Arts

Jelly Bean Tree Artisans adopt name change

SAXTONS RIVER — The members of The Jelly Bean Tree Artisans Cooperative voted unanimously to change the cooperative's name to The River Artisans Cooperative.

The Jelly Bean Tree Cooperative, founded in 1975, is Vermont's oldest crafts cooperative. It recently moved to a new location at 26B Main St., after three decades in Saxtons River's Main Street Arts Building.

Joan Lester, the co-op's president, noted in a press statement that The Jelly Bean Tree had grown over the decades and it was time for a name change to reflect that.

“It has been a rebirth of sorts,” she said.

After approving the name change Sept. 10, the group set to work planning fall workshops: beginning knitting and beginning calligraphy classes will be scheduled for October; a make-your-own-ornament class teaches basic decorative painting techniques in November.

Craft get-togethers were also discussed. A regular daytime knitting/crochet group and a projects-half-done group might launch in the winter, Lester said.

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