Twenty 16-by-20-inch portraits superimposed over a large heart with a watery background is one of the first things to catch the eye at “Heart of Barre: Building Community After the Floods,” the exhibit on display in the Statehouse Card Room. That’s just one part of this engaging, multimedia celebration of community, compassion, and resilience in Barre’s resolute response to the floods of 2023 and 2024.
“The Heart of Barre?” asks the text on a panel. “It’s us. We, the body of words and wounds and tearful gratitude. The fire, the life, the loss, the love. We are the beings bound. Pages in the same book …. I cannot fully know me until I get to know you. Only in knowing your neighbors can you sip the sustaining brew of human life on earth: community. We are revealed through each other. Listen.”
Each of the 23 people in the portraits is either from Barre or deeply connected to the community and the floods. Each portrait is copied to a stand-alone panel that includes a paragraph about the person or persons in it and stories, poems, and quotes. There is also a QR code to audio clips of people telling about their experiences.
Barre artist Diedra Michelle, who lives in the hard-hit North End, came up with the idea for this exhibit after the first flood. She asked poet and community organizer Shawna Trader to join her, and then she started looking for “a home for a project that was only within (her) heart at the time.” Nelson Ace Hardware on North Main Street displayed the exhibit this summer, and it’s now at the Statehouse, but its permanent home will be the Aldrich Public Library.
“(Library director) Kristin Baumann was so enthusiastic and supportive of the idea when I walked in cold to see if the library could be a suitable home for the work,” Michelle said. “Her energies have carried me to navigate the uncharted path of making such a large project come to life.”
“It’s great to see Barre people on the wall at the Statehouse,” said Baumann, who is excited about having the exhibit coming to the Aldrich. “Portraits are a great visual way to make people feel welcome. The library is the right place for it.”
Michelle and Trader made sure the 23 people in the paintings represent a cross-section of Barre folks, from political, business, and community leaders, to people on limited incomes, including one unhoused man. They met with the participants at Michelle’s house; Michelle took photos to refer to while painting the portraits, and Trader recorded interviews. The transcriptions total 300 pages.
Portraits include Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, “a strong advocate for the city’s most vulnerable residents”; Liz Flinn, “an invaluable member of the Rainbow Response Team”; Sarah, Bradley, and Harrison Miller, who lost their home in the 2023 flood; and Garrett Grant, assistant director at the library, who “played a vital role in transforming the library into a hub for disaster response.”
“(Community is) about how we treat each other and coexist within proximity to one another,” Trader wrote on one of the panels. “A strong community fosters good neighbors, and good neighbors, in turn, create an exceptional community.”
“There is a long history of dedicated individuals pouring their hearts, souls, and efforts into this place because they believe in Barre,” she wrote.
Baumann said the library will house the entire exhibit, including a large Michelle painting, “Water Heart,” that didn’t fit in the Statehouse show. Early in 2026, it will be installed in the front hallway that leads to the second floor. Noting that there is a “climate change, flooding aspect” to Lily Brooks-Dalton’s “The Light Pirate,” the Vermont Humanities Vermont Reads book for 2025–26, she said the exhibit will complement activities around that book.
On display in the Statehouse Card Room, “Heart of Barre: Building Community After the Floods,” is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., through Dec. 29.
