Archives are magical things. What may be a meaningless box of old letters and receipts to one person could be a boon to someone wanting to understand the lives of artists living and working in mid-20th century Southern Vermont. Did you know that SVAC once had a ballet school and a film festival? Or do you remember the time in 1960 that Dean Fausett raffled a painting to help the center purchase a Volkswagen bus? Archives hold the history of a community. In pictures, letters, and ephemera, they paint a picture of how people came together to shape what SVAC is today.

In the course of his Curatorial Fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Ric Kasini Kadour is doing a deep dive into the history of Southern Vermont Arts Center. To that end, Kadour has started the process of organizing SVAC’s archives. On Saturday, September 25th, 2021 at Noon, in the lobby of the Wilson Museum, Kadour will show some of the items he has found and speak about what they tell us about the history of Southern Vermont artists and the community they built at SVAC.

“SVAC has been a part of the community of Southern Vermont for over seven decades. It’s fascinating to see how the organization and the audience have evolved, and to do so through archival documents is a rare treat. We’re thrilled to have the support of Ric Kasini Kadour and community volunteers in this effort.”
–Anne Corso, Executive Director, SVAC

Kadour will be joined by Jon Mathewson, who will speak about material related to Southern Vermont Artists history that can be found in the Dorset Historical Society, and Eve Ogden Schaub, who is leading a volunteer effort to organize SVAC’s archives.