From 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, then 5:00 pm to 7:00pm.

A variety of arts organizations, schools, community members and youth will come together on May 26, 2023 on Main Street in Poultney VT to demonstrate and share with the community the power of art, imagination, sculpture, performance and presentation of creative practice. This opportunity and event has the mission to expose and ignite the power of the arts from local institutions to over 300 Poultney and local youth, teachers, local artisans and community members. All organizations involved share a similar goal to enhance the world using art as a vehicle and to share their creative process and practice with the next generation of makers.

Learners and youth from Poultney High School, LiHigh School, Poultney Elementary School and other kids will watch, engage and enter the event with many ways to watch and learn about artists and creatives in their local and regional community.

The creative community of the town and beyond will be able to collaborate, connect and grow, as community members are invited to engage and explore the happenings of the day. There will be various exhibitions on display for people to see at Stone Valley Arts and along Main Street. These will be on view for groups of students to engage with using scavenger hunt activities. Additionally, students from LiHigh will showcase music in front of their school, along with a few other artist demonstrations in the Journal Press building and along the sidewalk of downtown.

This year, Main Street will become a stage for creative expression with Poultney Arts Day at dusk, 5-7pm, with dance, theatrical and music performances in the street. A local Arts Market will also host a variety of artists and makers who can demo and share their works with the community.

The purpose of the event is to ignite an inter-organizational collaboration opportunity the day of the celebration and in projects beyond. Poultney Arts Day has become a tradition within our community to celebrate art, imagination, community and inter-organizational partnership.

Poultney Arts Day: Artist Demos & Activity Descriptions: 9-3pm 

@LiHigh School
Brandon LeDue
Jen Calvary 

Musical Performances @LiHigh School on Main Street
Students and Staff come together in this creative jam throughout the day to provide a soundtrack to student activities on Main Street

@Poultney High School
Melissa Kristiansen 

Ceramics Project Facilitator and Ceramics Artist @Poultney High School
Melissa is the main contact person for student and community member sculptures and objects pre-Raku firing. Her studio at PHS and her expertise around handling the works and preparations for Poultney Arts Day is essential to support such a interwoven ceramics project. She has created collaborative installations of pieces produced during the PAD event. The phoenix feather mural from 2021 currently hangs above the PHS main entrance. This year she will work with her students and Jordan Becker to create imagery w a theme of “Art is at the Heart of Main Street.” 

@Stone Valley Arts
Krista Rupe
Diane Bargiel 

Student Art Show @Stone Valley Arts (galleries) 

Students across our region’s art will be displayed at Stone Valley Arts. Participants of the day of event will be encouraged and invited to walk through the SVA Galleries to enjoy and experience the power of art made by their peers and themselves. Additionally there will be other works that highlight local and regional youth’s work in the windows along Main Street Poultney.

Community Paint Station and Demo @Stone Valley Arts (lawn) 

Youth and community members will be invited to engage with a local artist that will create a collaborative work during the event to demonstrate the power of collective and creative voice using paint and other materials.

@REclaimED Makerspace
Danny Lang
Glowforge Demo @ REclaimED 

Danny is an artist and maker that enjoys engaging youth and makers with a variety of mediums that are recycled and reclaimed. During PAD 2023 he will be using a laser cutter tool to demonstrate to youth and community a fun and high tech way to work with wood. Some participants will get to personalize a wooden object that is related to our theme this year.

@Town Offices Lawn
Cooper Schulz 

Blacksmithing and Branding @Town Offices Lawn

Cooper is an artist that is also a member of REclaimED makerspace. During the PAD event he will present Blacksmithing demonstrations for the public and youth of Poultney.

@Poultney Library
Rebecca Cook 

Food Art @Library 

Rebecca is the library’s director and is always finding new and interesting ways for youth to engage with the creative practice. She joined last year’s PAD celebration with a food station that highlighted how art can be made from edible materials. Students and community members will be able to make and try art that they can eat.

Salem Art Works Artists
Michael Scupholm

Glass Furnace @LiHigh School 

Students who participate in the Mobile Glass Unit during the Poultney Arts Day will experience the physical properties of glass in action through heat, gravity, and force. Participants will make a stamp impressed glass disk of a phoenix and will have the opportunity to add glass color and experiment with different textures in the formation of the glass.

Jordan Becker 

Raku Fired Pottery and Wood Fired Kiln @Poultney High School 

I would like to Raku fire pieces during Poultney Arts Day with a similar wood fired kiln we did back in 2019. I would fire pieces made by PHS and LiHigh School students, along with pieces made by community members and younger students prior to the day of the event.

Zac Ward 

Community Sculpture Building @Rail Trail/ REclaimED Makerspace close to Main Street Re-imagining a new sculpture for 2023 Zac Ward will manipulate and attach pieces of scrap metal to create a sculpture. The sculpture will be created by the railroad tracks near the rail trail connecting Salem NY and Rutland VT as a metaphor to ‘tie’ the local artist community together. The public is invited to collaborate with Zac.

@Hardware Store
Bob Williams 

Creation Station @Williams Hardware 

Bob Williams enjoys creative fun and supporting the youth of his community to engage in play and imagination games and activities that he has created for the sidewalk in front of Williams Hardware. This will be the second year he will invite youth and community members to play and imagine with activities such as a selfie photo booth.

@Green Mountain Community School
Sarah Ellsworthy 

Shibori Fabric Dye Activty: @GMCS 9-11am 

PAD youth will be invited to explore the art of fabric dyeing with natural fibers and dyes alongside GMCS instructor

@Analog
w/ bike makers and creators and SVT volunteers 

Bike Printmaking Station @Analog on Main St 

Youth explore printmaking via the lens of bike gears. Information for Slate Valley Trails will also be provided to share with local youth the power of creativity and recreation, hosted by Analog on Main St.

@United Methodist Church
Susan Hardeman -Zimmmerman 

Fibers Station @Church on Main Street 

Church artists and friends will come together to demonstrate a variety of fiber arts processes and techniques, ie: processing fleece, spinning, weaving, knitting crocheting. This will be the second year that this group has been engaged with PAD. In 2022 they came onto our celebration last minute, and hosted a snack and coloring stop for people to take a break. We are excited to host them as a stop for the artist

demonstration scavenger hunt for PAD 2023.

@PMNRCD Mural and Illustration Station
Annie Daley, Margaret Mug, Nic Stark 

Illustration Station @PMNRCD building on Main 

Illustration artists in collaboration w/ the PMNRCD will host an arts station where youth can explore the region’s fauna and flora while learning about the illustration process.

Poultney Arts Day @Dusk: 

Artist Demos & Performance Descriptions: 5-7pm 

This year we are expanding upon an idea from PAD 2022, music and dance performances for the community at dusk. This year’s event will all take place in and around Main Street from 5-7pm.

In Main Street, Poultney VT: 

PAD @ dusk Music and Dance Performances w/backstage @LiHigh School Stage Manager and MC: Annie Daley 

Music/Sound Engineer:Sam Merwin 

Bob Williams and ballroom dance partner
Bob Williams 

Performance w/ ballroom dance partner in Main Street.

SVA Dance Collective
Nicole Ullman 

Coordinator of the SVA dance collective performance in Main Street. Hermit Hallow String Band 

Margaret Desiree Mug 

Margaret has been coordinating the band’s second year performing for the Poultney Arts Day event. The band is a local favorite and made up of Poultney musicians. Jazz Music Collaborative Performance: 

Zachary T Hampton 

Poultney Vermont Band Moose Crossing’s Zachary Hampton will collaborate alongside musical friends during the 5-7pm PAD @ dusk’s event. This year we are so excited to add Zachary to the PAD fun!

Arts Walk: Tables and Demos
Nicole Austin-Arbuckle
Mary Charles 

Poultney Vermont resident and business owner Nicole Austin-Arbuckle will be coordinating the Arts Walk for PAD 2023 along with Mary Charles. She is a local community organizer who enjoys collaborating on events for local youth and Poultney residents. Nicole will also be supporting the window art displays for the PAD youth art show. This is her second year engaging with the event and she will again host youth

art in her Main Street storefront window.

Mobile Glass Blowing
Sam Lighter 

Vermont glass blower, Samantha Lightner, will immerse community members in the world of glass,with glass blowing demonstrations along Main Street during the PAD @dusk event. She gathers layers of molten glass and color and shapes the bubble using gravity and various tools. Sam is always looking to nature as an inspiration to bring more life into her work, and is excited to bring her mobile unit to PAD @dusk this year.

Blacksmithing
Cooper Schulz 

Continuing his demonstrations into dusk, Cooper will be showing the community a variety of skills via the creation of coal forged objects, using reclaimed metal and recycled materials.

Photos & Videos: 

PAD Instagram Account: poultneyartsday: (created for PAD 2022) 

https://www.instagram.com/poultneyartsday/

PAD Videos: 

2022:PAD Video by VT videographer Lucas Krauss

Instagram 

Link:https://www.instagram.com/reel/CilUoS4DIe-/?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE= Shared PAD Media via local & collaborating orgs: 

LiHigh School: Poultney Arts Day video 2019: made by a LiHigh Student and staff https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=300089000901945&ref=sharing 

SVA: press release share: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=412712970306072 SAW: gallery photos: https://gallery.salemartworks.org/poultney-arts-day-2022 Poultney Chamber of Commerce: press release share:

https://poultneyareachamber.com/event/poultney-arts-day-imagination-grows -on-main-st/