Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Shelburne News
Every year on their way back from camping at Saranac Lake, Elisabeth Miller passed a small building with a sign outside: “Keene Arts.”
Last summer, Miller finally told her husband to pull the car over to see what was inside. This chance encounter would lead to the first art exhibit of a new program at Shelburne’s library.
The day Miller walked through those doors happened to be the last day of a local art exhibit. Miller was already involved in art curation at the Pierson Library. She immediately thought of making this collection the first exhibit of the library’s upcoming project, the Pierson Art Exchange Program.
“The director at Keene was there and had been saying that day, ‘I wish I had someplace else to send this show,’” Miller said. “Talk about serendipity.”
Photo: Rhiannon Hubbard
Showcasing art to the community has always been important at Pierson, but the Art Exchange Program is something new.
The program aims to illuminate talent in and around Shelburne with public gallery openings for each new exhibit that will rotate on a quarterly schedule.
“We’ve always had art in different gallery spaces, but we haven’t brought the attention to it that it deserves,” said Michael Hibben, the library’s director. “People weren’t connected to it as much as what we’re seeing now with this program, where it’s more immersive and cohesive.”
The first opening was Jan. 12 with the exhibit Miller saw at Keene Arts called “Twists & Turns,” created by abstract painter Mike Kaz and sculptor Matt Horner.
After the first gallery opening for “Twists & Turns,” the library received positive feedback from the community.
“A lot of folks came in who didn’t know the exhibit was going on,” Hibben said. “They were pretty awestruck by the new exhibit and how bold it is.”
“Twists & Turns” will be on display at the Pierson Library through the end of March.
For Miller, connecting to art in public spaces such as libraries has personal significance. She was raised in Brandon, four doors down from the town’s library by parents who valued art.
Miller’s parents were able to travel and experience art abroad; however, Miller wasn’t exposed to these same privileges in her childhood due to financial hardships her family later faced.
Miller remembers being captivated by a print of a flying fish in an antique book of exotic animals that she found in the library in Brandon library. Later in life, she vacationed to Kauai, Hawaii. One day, when boating off the coast of the island, out of the water flew – a flying fish.
“It just took me back to that little library and that beautiful book,” Miller said. “I realized, ‘Oh, I’m living it, I’m seeing it!’ That was a world I could only reach through my library when I was little.”
Miller recognized the value of libraries for the cultivation of culture and art when conceptualizing the Art Exchange Program.
“Libraries are a crossroads where you go to delve down deeper into things that are meaningful to you and also broaden your vision, scope and understanding of things,” Miller said. “I wanted to use art to also enhance and broaden.”
Painter Mike Kaz of “Twists & Turns,” also recognizes the unique space the library provided to the exhibit as a means of showcasing abstract art to all.
“Libraries are not only hubs of communities but bastions of culture, education and creativity,” Kaz said. “The chance to show our work in a slightly more casual space meant we knew that a wide spectrum of guests would have the opportunity to experience abstract painting and sculpture, and that seemed a worthwhile endeavor.”
Although the program requires coordination and commitment, Miller and Hibben envision the program as an ongoing event at Pierson.
“Whenever you launch one of these things, it’s a lot of work getting it going and finding out who your point people are,” Miller said. “But, I feel like ‘Twists and Turns’ has been a great success and has caught everyone’s eye. It really lifted the quality level and the vision for art exhibitions in the future.”
Miller is also already in contact with local art organizations such as the Shelburne Craft School and Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery, and plans to maintain the library’s connection with Keene Arts.
Through the Art Exchange Program at Pierson, communities of artists and Miller herself have been able to create connections to each other and art.
“When I began working at the library, it was an opportunity to develop my own community of friends and connections within the world of the arts here in Shelburne,” Miller said. “I had a feeling I was going to meet beautiful, wonderful people, and I have. I love it.”
