Watch a short introduction to our work.
This year the Saturday evening concert at the Young Tradition Vermont Festival will feature a wide variety of young musicians and dancers performing with their mentors, teachers and/or parents, including a VFC Traditional Arts Showcase highlighting performers who have been involved with the VFC’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.
The Bhutanese Nepali Kirat Rai & Limbu community cordially invites you to the Sansari Puja Celebration in Burlington! This springtime festival is an appeal to the gods of nature for blessings for a successful agricultural season and for individual health and wellbeing.
July 6 and 7, 2022 (in-person in Brattleboro, VT) This 2-day intensive workshop will present the foundations of what we at the VFC refer to as the “ethnographic toolkit.” Capturing the scope of everyday life through deep listening, description, and cultural documentation is a part of how ethnography builds context. These tools can be used by anyone looking to engage with a community or group of people to reach a deeper understanding about how we live and live together.
Festival on the Green welcomes a VFC Traditional Arts Showcase highlighting performers who have been involved with the VFC’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP) over the years. This special appearance is part of the VFC’s 30th anniversary celebration of VTAAP.
July 21 and 22, 2022 (in-person in St. Albans, VT) This free workshop introduces educators to the use of oral history and ethnographic materials in K-12 learning. This new project offers primary source sets and learning activities for middle and high school learners that explores the role that farmers play in Vermont’s history and identity. The VFC’s Archive is home to a wide range of perspectives and testimonies that showcase the human side of agriculture and the ways families, communities and the state have adapted over time. Learners will have the opportunity to hear these stories as oral history recordings and discover how these primary sources offer a window into experiences often hidden from the public.
Presented by VFC partner organization Young Tradition Vermont, Trad Camp is a concentrated opportunity to be inspired by, learn about and perform tunes, songs, and dances in a variety of traditional styles. Campers participate in group sessions each day with a variety of core staff and guest instructors. Instructors are respected musicians and teachers from the region. Registration is open now!
July 25 - Aug 4, 2022 (Online only) What impact does sharing a documentary audio story, oral history, or other multimedia have on the people or communities represented within that medium? With a specific focus on audio-production, this two-week online course is for anyone interested in using digital media and community interviewing as tools for social engagement and change.
The VFC Archives is full of amazing first-person accounts of everyday life in Vermont and New England–past and present. In this feature, we'll share these stories with you.
This month meet Abenaki basket maker Jeanne Brink. Jeanne is someone with the distinction of having been both an apprentice in the early years of the Vermont Traditional Art Apprenticeship Program and later a mentor artist, coming full circle to pass on the knowledge, skills and traditions that she learned.
On March 13, 2022 VFC Education staffer Mary Wesley attended a special reception at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC) to celebrate a collaboration between the VFC’s Vermont Voices project, the Windham Regional Career Center, and Mexican-American artist Yvette Molina. Mary reflects on the experience in this Field Note.
This past January, Education and Media Specialist Mary Wesley introduced Middlebury College students to the VFC’s ethnographic approach to oral history through Professor Amy Morsman’s course “Chronically COVID.” … READ MORE
To mark the 2022 sugaring season we asked Vermont folk singer and musician Arthur Davis of Brattleboro, VT to share a rendition of the classic Vermont folk song, Maple Sweet.
This year marks Associate Director and Archivist Andy Kolovos' 20th anniversary at the Folklife Center. We asked Jane Beck, the VFC’s Founder and Director from 1984 to 2007, to reflect on Andy’s time with the organization.
The VFC Archives is full of amazing first-person accounts of everyday life in Vermont and New England–past and present. In this feature, we'll share these stories with you.
We begin with master shoemaker Dan Freeman of Middlebury and apprentice Anne Callahan who worked together beginning in 2004. Freeman’s shop, Dan Freeman’s Leatherwork, has been a Middlebury staple for decades.
Turner Family Stories is a recent publication from VFC that brings together cartoonists and oral history to share the family stories and personal experiences of Daisy Turner of Grafton, Vermont with new audiences. Contributing cartoonist Marek Bennett spoke to us adapting Alec Turner’s extraordinary journey from Virginia to Vermont and how his life complicates how Civil War history is told and presented.
During 2022 the VFC is celebrating 30 years of Innovation in Tradition by looking back on how its Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP) has both sustained and advanced traditional arts in Vermont over the last three decades. Our staff is currently working hard to create an exciting year of programming to showcase the many amazing artists who have come through the program. Learn more here!
Last fall, the Vermont Folklife Center launched a limited term engagement with five educators with music and intercultural teaching expertise to develop approaches for integrating Franco-American music for K–12 in classroom learning and across content areas. Emma Auer, VFC Fall 2021 intern who participated in these meetings that concluded in early December, offers her perspective on this experience as shaped by her own educational journey in New England.
This winter we’re delighted to be working with two interns who are currently supporting our Education and Archive programs. April McIlwaine is a graduate student at the University of Vermont where she is pursuing a Masters in Food Systems. Lua Piovano-Marcotte is a third year student at Bennington College studying sociology, rural studies, and disability studies. Read more here!
Looking for some suggestions for last minute holiday gifts? Our staff made you a list! Here are some of our favorites—old and new—that might just suit your needs.
Turner Family Stories is a recent publication from VFC that brings together cartoonists and oral history to share the family stories and personal experiences of Daisy Turner of Grafton, Vermont with new audiences. Contributing cartoonist Francis Bordeleau’s comic, “I am Vindicated” retells a story of heartbreak and betrayal that culminated in Daisy bringing Boinay to court for breach of promise--and winning.
In the Fall of 2020 the Moore Free Library in Newfane, VT started a community-wide interviewing/oral history project to preserve the memories of residents of their town and the surrounding towns of Williamsville, South Newfane and Brookline. The Project has been an amazing success and as it project moves into its second year, we wanted to hear what participants have to say about their efforts and the experience of working on the project. Read more here!
After last year’s success the VFC’s Annual Gingerbread House Competition and Exhibit will again be held virtually! Open to any Vermont resident, bake and build an edible creation and submit photos online to participate in the contest. Prizes will be awarded in multiple categories and photos from each submission will be included in an online exhibit. Registration is required. Register here!
It’s our favorite time of the year! Halloween 2021 is nearly upon us. Check out the many ways the VFC observes the spooky season.
The Vermont Folklife Center is pleased to announce the cohort of master artists and students comprising the 29th year of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP). Thirteen projects will be supported this year. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Arts Council, the Center initiated the program in 1992 to support the continued vitality of Vermont's living cultural heritage. More than 365 apprenticeships have been supported since 1992. Read about the 13 successful applicants of the 2020 - 2022 program cycle here.
On July 14, 2021, twelve residents of Mendon, Vermont gathered to discuss the lasting impact of Tropical Storm Irene, which is approaching its 10 year commemoration. As the Vermont Folklife Center's summer intern, and University of Vermont student, I helped facilitate a group conversation called a story circle. The opportunity to look at the impact of Irene as a story circle observer allowed me to witness the importance of community and helping out your neighbors.
The Vermont Folklife Center will host a series of four online presentations, in conjunction with our Summer Institute programming, August 2-13, 2021. These virtual events are free and open to the public. Through guided discussions with local educators, artists, and VFC staff, each session will offer a different perspective on how ethnography, an approach and set of methods for understanding and representing human experience, can inform and strengthen community-based inquiry and knowledge creation.
The Vermont Folklife Center is pleased to announce the 29th year of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP). With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Center initiated the program in 1992 to support the continued vitality of Vermont's living cultural heritage. In partnership with the Vermont Arts Council, VTAAP provides stipends of up to $2,000 to master artist and apprentice pairs to cover time, materials, and travel expenses. 2021 applications from master artist and apprentice pairs will be accepted through September 3rd.
Turner Family Stories is a forthcoming publication from VFC that brings together cartoonists and oral history to share the family stories and personal experiences of Daisy Turner of Grafton, Vermont with new audiences. Contributing cartoonist Ezra Veitch was raised in Grafton, Vermont, and was familiar with Daisy Turner from childhood. Ezra shared how he incorporated this rare vantage point to create a framing narrative that linked together the six chapters of Turner Family Stories.
For the past nine months we have been working with French-Canadian music specialist (and renowned fiddler!) Lisa Ornstein on a project to enrich the documentation of one of the collections of Franco-American song in our archive, the Martha Pellerin Collection. Over this time Lisa has steadily worked her way through a series of recordings created by Martha with Alberta Gagné of Highgate, VT in 1995, researching each of Mme. Gagné’s songs in detail so we can add this new information to our online archive.
El viaje más caro is an ethnographic cartooning and graphic medicine project that uses collaborative storytelling as a tool to mitigate loneliness, isolation, and despair among Latin American migrant farm workers on Vermont dairy farms. This May, the project released The Most Costly Journey, a 252 page collection of these comics for an English speaking audience.
Master artist Pete Sutherland is working with his 10-year-old apprentice Emmett Stowell to bestow the art of what Pete calls the “old boom chuck,” aka New England contra dance piano accompaniment. This Traditional Arts Spotlight features text and audio excerpts from two virtual “site visits” with Pete and Emmett recorded via Zoom last spring and this winter. A site visit offers a chance for artists and apprentices to reflect on and make a record of their work together as well as a chance to build and maintain a relationship with VFC staff (this has felt particularly important during the pandemic).
Turner Family Stories is a forthcoming publication from VFC that brings together cartoonists and oral history to share the family stories and personal experiences of Daisy Turner of Grafton, Vermont with new audiences. Contributing cartoonist Lillie Harris reflected on their experience working with oral history transcripts as a basis for the story’s text, what it was like to create a comic with historical accuracy as a primary consideration, and capturing the essence of Daisy Turner’s character.
We asked master artist and musician Migmar Tsering to tell us how he was staying connected to his students during the pandemic. Migmar has lived in Vermont since 2011. He was born in Tibet and was brought up in India. In Vermont he is active as a singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and traditional Tibetan dance instructor. In this post, Migmar describes his Covid era challenges and adaptations in his music class.
To mark the 2021 sugaring season we asked Vermont folk singer and apprentice in the current cohort of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, Maeve Fairfax to share a rendition of the classic Vermont folk song, Maple Sweet.
The Vermont Folklife Center archive holds over 6,000 audio recordings of interviews with Vermonters. Many have been conducted by VFC staff, but the Center also accepts materials donated by others who have conducted ethnographic and oral history research in Vermont and the surrounding region. This is the first in a series of posts that explores the archive through projects donated by outside researchers.
Turner Family Stories is a forthcoming graphic history collection featuring comics adapted from oral history recordings with Daisy Turner of Grafton, VT held in the VFC archive. VFC founding director Jane Beck and Associate Director and Archivist Andy Kolovos worked with a group of New England cartoonists to illustrate a selection of stories from the epic saga of the Turner family.
As we slog through the lingering darkness and await the return of the light, it is no surprise that cultures across the world have long filled this period of the year with festivals, feasting, dance, song and bonfires that emphasize, above almost anything else, the persistence of light. Join us for Listening in Place: Winter Lights, a series of short audio shorts that explore what it means to share light during the darkest time of the year.
The Vermont Folklife Center is pleased to announce the cohort of master artists and students comprising the 28th year of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP). Thirteen projects around the state will be supported this year.
On view at the Vermont History Museum, 109 State Street Pavilion Building (next to the State House), Montpelier, VT Feb. 15 - July 30, Tuesday-Saturday (10:00 am 4:00 pm).
The St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington was home to more than 13,000 children from 1854 to 1974. This is the story of these former orphans, now known as the Voices of St. Joseph, and their remarkable and enduring accomplishments.
On display at the Vermont Folklife Center Vision & Voice Gallery September 8, 2021 - May 13, 2022.
A physical and online exhibit presented by the Pride Center of Vermont and the Vermont Folklife Center. Curated by Meg Tamulonis of the Vermont Queer Archives. Through archival documents and ephemera, audio interviews and photographs Pride 1983 explores the origin and lasting legacy of Burlington, Vermont’s first Pride celebration on June 25, 1983.
In spring of 2020, face masks were one of the few tools we had against covid-19, and you couldn’t buy one. Anywhere. When hospitals started calling for homemade fabric masks amid a world shortage of personal protective equipment, people with sewing skills in Vermont and around the world began to respond. This three-part mini-series explores the pandemic experience through the voices of some of Vermont’s mask makers. In Episode 3 - Masks and Identity we learn how mask makers began expressing themselves creatively through the masks they made, and how they helped others affirm their identities in the middle of a global crisis.
In spring of 2020, face masks were one of the few tools we had against covid-19, and you couldn’t buy one. Anywhere. When hospitals started calling for homemade fabric masks amid a world shortage of personal protective equipment, people with sewing skills in Vermont and around the world began to respond. This three-part mini-series explores the pandemic experience through the voices of some of Vermont’s mask makers. In Episode 2 - Community and Collaboration we hear from mask makers who worked together to share resources and solutions when elastic or fabric were hard to find and offered mutual support amid the isolation of the early pandemic.
In spring of 2020, face masks were one of the few tools we had against covid-19, and you couldn’t buy one. Anywhere. When hospitals started calling for homemade fabric masks amid a world shortage of personal protective equipment, people with sewing skills in Vermont and around the world began to respond. This three-part mini-series explores the pandemic experience through the voices of some of Vermont’s mask makers. Episode 1 - Sewing in a Crisis, looks at mask making as an outlet for anxiety and considers the complexities of mask makers earning money, or not, in exchange for their labor.
It’s the 2021 VT Untapped Spooky Halloween Special! This year we teamed up with our friends at Vermont Public Radio and put out a call to all Vermonters, inviting them to get in touch and tell us their scariest ghostly encounters and supernatural sightings.
In July, 2021 residents of the town of Mendon, VT gathered to share stories and reflect on the impact of tropical storm Irene, 10 years after it tore through their small town. In this episode of VT Untapped we hear excerpts from this story circle event.
Nine years ago the Vermont Folklife Center released “Weathering the Storm” - an audio documentary created with Vermonters from towns across the state hard hit by tropical storm Irene. In this special episode of VT Untapped we are re-presenting “Weathering the Storm” in its entirety to mark the 10th anniversary of this historic event.
Over a year since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic we take a moment to look back on a year of the Listening in Place project, focusing on submissions to our Sound Archive. The project began with a small collection of audio recordings submitted via a portal on our website in response to an invitation to sit down and interview someone in your household, or remotely, during our first weeks of lockdown. In this episode we hear a selection of the first interviews shared through Listening in Place.
“Sweetest Joys Indeed we sugar makers know!” So goes the refrain of the song “Maple Sweet,” composed in 1858 as an ode to the seasonal milestone that is sugaring season in Vermont. From songs to stories this episode shares a selection of audio excerpts from the VFC archive that reflect the sugaring tradition and its prominence in Vermont life across generations.
Our Listening in Place initiative is a participatory interviewing and sound recording project offering a way to connect and document the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 emergency. This month’s episode touches on two themes that have consistently emerged through Listening in Place: resilience and human connections. Less of a “meet cute,” this year’s February episode of VT Untapped explores Covid as a catalyst for strengthening an existing relationship--a story about love across distance and across borders.
Our Listening in Place initiative is a participatory interviewing and sound recording project offering a way to connect and document the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 emergency. This month we bring you excerpts from the audio diary of Pete Sutherland, who has been using the Voice Memo app on his smartphone to record his thoughts and reflections since early March.
As we’re all gearing up for what is likely to be one of the most, shall we say “unusual,” Thanksgivings of our lifetimes (thanks again, 2020), here at VT Untapped™ we reached out to the VFC founder Jane Beck once more in search of suggestions for a seasonal story. Not surprisingly, once again Jane came through! Listen in to hear Earle Fuller’s story of driving (by this we really mean herding) over 500 turkeys from Vermont to market in Boston. Happy Thanksgiving!
Our Listening in Place initiative is a participatory interviewing and sound recording project offering a way to connect and document the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 emergency. This month we meet members of the 2020-2021 cohort of the VFC’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and learn how they’re continuing to work and create under pandemic conditions.
It’s the 2020 VT Untapped Spooky Halloween Special! Are you brave enough to descend the creaking stairs down to the depths of the VFC archive as we dust off an old tape and listen to Floyd Cowdrey tell us about the most haunted of Vermont houses?
Our Listening in Place initiative is a participatory interviewing and sound recording project offering a way to connect and document the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 emergency. We’ll be sharing audio recordings generated by the project in our podcast feed. This month we visit Camp Killooleet in Hancock, VT, closed this summer for the first time in 93 years.
Our Listening in Place initiative is a participatory interviewing and sound recording project offering a way to connect and document the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 emergency. We’ll be sharing audio recordings generated by the project in our podcast feed. This month we visit Project Independence, an elderly day care facility in Middlebury, VT.
Our Listening in Place initiative is a participatory interviewing and sound recording project offering a way to connect and document the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 emergency. We’ll be sharing audio recordings generated by the project in our podcast feed. This special episode of VT Untapped features three stories shared in a Virtual Story Circle hosted by VFC staff on April 5, 2020.
VT Untapped kicks off Season 2 with another round of “meet-cutes.” Adorable and surprising stories from Vermonters about meeting their sweeties. It’s 2020 after all so some meet online, some owe it to the Seven Days personals and thank goodness, some still meet in a good, old fashioned, hipster coffee shop. Hear them all in this month’s episode of VT Untapped.
A guy walks into a bar and…starts singing? If that bar is Brattleboro’s McNeill’s Brewery and it’s the third Saturday of the month between 3-5 pm then the chances of this happening are pretty high. That’s when the Brattleboro Pub Sing meets. And in this episode of VT Untapped you get to come along.
This month on VT Untapped we hear spooky stories told by Kim Chase of Essex Junction. Kim is a second-generation, bilingual Franco-American and the stories she shares were passed down through generations of her family members. Gather round Kim’s rocking chair and listen up. Don’t be too scared!
We’ve been pretty darn busy at the VFC this summer! This is a little late-summer update so you can hear what we’ve been up to. We’ll return with new episodes in late September.
Publications
