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The spring event many have been looking forward to... as yellow Open Studio signs dot the landscape during Vermont's Open Studio Weekend on Memorial Day Weekend... Saturday & Sunday, May 24 - 25, from 10 am to 5 pm.
More than 264 sites will be open to the public with more than 288 artists and artisans participating. A great variety of original work will be featured, including the work of painters, glass blowers, jewelers, printmakers, potters, furniture makers, weavers, ironworkers, sculptors, quilt makers and wood carvers. Many galleries will host educational forums and feature special exhibits in conjunction with this event.
Details are presented in a booklet featuring county maps showing sites and directions, with an index in the front of the book, organized by type of studio. The format enables the Vermont Studio Tour Guide to serve a dual purpose, as tour guide during the weekend and as a year round guide to artists and studios open by appointment or regular business hours.
Open Studio Weekend began sixteen years ago as Vermont's contribution to the national celebration, The Year of American Craft. "It was such a big concept, that we could have an event taking place in hundreds of places across the state at the same time. We were caught up by the vision that we could show people the fascinating diversity of the studio spaces where craftspeople work," said Martha Fitch, executive director of the Vermont Crafts Council. "The art and craft work is created in these studios, but the studios themselves are set in the lively downtowns or small villages or at the ends of dirt roads, up mountains or by rivers, in the natural beauty of the Vermont landscape. The community and the landscape is reflected in the art work. We wanted to show and share this connection during Open Studio Weekend."
According to the Vermont Crafts Council, the composition of the tour changes every year with one third either brand new to the tour or not open the previous year. This has helped to make the Open Studio Weekend an annual event for residents as well as visitors.
Asked to describe the typical participating studio, Fitch said, "We continue to see artists join or remain part of the tour who have mastered their materials including many who are nationally known, but not well known here in Vermont. It is a rare opportunity to visit with people who have chosen art or craft as a profession and have been practicing it for a long time."
Open Studio Weekend has provided a laboratory for arts networking. Through working together in preparation for the event, several artist networks have formed with collaborations that endure outside of the weekend event. These include an arts tour brochure in Middlebury and a new foliage tour in the Upper Connecticut River Valley.
The Vermont Studio Tour Guide remains free and can be found at Mike's art studio in East Middlebury, as well as other participating studios and in selected galleries around the state (including Frog Hollow State Craft Centers). They may also be found in Vermont's network of Travel Information Centers and can be requested online at www.vermontcrafts.com or by calling the Vermont Crafts Council at (802) 223-3380.
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As a spin-off of the popular Vermont statewide "Open Studio Weekend" (over Memorial Day weekend), I've helped organize a year-round, local open studio tour of 13 great locations within 25 minutes travel time from one end of our region to the other!
Most of these sites are open by appointment (or by chance), and two hold regular business hours. For appointments, usually a simple phone call ahead is all that's needed to arrange your own personal tour of some fascinating glimpses into how and where we create our work. And if you find a treasure to make your own, we'll be happy to wrap it to go… or ship it to your home (which can be especially handy if you're on a bike)!
The sites include my studio and other area painters, diverse pottery and ceramics, furniture and other fine woodwork, floral arrangements, decorative painted gourds, beautiful pewter jewelry and home accessories, hand-carved bird decoys and ornaments - and even a Vermont State Craft Center!
You'll be able to explore our unique art and craft while taking a drive on one of Vermont's most gorgeous official scenic highways. Our tour will take you from the village of Ripton in the Green Mountains, past the inn from the Bob Newhart Show into East Middlebury (my hometown), then Middlebury and into Weybridge in the "Land of Milk and Honey" - the Champlain Valley.
Our descriptive, color brochure and map is available for the asking - complete with contact information and detailed directions for all the artisans. Please contact me for yours (and include your mailing address).
We're looking forward to seeing you!!
NOTE: Danforth Pewter and the Sandra Lance Clay Studio have relocated, but are still in the immediate area… so please call ahead for updated directions for these two sites.
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