspects of the Civil War that were presented in Brattleboro to mark the...