PUTNEY — The Putney Central School eighth-grade social studies class invites the community to “Putney Art Stories,” a public screening of short videos of artists, craftspeople, and makers who live and work in the Putney community.
The free screening will take place at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, on Thursday, Jan. 11, at 6:30 p.m.
Each student was paired with an individual in Putney's creative community, including sculptor Joe Fichter, custom drummaker Nathaniel Hall, and printmaker Briony Morrow-Cribbs. Students produced short video portraits of these individuals and their perspectives on creativity, inspiration, and the viability of making a living with art in Putney.
As part of their “Putney Art Stories” curriculum, students in Leah Toffolon's eighth-grade social studies class partnered with the Vermont Folklife Center's Education program to learn the fundamentals of ethnographic research, interviewing techniques, and media production.
The Vermont Folklife Center's “Discovering Community” Education program encourages students to learn to be “storytellers”; to explore and capture stories in their communities by doing primary source research; to listen to others' stories, thereby building empathy and compassion; and to come to see themselves as part of a wider, interwoven community.