On a tour of southern Vermont arts sites, Susan Evans McClure, newly appointed executive director of the Vermont Arts Council (VAC), addressed about 40 area artists and arts leaders at Brattleboro's Epsilon Spires on the evening of Nov. 27. Leading Vermont's primary provider of funding, advocacy, and information for the arts, Evans McClure intends to hit each region in the state within the year to listen to its arts communities, to invite their success stories, and to hear their challenges...
As business owners, husband-and-wife team Kate Barry and Bruce Hunt know all about the challenges facing the downtown area. Barry co-owns the Collective Lounge & Bar on Elliot Street, and together, she and Hunt operate a property management company. Barry also runs the local office of a real estate brokerage, eXp Realty, from the Hooker-Dunham Building on Main Street. But Barry and Hunt also know all about what makes Brattleboro a place where people want to live and work and...
Some examples of questions used by U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service to assess the food security of households in the U.S, in 2022: • "We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more." Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months? • "The food that we bought just didn't last, and we didn't have money to get more." Was that often, sometimes, or never true for...
Organizers are accepting reservations for a Special Christmas Breakfast fundraiser to honor the memory of Deirdre Baker, a local cancer survivor and community volunteer who recently died in a fire. The Dec. 25 event at the Marina Restaurant will feature 100-person seatings at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. for those who call 802-257-7563 no later than Wednesday, Dec. 20. Baker's friends are set to offer a by-donation buffet of scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fruit, coffee, tea, and juice.
When Deirdre Baker was named grand marshal of this town's Fourth of July parade in 2012, she didn't let that morning's storm clouds dampen her spirits. She already had weathered too much for that. The year before, Baker was planning a free public Christmas breakfast when, set to celebrate her 50th birthday, she was unable to shake a stuffy nose. Doctors said it wasn't a cold or allergies, but instead sinus cancer. To reach and remove it, they'd have to...
Historical restoration is an art form that attempts to preserve and connect us with our roots. In Putney, one of our historical landmarks is Pierce's Hall, built circa 1831, which has served as a community center and dance hall for over a century. A committed group of citizens has kept the hall operative for decades, restoring the roof and providing space for monthly contra dances, potlucks, celebrations, community presentations, and even food shelf pop-ups. Once upon a time, the Ladies'