Visitors and residents of Vermont will be able to tour artist/artisan studios during the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend May 27-28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Open Studio Weekend is a statewide celebration of the visual arts and creative process, offering a unique opportunity for visitors to meet a wide variety of local artists and craftspeople in their studios and purchase high-quality, handmade art.
The self-guided Open Studio tour features the work of glassblowers, jewelers, printmakers, potters, furniture makers, weavers, ironworkers, painters, sculptors, quilt makers and wood carvers. Many participating galleries will host gallery talks and feature special exhibits in conjunction with this event.
Here's a rundown of what can be found around Windham County:
Brattleboro area
Vermont Artisans Design & Gallery 2, 106 Main St., serves again as the regional information center for the tour in the Brattleboro area. Participating artists include:
• Virginia Wyoming Pottery. Stoneware tableware, clay sculpture, and planters. 272 South Goddard Hill Rd., Putney.
• Rhonda Zoch. Landscape paintings, watercolors, gouache, and acrylics. 72 Hog Farm Rd., Putney.
• Alchemy Arte - Fiona Morehouse. Unique handbuilt and wheelthrown pottery. 659 West Hill Rd., Putney.
• Fire Arts Vermont - Natalie Blake and Randi Solin. Glassblowing, tile workshops, demonstrations, and gallery. 485 West River Rd., Brattleboro.
• Vitriesse Glass Studio - Lucy Bergamini. Functional, colorful, and sculptural glass jewelry. 122 Birge St., #21, Brattleboro.
• Rosie's Wonders Connections Cards - Rosie Schulick. Cards, ceramics, jewelry, art, and scarves. 74 Cotton Mill Hill, Unit A351, Brattleboro.
• Jason E. Breen, Fine and Custom Woodwork. Furniture, turnings, woodenware, accessories, and cabinetry. 1197 Bonnyvale Rd., Brattleboro.
• Lesley Heathcote Studio - Lesley Heathcote. Pastels of animals, birds, and landscapes. 32 Larkin St., Brattleboro.
• Orchard Street Pottery - Walter Slowinski. Wood-fired, salt-glazed pottery, branch handles. 658 Orchard St., Brattleboro.
• Chris Lann Designs. Contemporary, handcrafted fine sterling jewelry. 1420 Sunset Lake Rd., Brattleboro.
• JMB Glass - Josh and Marta Bernbaum. Functional and decorative handmade glass. 119 Hescock Rd., Brattleboro.
• Laughing Lizard Studio - Jen Wiechers. Playful paintings, encaustics, and sterling silver jewelry. 25 Highlawn Rd., Brattleboro.
• Matthew Tell Pottery. Wood-fired pottery, with earth tones and overlays. 163 Potter's Rd., Marlboro.
• Applewood's Woodworking Studio and Gallery - David and Michelle Holzapfel. Tables, benches, burls, and spalted wood. 2802 Rte 9, Marlboro.
Bellows Falls and Saxtons River
Rockingham Arts and Museum Project founding director Robert McBride says he and other participating artists, including Phyllis Rosser and Chris Sherwin of Bellows Falls; Clare Adams and Jeanette Staley of Saxton's River; Ailyn Hoey and Mark Goodenough of Rockingham; and ceramicists Virginia Wyoming and Nancy Calicchio of Westminster West are participating in the Open Studio Weekend.
The work of these artists will be on display through June 4 at the Flat Iron Building, 51 The Square, Bellows Falls.
The Flat Iron is the designated information center for the weekend, offering brochures including maps and listings of local eateries and businesses. Yellow balloons and placards indicate arts venues open to the public.
“The Art of the Resistance” is the installation at Project Space 9 Gallery at 9 Canal Street in the Exner Block (circa 1905). Project Space 9 is wheelchair accessible. Please call 802-463-3252 in advance to make arrangements.
The Flat Iron is also wheelchair accessible. Call 802-460-0357 to make arrangements. There is plenty of all-day parking at the Amtrak train station, near the oldest chartered canal in the U.S. (1792), just two blocks from the downtown square.
South Newfane, Newfane, and Townshend
Five artists in Newfane and Townshend will participate in the Open Studio Tour, welcoming visitors to see demonstrations and sample home-baked refreshments.
• Caryn King, animal painter, 16 Miller Lane, South Newfane. Visit a painter's studio full of animals. Painted from local animals, the paintings range from 4 inches to life-size.
• Glass-blowing demonstrations will be ongoing at Robert DuGrenier Glass Art Gallery at 1096 VT Route 30 in Townshend.
The gallery will be open and featuring the “Out of the Ashes” collection of sculptures that Robert created by incorporating glass into some of the farming implements and antique parts that were left in the wake of his 2015 barn fire, along with a wide variety of both functional and fanciful hand-blown glass.
• Kim Eng Yeo, watercolor painter, 628 Peaked Mountain Rd., Townshend. Yeo says her watercolors “are journeys of visual discovery.”
• Darlene Eisenhuth, RUST, recycled art, 911 Dover Rd., South Newfane. Working with both wood and metal, Eisenhuth turns rusted and weathered salvaged items into fun and functional pieces for the home and garden.
• Diane Echlin, potter, 428 South Wardsboro Rd., Newfane. Echlin says she relies “heavily on cues from the natural world to inform my art.”
For more information on the Newfane-Townshend area artists, contact King at [email protected] or 802-380-7006.
Wilmington-Whitingham area
Maps are available at the Mount Snow Chamber of Commerce and at local businesses. These studios will be open in the Deerfield Valley this weekend:
• Vermont Pressed Flowers, Ellie Roden. Pressed flower creations: originals, prints, cards, and bookmarks. 32 Ray Hill Rd., Wilmington.
• Eric Sprenger Fine Woodwork. Handmade, original, contemporary furniture. 72 Castle Hill Rd., Wilmington.
• Jen Violette Designs. Sculptural blown glass, Vermont barn paintings. 12 New England Power Rd., Wilmington.
• Town Hill Pottery, Aysha Peltz and Todd Wahlstrom. Wheel-thrown porcelain and stoneware pottery. 612 Town Hill Rd., Whitingham.
• Readsboro Glassworks. Handblown glass and glass sculpture. 6954 Main St., Readsboro.