DANCE - FINE ARTS - MUSIC - THEATER - WRITING

ARTBITS by Richard B. Harper


VOLUME 6 * * All Arts News On the Web * * June 28, 2002

STUFF YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

      ArtBits always features a calendar of the goings on of Franklin County artists. Check out these events around Franklin County. Each issue includes the entire text of our weekly newspaper column.


      Stop in for the AAC CoffeeHouses at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month. These gatherings bring new opportunities, gossip, "show-and-tell" and workshops. We come together on the second Wednesday for a booked musical performance and an art exhibit at Simple Pleasures in St Albans. On the fourth Wednesday come to the Kept Writer in St Albans for acoustic Open Mike Night featuring music, readings, and more from the best new artists in Vermont.


BAY DAYS GETS SUMMER SOUNDS

      Bay Days and the Summer Sounds concerts team up this Sunday to offer family activities all day and great music through the evening and into the fireworks. Although Summer Sounds has appeared at the Bay in prior years, this is the first year for regular concerts in St Albans Town.
      Burt Paquin Ford, Handy Chevrolet-Olds, Handy Dodge-Toyota, Moore Lincoln-Mercury, and Paquin Motors present Nobby Reed at 7 p.m. on the bath house patio in St Albans Bay Park.
      "St Albans Town has exceptional recreational facilities," said Town Administrator Ray Tanguay. "We hope events like this concert series will encourage people to use our parks all year."
      The best blues guitarist in Vermont fronts The Nobby Reed Project. Scott Dubois, B-3, keys, and harp, Tim Comings, bass, and Eric Belrose, drums, will back up Nobby in the free St Albans Bay concert.
      Expect Nobby Reed to open the show with Fill Me Up and The Rev from his new album, Cure for the Blues. He will also play I'm Crying as well as "a conglomeration from my albums" including Satisfied Blues, Thick and Thin (that Texas rockabilly thing), and Blues Bug, plus some Stevie Ray Vaughn and Eric Clapton. Guitar on My Back, It's All about the Blues and the new Cure for the Blues are available at the Music Shop in St Albans plus Pure Pop, Barnes and Noble, and online at nobbyreed.com
      Nobby will compete with 12 other bands at the 17th Annual Battle of the Blues Bands in Boston on July 6-8. He has been getting air play from Atlanta to Jeffersonville, MO, and had bluesman Luther Johnson jamming with him at a recent gig in Antrim.
      "Come on down the Bay and enjoy the race, the activities, the beach, a great concert, and the fireworks," Mike Boulerice said. "Park your car and take the bus. The Network shuttle will run a continuous loop from BFA parking lot and from City Elementary to the Bay." Thanks to the Northwest Vermont Public Transportation Network, the purple bus will run continuously from 6 p.m. until 10:30.
      The final Recreation Department coin drop start at 10 a.m. this Saturday, downtown and at the Highgate Commons. "Many businesses and individual contributions as well as the coin drops are making the fireworks possible," Mike said.
      Summer Sounds in St Albans Bay are presented by the Town of St Albans, and the All Arts Council of Franklin County, and sponsored by a select group of Franklin County Attorneys, Main Street Merchants and Businesses, Northwestern Medical Center, St Albans New Car Dealers, St Albans Area Realtors, and the Vermont State Colleges. This Independence Day concert is hosted by the Recreation Department.
      The rain site for Nobby Reed is the Congregational Church on Church Street in St Albans. The community based All Arts Council brings the performing arts to northwestern Vermont. Summer Sounds concerts are always on Sunday night, always in a Town Park, always at 7 p.m., and always free.


SOJOURNS IN THE WILD

      Nature photographer Gustav W. Verderber is well known to Franklin County readers for his stunning images. In this new exhibit, he starts with a bug's eye view behind a barn, dives into a Maine tidal pool, and soars across the Americas.
      "Sojourns in The Wild is my homage to Nature," Gustav said. "It's a visual and musical fantasia of all things wild." Sojourns opens tomorrow evening at the Flynn.
      William Jackson provides the live music for a multimedia experience that travels from a New England meadow to Alaska, the Amazon, and the Galapagos Islands.
      AAC member Gustav W. Verderber uses photographs and words to interpret our environment as he explores, teaches, and writes about wildlife, nature, and environmental issues. The juried artist with the Vermont Arts Council is a contributing artist in Vermont Magazine. His works are also featured in National Audubon Society, Natural History, and Vermont Life.
      A founder of Ossian, international Scottish harper, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, 1William Jackson is also a solo performer and the composer of The Wellpark Suite, St Mungo, and a regular on Fiona Ritchie's Thistle and Shamrock.
      Sojourns in The Wild at the Flynn Center in Burlington, Vermont on Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the Flynn box office.
      Sojourns in The Wild moves into the Fletcher Free Library on July 1 as a gallery exhibit of signed, limited edition prints. "Five percent of the proceeds of the sale of these prints will be donated to conservation and animal rights in Vermont," Gustav said. The exhibit will remain on display throughout July.


CALL FOR ARTISTS

      The A.A. Brown Public Library annual open hous and art show in Richford wants exhibs from area artists. Call 848-3313 for info.


COFFEEHOUSE

      The regular AAC CoffeeHouse at Simple Pleasures and at the Kept Writer is taking the summer off. The watercolor paintings of Mary Harper will remain on exhibit at Simple Pleasures and the oil paintings of Alan DeMont can be seen at the Kept Writer. The artwork is available for sale.


GRACEFUL HARMONY

      Village Harmony returns to Sheldon for the fourth season of Summer Music at Grace on Wednesday evening at Grace Church. Village Harmony has a repertoire of contemporary and traditional shape-note music, Italian laudae, ancient songs from the Caucasus Republic of Georgia, freedom songs from southern Africa, and dynamic contemporary gospel. The chorus draws together 25 teenage singers and instrumentalists from five states, England, and Sweden, all led by English choir director Kate Howard, Appalachian music expert Val Mindel, and gospel singing leader John Harrison.
      Located at 215 Pleasant Street, Sheldon Creek, Grace has now completed the restoration of its 1833 Erben pipe organ, the oldest known pipe organ in New England. "It sounds great!" said Beth Crane.
      The evening begins at 6 with a potluck supper on the lawn of the church followed by the concert at 7 p.m. on Wednesday July 4. Admission is by donation (the suggested donation is $6 adult/$4 children and seniors).


CLICK HERE: ART SITE OF THE WEEK

      This week's site might better be called this decade's site, since teachers, historians, and those interested in arts curricula will need to return over and over again as it develops.
      The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will form ArtSTOR, an independent not-for-profit organization to develop, store, and electronically distribute images and related materials for the study of art, architecture, and the humanities. Neil L. Rudenstine, completing his tenure as President of Harvard University July 1, will chair the ArtSTOR board. An image gallery that will facilitate teaching art history courses around the world will be ArtSTOR's first major project.


FRANKLIN COUNTY BOOKSHELF

      Wild About Reading? Franklin County libraries are.
      With a wild animal theme for the summer reading program, most libraries around the county will have programs including Backpack Theater, a Green Mountain Club presentation of Leave No Trace, the Moose on the Loose slide show, a Wild Rumpus Party and a Jon Gailmor concert (in Georgia), butterflies, birds, bats, bugs and more, Ssssssnake day, a nature walk, and a beach picnic.
      "There are more animals than days," said Richford librarian Annette Goyne, "but we might even fit in a Frog Day"
      The AAC has a single calendar page with (I hope) all the events. Click here or call your local librarian for details.


FRANKLIN COUNTY BOOKSHELF

      ArtBits features a quick weekly peek at the bookshelf or night stand of the folks you know in and around Franklin County. That popular feature has a page of its own at the Franklin County Bookshelf here on the AAC site.


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      This article was originally published in the St Albans Messenger and other traditional print media. It is Copyright © 2001 by Richard B. Harper. All rights reserved. Archival material is provided as-is. Links are not necessarily maintained (if a link in this article fails, try Google.com or your favorite search engine).
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