BRATTLEBORO — The public art project Sonic Blanket will hang a banner above Main Street that reads, “You are beneath the cover of the Sonic Blanket,” for a week beginning Saturday, Sept. 11.
This banner will be part of a series of public artworks and handmade signs that have been installed throughout the listening area of Brattleboro Community Radio, WVEW-FM 107.7.
Sonic Blanket is a year-long community art project consisting of a sound collage by local artists Jonathan Gitelson, Weston Olencki, and Diana Whitney, mixed media visual artworks, and a series of monthly public art installations and free workshops presented in collaboration with Artful Streets during Brattleboro's First Friday Gallery Walks.
According to a news release, the idea for Sonic Blanket was born during the early days of pandemic lockdown, while Gitelson was walking through his neighborhood in Brattleboro. The glow of lights inside all the houses felt at once comforting and melancholy, hinting at the fear and isolation experienced by the people within. Seeking to create a sense of connection among everyone in those homes, Gitelson decided that community radio, with its hyper-localized nature, was a perfect medium for the project.
The invisible blanket of sound waves emitting from the tower of WVEW (on the Winston Prouty Campus) extends roughly 10 miles in every direction.
The sound collage featuring Whitney's poem “Sonic Blanket,” which is broadcast nightly at midnight and on Sundays at 2:30 p.m., is the core element of this piece, with the signs, banner, and interactive public events serving to deepen connection.
Upcoming Gallery Walk events will include a T-shirt screen-printing event with First Proof Press in October, a public sound installation in November, and a pop-up family photo booth in December.
Sonic Blanket is a recent recipient of a Brattleboro Town Arts Fund Grant and a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant. Nightly broadcasts will continue through Wednesday, Dec. 7.