BRATTLEBORO — Gallery in the Woods recently announced a transition of leadership and the reopening of its doors at 145 Main St., on Friday, July 2, at 11 a.m., with a celebration at 5 p.m., as part of Downtown Brattleboro's newly revitalized Gallery Walk.
The three-floor collection features new work from renowned magical realist David Small for the month of July.
Gallery in the Woods was founded in 1994 by Suzanne and Dante Corsano, both accomplished craftspeople who decided in 2001 to open a Christmas pop-up store downtown to show their hand-painted pottery and fine woodworking along with work from artists and craftspeople they admired.
“Twenty-seven years later, as they plan for retirement, the gallery is being passed down in the family to the eldest of their four daughters, Aurora,” the family writes in a news release. “Suzanne and Dante will continue their involvement with the gallery, but to a lesser degree.”
Aurora Corsano grew up with her family in Marlboro, where she and her sisters often worked with their parents in their respective pottery and woodworking shops, glazing, shipping, and sanding, as well as helping customers.
The work sold to galleries nationwide and at craft fairs, including the Brattleboro Farmers' Market. Aurora later graduated from Marlboro College with a plan of concentration on her passion for dance and furthered her training as a guest student at the European Dance Development Centre in the Netherlands.
In her professional life, she danced in the productions of renowned choreographers Yoshiko Chuma, Mary Fulkerson, and Angus McLean Balbernie in Europe and New York.
Aurora Corsano toured the Netherlands and Spain with the experimental electronic music group Kreepa and worked in residency with the band's members at Steim (an institute for computer/human interface for the arts) in Amsterdam.
She has worked as a performer, tour manager, and rigger for the New York City–based company Pink Inc. and performed in its high-profile events such as the halftime show for the Dallas Cowboys and the Whitney Museum bicentennial celebration. She has presented her own choreography in venues in New York City, Vermont, and Europe.
In 2003, Aurora returned to Brattleboro, where she founded Luminz Studio Dance and Performing Arts Center, a school and venue for dance that thrived for 10 years before being transformed by new owners. For the past six years she has served as administrator to Sandglass Theater in Putney.