Published in Berkshires Week on March 4, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25275923/winter-market-helps-farmers-cold 

BENNINGTON — Even when the days are short and their farms are covered with snow, local farmers have embraced new techniques to keep the Bennington Farmers Market stocked with fresh produce all winter long.

One of the few New England farmers markets that continue running through the winter, the Bennington Farmers Market (formerly known as the Walloomsac Farmers Market) has grown so popular that last year they upgraded the monthly off-season market to run twice each month. During the summer, the market takes place every Saturday and Tuesday at the riverside park on Depot Street in Bennington, and during the winter they move indoors to the First Baptist Church at 600 Main St.

Leslie Kielson, president of the market’s board of directors and a vendor herself, said the market’s off-season expansion has been a …

Published in Berkshires Week on Feb. 27, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25231916/architect-guernsey-shaped-bennington

BENNINGTON — If you live in Vermont, your town may look the way it does because of George H. Guernsey.

Over the course of his 32-year career as an architect, Guernsey designed churches, town halls, schools, libraries, estates and private homes in at least 23 different cities and towns around the state, helping to define Vermont’s architectural style during its formative years. However, until recently nobody really knew who George H. Guernsey was.

About 10 years ago the town of Bethel, Vt., started working to renovate its town hall and quickly discovered town records that named Guernsey as the building’s designer. Intrigued, the Bethel Historical Society started gathering information on Guernsey and his other buildings around the state. After years of detective work, they have now compiled their findings into a new 124-page book, …

Published in Berkshires Week on Feb. 27, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25231906/poet-opens-series-at-bennington-college

BENNINGTON — “On the road blue thistles, barely / visible by night, and, by these, you may yet find your way home,” Lucie Brock-Broido writes in “Stay, Illusion,” her acclaimed new collection of poetry.

With Bennington College back in session for its spring term, the campus has woken up from its winter break, the students are back and the calendar is full of illuminating talks, readings and performances — many free and open to the public, like the Poetry at Bennington series.

Organized by literature faculty member Mark Wunderlich, Poetry at Bennington attracts some of the country’s greatest active poets to campus, starting next week with a visit from Brock-Broido, Columbia University’s poetry director.

On her visit to Bennington, where she briefly taught in the early ‘90s, Brock-Broido will give a reading from “Stay, Illusion” at …

Published in Berkshires Week on Jan. 30, 2013
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25021745/band-has-prescription-cabin-fever

BENNINGTON — At some point, everybody fantasizes about becoming a rock star. For four Bennington musicians, including three doctors at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, that dream will come true this weekend at the Vermont Arts Exchange.

For its second concert of the year, the VAE Basement Music Series will present Morning Breadth, a four-piece rock band that brings together local property manager Michael Saccio (aka “Satch”) on guitar, SVMC general surgeon Graham Moore on keyboard, OB-Gyn Malcolm Paine on bass, and cardiologist Steven Anisman keeping the band’s heartbeat on drums.

With a wealth of musical experience in the genres that sparked the birth of rock, like British folk music and American blues, the band describes their sound as “music for 40-year-old teenagers,” reflecting their energy and enthusiasm as a group. Anisman, the drummer, explained …

Published in Berkshires Week on Jan. 23, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/berkshiresweek/ci_24970523/stepkids-drummer-moca-is-good-fit

NORTH ADAMS — After years of establishing themselves in the music industry with musicians and groups like pop/soul star Alicia Keys and the beach-rock college band Zox, guitarist Jeff Gitelman, bass player Dan Edinberg and drummer Tim Walsh returned to their Connecticut roots to form The Stepkids, an adventurous new trio with a psychedelic outlook on classic soul, jazz, funk and rock conventions. In September they released their second album, “Troubadour,” following up their 2011 self-titled debut with a more polished, progressive sound.

On Saturday, The Stepkids will perform at Mass MoCA’s Club B10. Looking forward to the concert, Berkshires Week/ Shires of Vermont talked with drummer Tim Walsh about modern art, old buildings and the evolution of The Stepkids.

Jack McManus: How did the band come together?

Tim Walsh: Well basically, Connecticut is a …

Published in the Bennington Banner on Dec. 30, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/artsweekend/ci_24813028/2013-an-artistic-year-review

BENNINGTON — He may not be famous yet, but it takes more than a blizzard and below-zero temperatures to stop Neffy. After all, he’s from Vermont.

On Friday night, just hours after Winter Storm Hercules dropped a thick blanket of snow on the town, the now-empty storefront at 445 Main St. unlocked its doors for one of the town’s first concerts of 2014 — a repeat performance by Brattleboro rappers Neffy and Yung Hass, who drew a big crowd to the former site of Doug’s On Main Street just a few weeks earlier on Nov. 30.

In a town of museums, art galleries and the Sage City Symphony, hip-hop might seem like a faraway art form, a music genre that exists on the radio and Internet — but not on Main Street. However, …

Published in the Bennington Banner on Dec. 30, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/artsweekend/ci_24813028/2013-an-artistic-year-review

As we spring forward to a new year of unforeseen expression through the arts, this last Arts Weekend page of 2013 looks back at the exciting artistic events, developments and changes that happened around town during the past year, as documented in the pages of the Banner by former Arts editor Andrew Roiter and myself.

Although Andrew left Bennington at the end of the summer to explore the wide world of journalism abroad, he left behind a huge collection of stories that illustrate the eclectic energy of Bennington’s art community. I have tried to keep moving in the same direction since I took over the desk three months ago, and I’m still learning a lot about the self-reliant, deep-seeded creative spirit that exists in this beautiful corner of the world.

Thanks to this …

Published in the Bennington Banner on Dec. 7, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/region/ci_24673859/mass-moca-announces-spring-performance-schedule

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — In one fell swoop, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (better known as Mass MoCA) has announced a full slate of live performing events for the spring, including over two dozen concerts, films, art talks, plays, dance performances, special museum events and more, running through early May.

Performances will be held in Mass MoCA’s various performance spaces, including the Hunter Center, a massive black box theatre usually used for large concerts and theatre productions, and the more intimate Club B10 for small events.

In the spirit of the museum’s progressive approach to contemporary art, the spring performance lineup includes some well-known, nationally-touring acts as well as a diverse array of experimental, forward-thinking and non-traditional events, some of which defy genre categorization entirely.

Some of the biggest names on the bill …

Published in the Bennington Banner on Dec. 19, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/news/ci_24753892/sit-down-tune-up-and-join-local-music

NORTH BENNINGTON — The Vermont Arts Exchange becomes a different place on the second Tuesday of each month.

During the day, the VAE is an inclusive, constructive space dedicated to creation and appreciation of almost every type of art. Fueled by the energy and passion of director Matthew Perry, the building and its staff spend their days helping Vermonters discover the fulfillment of expression.

While this mission certainly remains intact, on certain Tuesday evenings the old textile mill turns from a classroom for young artists to a clubhouse for Bennington County’s modest but dedicated band of acoustic musicians.

Originally organized after the first Lake Paran Bluegrass Festival in July 2010, the jam has welcomed a rotating lineup of guitarists, fiddle players, bass players, mandolin players, and even some accordion, banjo and dobro players. Group …