art of the Windham County economy, The

Vermont Business Magazine, Apr 01, 1997 by Marcel, Joyce

The arts, which are already a vital part of the Windham County economy, could become even more important in the near future, as the area's arts institutions seek ways to work together.

The area boasts several internationally and nationally known arts events, including the Marlboro Music Festival, the Bach Festival, and the Yellow Barn Music Festival. Internationally renowned puppeteers Eric and Inez Zeller Bass opened their own Sandglass Theater in Putney last summer.

The well-established Brattleboro Music Center produces concerts throughout the year. The juried Stratton Arts Festival features 200 of the finest artists and craftsmen in the state every fall. Brattleboro already bills itself as "the best small art town in America." It has a lively mix of downtown arts, including a fine art museum and several first-rate galleries. In addition, at least three theater groups are active in the area in the summer and fall. Many artists and craftsmen live in the area. It has long been noted that visitors who come for the arts also spend money on lodging and in restaurants, shops and gas stations.

Long independent, these artists and organizations are now seeking to join forces and promote the area, as well as their own attractions.

One of the first signs of something new was the Gallery Walk, which began last summer, produced jointly by a new organization called Greater Brattleboro Unlimited and the long-active Arts Council of Windham County.

On the first Friday of each month, at least 11 downtown stores, studios and galleries stay open in the evening, offering light refreshment, demonstrations, and a chance to visit artists' studios and talk with the artists. Among other places, people can visit a fine Oriental rug store, a stained glass studio, jewelers, several painters' and photographers' galleries, an antiques and collectibles store, and a fabric arts workshop.

The event is particularly popular during the warm weather months and has attracted a large following.

Now there is an effort afoot to produce an arts festival in the fall, during the "shoulder season," when the leaf peepers are not filling every spare bed in the county. Called Arts in the Autumn, it represents a new step in promoting Windham County.

"We all decided that there should be a joint marketing initiative for the different kinds of festivals we're doing this fall," said Mara Williams, executive director of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. "The Bach Festival is in October. The Stratton Arts Festival is in September.

"Pending funding, the Sandglass Theatre and the museum are working on doing an International Puppet Festival, featuring three Vermont and six European and Eastern European troupes. It will be a multi-venue, multi-weekend event with Eric Bass as artistic director," she said.

"There are all sorts of other regular offerings in Windham County. With these three major components, if we market them all together, you can come here and see an art gallery, a museum, and possibly another theater or music offering. What we're really trying to do is get our sense of marketing together. After all, we're a fun place to be, we're a destination, and we're a fun place for people who live here to stay and do things and not go elsewhere with their recreation dollars."

Williams said that an important part of the puppet festival's funding -- but not all of it -- was already in place, and she was now working out the logistics.

"If all these things are happening in Brattleboro, what can we do about transportation and parking?" Williams said. "A show in Putney, another in Marlboro, one in St Michael's Church in downtown Brattleboro. It'd multi-venue. Can we run shuttlebuses? We don't know yet. Most festivals take place in either concentrated European or Northern European towns, or in picturesque little towns like Stratton. They're walking towns.

"Brattleboro, Putney and Stratton do not constitute a walking town. That's different than the Edinburgh Festival or the Istanbul Festival, where there's public transportation. Selectmen have said it sounds good for the town and they'll help make it happen when we get our ducks in order."

Having a highly involved and organized arts community is good for the town in many ways, Williams said.

"We're showing the best of Vermont, the best of international and the best of national talent, and against the background of that, other arts organizations from local to national stature," Williams said. "The (Brattleboro Area) Chamber (of Commerce) thinks it's great. It helps when businesses are thinking of relocating here, or new doctors are thinking of establishing practices here or at the hospital. It makes us a great community to live in. By bringing the international component to the area, we heighten the richness of what we have."