CALAIS — When a group of Calais residents got together in 2008 to install an art show in the Kent Museum in the Kents Corner Historic District it was a small local event. All the artists were from town, all the art could be hung on the unfinished walls of the early 19th century building, and it would be up for only one weekend. It was, curators Cornelia “Nel” Emlen and Allyson Evans said, a one-off.
Seventeen years earlier, the Vermont Historical Society had sold the once-1830s tavern and hotel on the Montpelier-to-Canada stage road to the Division of Historic Preservation for one dollar. The building needed extensive work to be brought up to contemporary museum standards, and progress was slow. Supporters formed Historic Kents Corner, Inc., a nonprofit whose goal was to help the state make the building accessible to the public.
The local art show was planned as a step in that direction, but a year later, after they held another one-off art show, something started brewing. The show soon expanded to two weekends and brought in artists from other central Vermont communities, and there were requests for more artists and more exhibit time. Both artists and visitors found the partially deconstructed building a stimulating space for displaying contemporary art.
“The early shows were primarily two-dimensional art on the walls,” Emlen said. But in 2011, the year of Tropical Storm Irene, they included a fundraiser for craft artists who had been hurt by the storm. The exhibit included crafts, decorative arts and furniture: It turned into a three-dimensional show, and a seemingly magical connection between the historic building and modern art emerged.
“That was a turning point for us, in terms of how we thought about the space,” Emlen said. “It moved us in a new direction.”
Three years later, in 2014, the local show became Art at the Kent, the month-long, theme-based, multi-medium exhibit it is today. Evans said the show now draws artists and audiences from throughout the state, and popular demand had extended the show to five weekends.
This year’s exhibit, “Art at the Kent: Throughlines,” marks the 20th exhibit at the Kent. Back in 2010, there were two local shows in one year, which is why there have been 20 shows in 19 years.
“Throughlines” begins Sept. 11, with the opening celebration the next afternoon, Sept. 12, from 3 to 5 p.m., and runs through the closing celebration on Oct. 11.
Twenty artists from 19 communities have work in this year’s show. Bob Hannan, the only Calais artist, will be exhibiting his photography, in which he aims to “capture the moment” and doesn’t doesn’t crop the image for printing. Inspired by Polaroids of decades back, his prints have the familiar white borders and look of the original Polaroids. They will be loose on a table, and attendees are encouraged to handle them.
Vergennes master boatbuilder Douglas Brooks is showing his full-sized replica of a 19th century Rushton dinghy, along with the remains of an old dinghy of the same style he found for sale at the side of the road.
Manchester sculptor Stefania Urist presents her work in “the repetitive linear angling of woven plant material,” and Townshend glass artist Robert DuGrenier uses old metal farm implements collected after a barn fire in “sculptures where rusted, burnt metal meets clear, shiny glass.”
“A Pardon Paradox,” 2024, a steel and concrete sculpture by Brattleboro artist Justin A. Kenney. Photo by Allyson Evans.
“Vermonters are, by and large, the audience, and that’s a bit unusual for state-owned sites,” said David Schutz, who is both state curator and third curator for Art at the Kent.
Schutz said the deconstructed condition “reveals the bones of the building and what it looks like when plaster is missing.” The contrast between the building and art exposes how life changes, and is one way in which the throughline theme fits the show.
“Instead of attempting to restore it fully, such that all you see is what somebody thinks it looked like in the 19th century, (the deconstructed mode) allows you to appreciate the building with these very different shows every year,” Schutz said.
Emlen noted that in 2014, the Kent wasn’t known outside of central Vermont and it was sometimes difficult to convince artists to show there. All three curators emphasized how radically that has changed: The annual show is now a sought-after event. There is no application process. The curators follow art throughout the state and invite artists whose work they feel would go well inside or outside the building and which fit in the emerging theme that year.
Words Out Loud, the popular series in which Vermont authors read at the nearby Old West Church on three Sunday afternoons, and which grew out of Art at the Kent, is also described in this issue.
New this year, Emlen said is “quiet Mondays,” an opportunity for people to visit when the museum is likely less crowded.
Located at Kents Corner in Calais, the museum is open from Friday through Monday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., from Sept. 11 through Oct. 11. The opening celebration is Sept. 12, from 3 to 5 p.m., and the closing celebration is Oct. 11 from 3 to 5 p.m.
