DANCE - FINE ARTS - MUSIC - THEATER - WRITING

ARTBITS by Richard B. Harper


VOLUME 16 * * All Arts News On the Web * * August 30, 2012

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 live music and more at the Fairfax Music Sessions at the Foothills Bakery in Fairfax most Saturday afternoons at 1 p.m., at various restaurants around Franklin County throughout the week, at the Bayside in St Albans Town most Sunday afternoons, and the Cambridge CoffeeHouses at 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of every month.
     These gatherings bring new opportunities, gossip, "show-and-tell" and occasional workshops. The booked performances and acoustic Open Mike Nights feature music, readings, and more from the best new artists in Vermont.

      Find links to these events and more in our Spotlight!

... FROM THE ARTBITS DESK ...
E-Mail Delivery
Sign up to receive the free weekly ArtBits
newsletter by e-mail
or by RSS feed.


ON STAGE LIVE

ESSEX JUNCTION--The Champlain Valley Fair continues with excellent weather and free live music every day on both the Vermont’s Got Talent Stage in the Vermont State Building and on the Burlington Free Press Stage in Adsit Mall. Young Guns and Summer Sounds favorites Tiffany Couture and Alana Freeman are on the schedule.
      The Vermont State Building, on Carnival Road, has been renovated for a new exhibit of nine decades of Fair history, historic tractors, and the Vermont’s Got Talent Stage.
      The art gallery in the Blue Ribbon Pavilion has gone from 250 entries two decades ago to 900 items -- water colors, sculptures, drawings, photography and more -- on the wall this week. The Fair has displayed and judged art at this fair since the 1930s. It is the biggest art show of any media in the state of Vermont.
      Click here for the complete schedule.
      The girlie shows and craps tables are gone but there are plenty of deep-fried Oreos.


ST. ALBANS--The One Federal Restaurant and Lounge Thursday Night Summer Concert Series presents Justice this evening at 7 p.m. The band includes Todd Dunn, lead and rhythm guitar; Gary Greeno, lead vocals; Mike Stella, drums; and Scott Guptill, rhythm guitar and backup vocals.
      Admission is free.


ST. ALBANS--Downtown St. Albans Summer Concert Series presents the Nobby Reed Project playing on the green in Taylor Park tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. This show is rescheduled from the rainy August 10. Vermont's premiere blues trio includes Eric Belrose, percussion, Ray Bushey, bass, and Mr. Reed on lead guitar and vocals.
      The rain site is City Hall Auditorium.


ST. ALBANS--Chow Bella presents Marko the Master Magician on Saturday evening at the restaurant. Marko will perform a full dinner show at 8 p.m. in the banquet and performance room. The show is free but reservations are recommended as dinner guests will be given table preference.
      Call 802.524.1405, email, or click here for more info.


BRIDGEWATER, VT--The North Branch Bluegrass Festival fundraiser this weekend begins today and continues through Sunday on the newly resurfaced field just off the Bridgewater Center Road. The gates open at 3 p.m. for weekend campers with a 6 p.m. Open Stage today. Show hours are 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. on Friday - Sunday.
      Hurricane Irene destroyed the festival site.
      Promoters Heather and Randy Kennedy have brought it back, building the kind of local festival that Vermont is famous for. Randy has been underwater all year as Road Foreman of Bridgewater's highway department. Heather is a musician and songwriter.
      The fourth family-oriented festival with No Nonsense or Rude Behavior and No Visible Alcohol will have traditional and original performances by 15 bluegrass bands, 15 music workshops, home cooking, and nightly "field-picking" jam sessions around the campfire. The lineup includes Big Spike Bluegrass as well as popular bands from Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.
      Day admission is $20 for adults and $5 for youth 5-15. A weekend pass costs $50 for adults, $20 for youths, and is free for under age 5. Overnight camping with no facility hookups is free for weekend pass holders.
      Call Heather Kennedy (802.672.3042), email, or click here for more info.


SEPTEMBER ART DEADLINES

SALMON SCULPTURE COMPETITION (September 7)--The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts juried exhibition of outdoor sculpture will be installed at the Sunken Garden Park, City of San Angelo, Texas. Open to all artists 18 and older. All media suitable for outdoor installation. Cash awards. Entry fee. Click here for the call for entries.
      A salmon competition? How could I not?


WRITER’S DIGEST POPULAR FICTION AWARDS (September 14)--The short story competition wants you to devise a thriller, scare up a horror, or entice a tender romance. Six categories. Enter 4,000 or fewer words in any or each. Entry fee for each category or story entered. Click here for more info and an entry blank.


BARN PAINT OUT (September 15)--The Barn Paint Out will culminate with a Fall art exhibit at the Jericho Town Hall. Artists may create paintings anytime between now through September 2012. The subject of each painting must include a Vermont barn. Exhibit space is limited so no more than one piece per artist. CD submission packet. Call Janet Bonneau (802.849.2049) or email for more info.


PWP INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S JURIED PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION (September 30)--Categories include the human experience, our earth, travel, and digital imagination. Cash prizes and a 6-month online exhibition, cover of Imprints Magazine plus prizes of calibration tools. Open to professional and emerging women photographers. Entry fee. Click here for a prospectus.


FRANKLIN COUNTY BOOKSHELF

ST. ALBANS--The St. Albans Free Library's third annual Film Noir Festival concludes on Classic Movie Night tonight at 6 p.m. The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) stars Miss Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Kirk Douglas who share a past that returns to haunt them. Lizabeth Scott adds "complications."
      The library shows a newsreel, cartoon, and trailer of coming attractions before each weekly movie. All films are shown on the 4' by 6' screen in the upstairs conference room "cinema." Admission is free, along with popcorn and a beverage.


ESSEX JUNCTION--The five top entries from the Young Writers Project will be displayed at the Champlain Valley Fair as well as published in Vermont newspapers and on Vermont Public Radio. Writers Evan Wing, of Milton, Leah Kelleher, of Essex Junction, Lexie Shaw, of Westford, Ariel Salmon of Essex Junction, and Jonathan Merchant of Johnson answered the question, "What will Vermont be like in the year 2035?"
      The Young Writers Project of Burlington engages students to write, helps them improve their writing, and to publish their best work, all to build a generation of better writers in Vermont and New Hampshire.
      The St. Albans Messenger publishes project entries on Wednesdays. The YWP editor is Geoffrey Gevalt, former managing editor of the Burlington Free Press and a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in Beat Reporting. Click here for more info.


CLICK HERE: ART SITE OF THE WEEK

     Poet Julia Shipley of Craftsbury received a 2010-11 Creation Grant to complete a book of braided essays about small scale agriculture. Her site includes her bio, books, classes (she held a reading and walkabout at Helen Day Art Center last month), and her ice shack.


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.


SUPPORT LIVE ARTS IN YOUR TOWN!


AAC dancing logo

All Arts Council of Franklin County

Support Free Speech on the Internet
Dick Harper, Chair
P.O. Box 1
Highgate Springs, VT 05460
email us

Go to [ Dick Harper | All Arts Index | ArtBits Archive ]

      This article was originally published in the St Albans Messenger and other traditional print media. It is Copyright © 2012 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).
      Thanks to recent misuse of copyright material on the Internet by individuals and archival firms alike, we emphasize that your rights to this article are limited to viewing it and printing it for personal use only. You must receive explicit permission from the All Arts Council and the author before reprinting or redistributing this article in any medium.