Published in Berkshires Week on April 23, 2014
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25620573/mosaics-dinner-plates

BENNINGTON — Molly Hatch’s bright ceramics fill walls in prestigious museums, and through Anthropologie stores around the country, they also fill kitchen tables. Raised in Vermont, Hatch will return on Tuesday, April 29, to share her balance of art and design with a younger generation of artists at Bennington College.

Expecting to pursue a career in painting, drawing and printmaking, Hatch first discovered ceramic art as a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She soon realized that her two-dimensional art skills were essential in creating unique objects with their own personality and appeal.

“When I discovered ceramics,” said Hatch, “I found there was an intimacy of being able to take the drawings off the wall, and out of a frame, and put them into your hands, and into …

Published in Berkshires Week on April 16, 2014
Original article: http://www.manchesterjournal.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25577193/north-bennington-has-feel-its-own

NORTH BENNINGTON — Tucked in the northwest corner of Bennington and connected to the downtown area by both Route 67A and the Walloomsac River, the village of North Bennington has an unique culture and character of its own.

Once an industrial hotspot with its own railroad station, the village is now a quiet, largely residential area with an engaged local community and a growing art scene. The campus of Bennington College sits on the border of North Bennington, and the village is a common destination for the students’ off-campus excursions.

North Bennington’s casual, welcoming atmosphere make it a great place to spend an afternoon.

Powers Market

An imposing presence on Main Street, Powers Market once held North Bennington’s post office and has acted as a company and general story for more than a century. Local legend …

Published in Berkshires Week on March 19, 2013
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25577201/one-world-center-will-celebrate-earth-day-bennington

BENNINGTON — A mile south of the Four Corners in downtown Bennington, the One World Conservation Center gives nature lovers of all ages the chance to learn about Vermont’s natural ecosystem and get an up-close look at some of the state’s most interesting plant and animal species.

“A lot of what we do here is trying to connect the community to what is in their own backyards,” said Jennifer Loyd-Pain, coordinator of education at One World.

Along with the organization’s conservation center on Route 7, One World also oversees the Norman Greenberg Conservation Reserve across the road — 96 acres of meadow, wetland and wooded slopes.

With Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22, and Arbor Day on Friday, April 25, One World has several events planned to get people back outside after the long winter.

At …

Published in Berkshires Week on March 19, 2013
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25529632/maggie-dietz-robert-pinsky-savor-sound-an-invitation

Thanks to great minds like Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, one-time Shaftsbury resident Robert Frost and countless others, poetry has always been considered an important aspect of our nation’s cultural history.

While more commercial media, like television and movies, challenge their popularity, poems matter to Americans of all ages, an idea that Maggie Dietz celebrates and encourages as part of the Favorite Poems Project.

Founded by poet Robert Pinsky during his tenure as U.S. Poet Laureate in the late ‘90s, the project invites Americans of all ages and backgrounds to share their favorite poems and explain their meaning in a personal — not academic or analytical — way.

Now an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Dietz became the director of the program as a graduate student, overseeing a year-long open …

Published in Berkshires Week on April 2, 2013
Original article: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_25475375/artist-makes-craft-beautiful-writing

BENNINGTON — With formal training as an artist and more than 30 years of experience in her craft, Bennington calligrapher Ann Kremers produces ornate, intricate text and images as suited for frames as they are for envelopes.

Kremers specializes in both social calligraphy — which she describes as invitations, envelopes and related materials for weddings and special gala events — and ornate “presentation pieces,” which often include elaborate illustrations, decorative elements and gilding with gold leaf. With a degree in fine arts, and a strong interest in watercolor painting, Kremers approaches her calligraphy with the spirit and eye of an artist.

“In my deepest heart of hearts I consider myself a painter,” said Kremers, “but I probably spend a lot more time doing calligraphy. I like putting the two together very much.”

Although she had …

Published in Berkshires Week on April 1, 2013
Original article: http://www.manchesterjournal.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25459238/berkshire-artists-guild-supports-creative-community

BENNINGTON — In a world where cheap, mass-produced imported goods have taken over the shelves of our local stores, many art lovers have developed a new appreciation for artwork and crafts created by hand in our own local communities.

However, lacking mainstream distribution, local artists and artisans often need to come up with creative ways to find customers for their work. For the community of artists in southwestern Vermont and nearby Massachusetts, this necessity sparked the creation of the Bennington Arts Guild and its cooperative gallery on South Street.

Floral paintings by Jackie Williams are available at the Bennington Arts Guild’s cooperative gallery on South Street. (Photo courtesy Bennington Arts Guild)

Next door to the South Street Cafe in the heart of Bennington’s Four Corners, the Arts Guild’s sunny gallery space has become a popular …

Published in Berkshires Week on April 1, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_25465843/deaf-and-loud-rapper-will-perform-live-and

BENNINGTON — Without a large deaf community in the area, Melissa Kate Adams of Mount Anthony Union High School’s Deaf Education Department says it can be hard to arrange a gathering of even five or six deaf Vermonters here. This Friday, however, Adams has organized an event with some prominent and successful members of the American deaf community, to give the Bennington community chance to learn about and experience deaf culture.

MAU and the Bennington Center for the Arts will host a panel talk with several successful deaf adults, including Luke Adams, the first deaf competitor on CBS’ “The Amazing Race,” and a concert with deaf rapper Sean Forbes and his band, Deaf and Loud.

With groups coming from Brattleboro, Burlington, Rochester, Boston and other surrounding areas, Melissa Kate Adams, who is hard of …

Published in Berkshires Week on March 27, 2013
Original article: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_25432339/howard-fishman-experiencing-present-moment

As the Vermont Arts Exchange in North Bennington celebrates its 25th year, as well as the 10th year of its popular Basement Music Series, it’s only natural that a few familiar faces have been invited back to perform, including Caravan of Thieves in February and now, exactly a month later, VAE favorite Howard Fishman.

Having played concerts at least yearly since the basement series started (and sometimes even more often than that), Fishman has cemented his place in Bennington’s cultural environment, with local music fans returning to the Sage Street Mill for each of concerts. Members of the local band Morning Breadth — who performed their own Basement Music Series concert in January — said they’ve all attended Fishman’s concerts together in the past.

Living up to his reputation for musical curiosity and genre …

Published in Berkshires Week on March 25, 2013
Original article: http://www.manchesterjournal.com/berkshiresweek/ci_25416773/mystery-writer-will-read-new-work-benefit-bennington

BENNINGTON — After trying for 20 years to achieve his dream of publishing a novel, Chris Knopf is on a roll.

Balancing his writing with a career in advertising and public relations, Knopf published his first mystery novel, “The Last Refuge,” in 2005, and quickly expanded the book into a five-volume series centered around its protagonist, Sam Acquillo, and his adventures in mystery and crime around the Hamptons.

Knopf has also published three more books in a spin-off series set in the same world, and he’s working on a third book in a new series of globe-trotting thrillers surrounding market researcher Arthur Cathcart.

On Friday, March 28, Knopf will visit Bennington for an event to benefit the Bennington Free Library, reading from and speaking about his recent series of Arthur Cathcart books, including “Dead Anyway,” …

Published in Berkshires Week on March 19, 2014
Original article: http://www.manchesterjournal.com/news/ci_25377974/faces-bennington-photo-exhibit-display-at-bennington-museum

BENNINGTON — During his six-year tenure at the Bennington Banner in the mid-1970’s, writer and photographer John Hubbard took more than 2,000 photographs, quickly developing a striking visual style that blurred the distinction be tween art and journalism. Now, 42 years after Hubbard arrived in Vermont as a recent graduate of Colgate University, his photographs have returned to Bennington for an exhibition at the Bennington Museum, “Faces of Bennington, 1972-1978: Photo graphs by John Hubbard.”

Installed in January and on dis play through March 30, the exhibit collects a small selection of Hubbard’s vast collection of portraits, most of which show Hubbard’s friends, colleagues and fellow Bennington townspeople posing comfortably in their every-day surroundings.

Museum curator Jamie Frank lin said he chose the 28 photos on display for their “strong visual power,” and also …