Welcome to our library of virtual programs related to our exhibitions.
Numerous exhibitions have celebrated the significant contributions that award-winning illustrator and author Ashley Bryan made to the field of children’s literature. The Spirit of Joy at Southern Vermont Arts Center is the first, however, to examine the interior of Bryan’s home and its relationship to his creative output.
Exhibition image: Ashley Bryan, Illustration for Let It Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals (Atheneum)
Date: September 2023
Changing Threads: The Red Dress Project (Audio)
Chapter 1: Embroidered Narratives, an Introduction
Chapter 2: The Dress Emerges From a Sketch on a Napkin
Chapter 3: The Mirror & the Changing Threads
Chapter 4: Weaving Reflections and Dreams of the Future
Changing Threads is an opportunity to listen to the complex and profound story behind the Red Dress, narrated by artist and founder Kirstie Macleod. Throughout four chapters, she offers an intimate exploration of the 14-year journey behind the completion of the dress: her upbringing, the moments of inspiration, the early days of the project, the challenges, the wonderful collaborations with 380 artists from around the world, and her dreams for the future of the project.
Date: July 2023
Kirstie Macleod, creator of the Red Dress project, spoke to SVAC members during a special preview event for the exhibition. Macleod shared stories from the Red Dress’ 14-year creation journey, during which 380 participants from 51 countries stitched onto the dress.
Date: July 2023
A video of the reception and poetry readings at the opening of Gail Winbury’s The Girl Who Drew Memories exhibition. The exhibition will be on view in SVAC’s Elizabeth de C. Wilson museum through Saturday, February 25.
Date: December 3, 2022
A presentation and virtual “walking tour” of the RELATIONSHIPS: Hot, Cold, Intricate exhibition that was on view at SVAC from June-August , 2022. The 31 exhibiting artists, from the 6 New England states, use creative interpretations of the RELATIONSHIPS theme to demonstrate the many expressive and unique possibilities of working with wax-based materials.
Date: July 2022
Four artists from The World Between the Block and the Paper shared their personal “mokuhanga stories” with Alison Crites, SVAC’s Manager of Exhibitions & Interpretive Engagement. Yoonmi Nam, April Vollmer, Katsutoshi Yuasa, and Jennifer Mack-Watkins all specialize in water-based woodblock printmaking. In their remarks, the artists spoke about how they first came to mokuhanga, what resonates with them about this medium, and what unique visual languages they have developed in their work. The artists also spoke about the ways mokuhanga can be used to open up conversations about some of the most pressing issues of our time.
Date: February 2022
Artist Pat Musick takes viewers on a virtual tour of her exhibition “Choices,” part of SVAC’s larger environmental exhibition, Our Tangled Choices: Art and the Environment, on view in the Wilson Museum from August 28 – November 14, 2021. She speaks about every artwork in the exhibition, situating them in her over 50-year career as an artist. Pat’s gift for storytelling comes alive as she speaks about her inspirations, materials, and process.
Alison Crites, SVAC’s Manager of Exhibitions & Interpretive Engagement, provides further context about SVAC’s long history with Pat as well as describes a unique aspect of this exhibition—the interpretation of Pat’s artwork is entirely written by community members.
Date: October 2021
Shanta Lee Gander—writer, photographer, and journalist—spoke about her recent Dark Goddess photography series, which debuted at SVAC in 2021. Gander worked closely with each of her models, often for over a month at a time, to co-create their inner dark goddess and capture that empowered essence through photography. With these images and through her collaborative practice, Gander aims to expand notions of the goddess beyond limiting binaries such as good/evil and dark/light.
In this talk, Gander shares many examples of visual and textual culture from her childhood, college years, and global travels that have fueled “a lifelong courtship with curiosity.”
Date: September 14, 2021
“Always OPEN” Solo Exhibition Art Talk with Charlotte Ghiorse/the House of ChoCLeT at Southern Vermont Arts Center. For more information visit houseofchoclet.com.
Date: September 23, 2021
Artists Barbara Ishikura and Hilary Tait Norod came together with Alison Crites, SVAC’s exhibition manager, for an engaging conversation about thematic intersections in their art, art historical influences, and how to create opportunities for viewers to connect and engage with their work.
Both artists turn to their most personal and intimate relationships for imagery, content, and themes to explore in their painting. Tait Norod’s work reflects conversations with her loved ones, especially her husband, that highlight the unfinished business of love and intimacy. Ishikura presents autobiographical work in ways that explore the ongoing conflict of adhering to social norms across different social classes.
Both artists had Solo exhibitions at SVAC during the summer of 2021.
Date: July 28, 2021
Candace Jensen, an interdisciplinary artist and writer, gave an intimate in-person gallery talk at SVAC about Terrestrial Texts, her first major solo exhibition in Vermont. Jensen’s work is informed by deep ecology, an approach to life that believes the relationship between all beings is deeply meaningful and spiritual. Her exhibition features works on paper that draw from and expand the traditions of calligraphy and illuminated manuscripts to investigate themes of environmentalism, mythology, interdependence, and more. For more about Jensen’s work, visit here.
Jensen lives and works in Westminster, Vermont, the unceded traditional lands of the Elnu Abenaki. She is cofounder and executive director of In Situ Polyculture Commons, a nonprofit art residency focused on community resilience and the intersection of art and ecology. She also currently serves as the Book Arts Director and Art Editor at the Ruth Stone House in Goshen, VT.
Let these panelists brighten your day with their creativity, humor and humanity. Artist and activist Diana Weymar has inspired thousands of needle-pointers to join her in stitching what she calls “the material record of the Trump presidency and the movement against it.” Now featured in international media, Diana’s Tiny Pricks Project has grown from one person’s idea into a massive collective undertaking. Tiny Pricks ends when President Trump’s term ends–18 hours after this panel. Hear Diana’s reflections, on the cusp of the project’s completion.
In the spring of 2020, Eben Haines and Delaney Dameron, founders of Shelter In Place (SIP) Gallery, created a 1:12 scale exhibition space to show artists’ work. They are always open–while traditional galleries and museums are closed, studios are often hard to access, and both monetary and social resources for artists are slim. By posting images of miniature installations on social media, Delaney and Eben have brought the public little SIPs of art–intimate, profound and playful, all at once. They have received hundreds of submissions from artists in the US and beyond.
Artists Patty Hudak and Chalice Mitchell joined us for an engaging online conversation about how living and working abroad in China and Japan fundamentally changed their artistic practice. In particular, both artists developed a personal “ink language” through their exposure to, study of, and experimentation with the tradition of ink painting, which first flourished in China during the 600s and was introduced to Japan during the 1300s.
Patty and Chalice, whose artwork was shown in the “Women Take Wilson” exhibition, brought their memories and experiences to life through sharing images and stories. Alison Crites, SVAC’s Manager of Exhibitions & Interpretive Engagement, moderated the program.
Artist Adrien Broom and SVAC’s Executive Director Anne Corso will discuss Broom’s artistic practice, background, and her two bodies of work that were on view at SVAC in the summer/fall of 2020. A visual storyteller, Broom uses photography, film, and set design to create images that contain elements of fantasy, nostalgia, and wonder.
Adrien’s two exhibitions, “Holding Space” and “The Color Project” were part of SVAC’s summer/fall “Women Take Wilson” exhibition.