OK so I haven't been so great about covereing the Vermont Arts scene lately so let's get back on track!

Vermont Arts News

Fashion Forward Vermont Seven Days' articles explores the fashion scene in Vermont....

Arts Preview A preview of what's happening now on the New England arts scene.


In Memoriam A new wing in the Fleming Museum on the University of Vermont campus honors the work of Professor James Peterson, an anthropologist who was killed last year while researching in Brazil -

"The Robert Hull Fleming Museum is pleased to announce the opening of the James B. Petersen Memorial Gallery of Native American Cultures. This newly-installed, long-term exhibition explores the material cultures and artistic traditions of indigenous peoples of North America through art and artifacts from the Museum's collections.

Drawing upon the unique breadth and strengths of the Fleming's collections, the exhibition features outstanding examples of Navajo textiles, Plains quillwork and beadwork, carvings from the Northwest Coast, pottery from the Southwest, baskets from California and New England, and lithics from Vermont, among others. Highlights include a stunning Chilkat blanket, examples of both historical and contemporary Abenaki baskets, and the "Colchester Jar," which dates back to ca. 1500 and was unearthed in Colchester in the 1820s. Through objects that date from pre-contact to the present, the installation explores a number of themes, including the continuity of cultural traditions, innovation resulting from exchange between Native American cultural groups, and the impact of contact with peoples of European descent. Moreover, the gallery highlights diverse views and approaches by displaying texts by Native Americans from both local and national tribes alongside those by Museum staff and University of Vermont faculty."

Image(inary) Possession

The print above is a modern take by Bansky (the artist who redid those Paris Hilton album covers!) on Warhol's famous series on Marilyn Monroe. This time she is replaced by the ubiquitous image of Kate Moss (truly isn't this woman in every designer advertisement? Not only is she the primary model for David Yurman, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Versace among others, she was just featured in an editorial in this month's Vogue magazine. Not too bad in light of the critical reaction last year when she made headlines for her party girl lifestyle!).


In an age in which image almost always triumphs over substance and visual imagery permeates our everyday experience questioning our personal identities, Kate Moss serves as the perfect modern Marilyn, a woman marketed for her carefully, and sometimes carelessly, manufactured image. One of the funnier Kate Moss promos is her work for Nikon in which she points a camera toward the viewer. Though Kate is seemingly grabbing her power (in much the same way Olympia claims her sexuality in Manet's famous painting. Although in the case of the traditional interpretation of the camera as phallic symbol, perhaps Kate is also taking the power away from male gaze), the advertiser lays claim on her. The punchline to the ad reads, "And Kate's not so bad either." In the world of promotion, Kate belongs to the public.

Marie Antoinette

Here are some of the images from VOGUE Magazine:

Marie Antoinette Redux

Sophia Coppola's latest film, "Marie Antoinette," traces the life of the young, beautiful, reviled, and perhaps misunderstood young Austrian royal who became the Queen of France. Coppola, whose films focus on the private lives of young women (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation), investigates the life of this "teen queen" beyond the decadence, the frills, the fashion, and the gossip that often follows a young celebutante, to use the modern day vernacular.

The film couldn't come into the public realm at a better time. At the same time that it calls into question our own modern decadence and reliance on material aesthetics to bring us happiness, it is also the catalyst for a new slew of aesthetic desires and creations in the fashion world. Coppola's film has set off a new trend - a return to frills and decadence. Whereas last year's fashion trends followed the bohemian stylings of Mary-Kate Olsen, this years trends turn on the reimagined lives of disenchanted royals. VOGUE magazine devoted a good portion of its fall issue to the teen queen, with Kirsten Dunst, her avatar on the cover, with articles inside by the likes of Kennedy Fraser re-examining Marie's life. Books are filling the shelves at bookstores as well.

The cultural phenomenon this film has touched off is amazing to me. I just hope that while enjoying the beauty on the surface, we as viewers follow though for Coppola by critically thinking about Marie Antoinette, no just as a political figure or a symbol of royal hedonism, but as a young woman living in a complex time, thrown into a complex situation at a very young age.

Here are some sites to check out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/books/review/Schillinger.t.html
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/marieantoinette/index.html
http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/240_Marie-Antoinette.php

Big Red Barn

While in Moretown, Vermont took this snap - the blue and red look pretty brilliant.

Art or Convenience?

Saw this along the recreation path in Stowe, Vermont.