BRATTLEBORO — Fantastical creatures fashioned out of glass, a huge and growing map of an imaginary world, a suite of prints by one of Vermont's best-loved artists, and artwork inspired by astronauts' impressions of the earth from space - all this and more will be on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) when four new exhibits open during Brattleboro's monthly Gallery Walk on Friday, Nov. 1, at 5:30 p.m.
Many of the exhibiting artists will be in attendance at the opening, which is free and open to all.
“VT Kids Design Glass II” is the sequel to a wildly successful exhibit/community outreach program undertaken by BMAC two years ago in which professional glass artists created one-of-a-kind sculptures based on kids' drawings of imaginary creatures.
The new exhibit features 24 glass sculptures by 21 artists, as well as all 812 drawings submitted by kids from around the world - and the kids' descriptions of their imaginary creatures.
Each sculpture is available for sale at BMAC, with all proceeds supporting the museum's education programs.
Opening alongside is “Jerry's Map,” a room-sized installation of hand-drawn panels comprising a highly detailed map of an imaginary world sprung from the mind of artist Jerry Gretzinger.
Gretzinger started the map as a doodle in 1963 and has been working on it ever since. What he adds to the map each day, and what happens to the sections he has already created, are determined in part by cards drawn at random from a customized deck. Gretzinger's ongoing interest in the project, he claims, is in seeing how the map will evolve, as that is not totally within his control.
BMAC Director Danny Lichtenfeld sees “Jerry's Map” as “an artisanal, lo-fi, analog precursor to Minecraft, SimCity, and the like.”
Rounding out the new exhibits are “Cosmic Geometry: Sabra Field,” a suite of 16 prints by the much-admired Vermont artist, revealing reflections in the world around us, from the microscopic to cosmic scale, and “Our Fragile Home: Pat Musick,” a multimedia installation inspired by impressions of the Earth from space, as conveyed by astronauts and cosmonauts, including Musick's husband and collaborator, Jerry Carr.
The new exhibits will remain on view until March 8, 2014, except “Our Fragile Home: Pat Musick,” which closes Feb. 9. During that time, BMAC will present a number of related events, including an artist talk by Sabra Field, a documentary film on composer John Cage, and the use of chance operations in art.