Vermont Community Fellows Exhibit
This exhibit highlights the work of the first cohort of the Vermont Community Fellows Program (VCFP). VCFP supports Vermont residents in conducting collaborative, community-based research on issues that matter most to the people and places they care about. This exhibit represents the work of the first VCFP cohort, who began their work in February 2025. These Fellows, residents from all over the state, will present their exhibit to legislators at a Vermont State House event in early May.
Beginner Fiddleheads Fall Semester with Eliza Goodell
Join Touring Group alum Eliza Goodell for a series of beginner-friendly fiddle lessons this Spring in Burlington!
This is a family friendly fiddle-learning program where both young and older generations are welcome to join together in the learning fun. This program is open to all ages (guardians and children attending together is very welcome!).
Intermediate Fiddleheads Series with Sarah Ehrlich
Join Sarah Ehrlich for a Fiddleheads semester for intermediate fiddle players.
Fiddleheads Ensemble with Laurel Swift
Join Laurel Swift for this Fiddleheads Ensemble for intermediate to advanced players of all instruments at the Brattleboro Music Center.
This band is open to players of all instruments and is aimed at teens, although younger applicants will be considered. If you want to play by ear (without notation), if you love rhythm, if you like the sound of traditional or folk music, then come and join Fiddleheads! We'll explore traditional music from England, France, Scotland, Ireland, Quebec and New England!
Young Tradition Festival Concert: Alex Kehler & Nicholas Williams, Young Tradition Touring Group, and l’Ensemble Trad Jeunesse
Join us for the culminating event of the 2026 Young Tradition Festival: an evening of music with Alex Kehler and Nicholas Williams, the Young Tradition Touring Group, and L’Ensemble Trad Jeunesse!
Family Music Jam - Young Tradition Festival 2026
The Family Music Jam at the Young Tradition Festival provides a welcoming and supportive space to try out playing tunes and singing songs together with a focus on traditional and folk repertoire. There will be a session leader to help facilitate and provide helpful guidance to newcomers to jams. Adults and youth of all ages and skill levels are welcome to bring instruments and join in the fun.
Student/Mentor Showcase - 2026 Young Tradition Festival
Join us at the Burlington Farmers Market for a showcase performance of students performing music and dance from a wide range of traditions alongside their teachers and mentors.
Community Dance Party 2026 - Young Tradition Festival
Come dance! This community dance party is an opportunity for attendees of all ages and abilities to gather, move together to live music, and learn from local dancers.
Voices of St. Joseph's Orphanage Exhibit
The Vermont Police Academy will host the Voices of St. Joseph’s Orphanage Exhibition Display from May 7 through May 21, 2026, offering the public an opportunity to engage with the stories of former residents of St. Joseph’s Orphanage and the decades-long effort to bring their experiences to light.
The exhibition will be installed in the main building of the Vermont Police Academy and will be free and open to the public on weekdays from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., beginning May 8.
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, May 7, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. The event will include a voluntary walk‑through of the exhibit, followed by a facilitated discussion and Q&A with key partners of the restorative inquiry, including a survivor of the orphanage.
The reception is free to attend, but advance registration is required. Contact the Vermont Police Academy for details.
The Voices of St. Joseph’s Orphanage project documents the experiences of children who lived at the Burlington institution between 1854 and 1974. Through survivor testimony, historical records, and community collaboration, the exhibition highlights both the harm endured by former residents and their ongoing work to promote healing, accountability, and stronger protections for vulnerable children in Vermont.
Vermont Community Fellows Exhibit
Curious about the Vermont Community Fellows Program? Here’s your chance to learn more! Join us in the Capitol Food Court at the Vermont State House on May 6 from 4:00pm-6:00pm, where our first cohort of Community Fellows will present an exhibit of their projects. Come meet the Fellows in person and learn what this group of amazing and dedicated people have been working on over the last year.
VCFP supports Vermont residents in conducting collaborative, community-based research on issues that matter most to the people and places they care about. Over the past year plus, Fellows have engaged their communities using ethnographic fieldwork—listening to diverse perspectives, documenting experiences, and working together to imagine and enact positive change.
Following this state house reception the exhibit will be on view to the public beginning June 1 at the Center for Arts and Learning in Montpelier and will later tour the state. Topics this exhibit will explore include Asian Jewish life in Vermont, grassroots solutions to housing insecurity in Halifax, life histories of first-generation Tibetan Americans living in Vermont, perceptions of change and resilience in the Mad River Valley, and more.
This program is made possible thanks to Congressionally Directed Spending secured by Senator Bernie Sanders through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Sweetest Joys Indeed - A Sugaring-themed Listening Party at the Kingdom Maple Festival
A Listening Party brings people together to share the experience of listening deeply. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word, you'll hear stories and sounds of the world around us drawn from the Archive at Vermont Folklife. For this March event we tap into a seasonal theme: Maple sugaring! Drop by the NEK Artisans Guild gallery for one of our three Listening Party “sets” during the Kingdom Maple Festival Street Fair in St. Johnsbury!
Touring Group at the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society
Join the Young Tradition Touring Group for a performance hosted by the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society on Saturday, April 11th, at 7:00pm.
Proud Little State - Issue 1 Launch Party
Vermont Folklife has partnered with the Center for Research on Vermont, the Vermont Queer Archives, UVM faculty, and local artists to create Proud Little State, a new series of short comics on LGBTQ+ topics in the state’s past and present. Started with the goal of sharing joy, pride, and homegrown histories of the queer community with Vermonters across the state, Proud Little State is releasing its first issue (about the 1983 Burlington Pride Parade, drawn by Teppi Zuppo) with a launch party at Royall Tyler Theater on the UVM campus on Tuesday, April 7.
Come for community, food, art-making, objects related to the parade from the VT Queer Archives, and free copies of the first comic!
The launch party is supported by funds from UVM’s School of the Arts as part of the Hidden Figures theme programming.
Touring Group - Concert and Scandinavian Dance at the Retreat Farm
Join the Young Tradition Touring Group for a performance hosted by the Retreat Farm in Brattleboro on Saturday, March 28th, from 7:00 to 9:00pm.
Sweetest Joys Indeed - A Sugaring-themed Listening Party with Bar Renée
A Listening Party brings people together to share the experience of listening deeply. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word, you'll hear stories and sounds of the world around us drawn from the Archive at Vermont Folklife. For this March event we tap into a seasonal theme: Maple sugaring! Another treat to the senses: this event features wine and sweets from our friends at Bar Renée!
Ice Shanties: Fishing, People & Culture, at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
Ice Shanties is an exhibition featuring the structures, people and culture of ice fishing seen through the lens of Vermont-based Colombian photographer Federico Pardo.
Touring Group at the North Star Community Hall
Join the Young Tradition Touring Group for a performance hosted by the North Star Community Hall on Saturday, February 14th, at 7:00pm.
Portraits of a Forest: Men and Machine
The Portrait of a Forest: Men and Machine documents how the forestry community continues to shape the land today and asks: What does it mean to be stewards of a working forest?
Touring Group at the Montpelier Performing Arts Hub
Join the Young Tradition Touring Group for a performance hosted by the Montpelier Performance Arts Hub on Saturday, December 6th, at 7:00pm. The performance will be on the 2nd floor at the Chapel on 36 College Street. $20 suggested donation.
Non-Fiction Comics Festival
From science to politics, history to health care, cartooning has exploded as a legitimate medium for exploring non-fiction topics and the textures of lived experience.
Non-Fiction Comics Festival Presents Ben Passmore
From science to politics, history to health care, cartooning has exploded as a legitimate medium for exploring non-fiction topics and the textures of lived experience.
Stories from Vermont Folklife’s Archive, a Listening Party at the Groton Library
Join us for a Listening Party hosted with our friends at the Groton Library! A Listening Party brings people together to share the experience of listening deeply. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word, you'll hear stories and sounds of the world around us drawn from the Archive at Vermont Folklife.
Intermediate Fiddleheads Series with Maeve Fairfax
Join Fiddleheads Alum Maeve Fairfax for a series of beginner-friendly fiddle lessons this fall, in Burlington!
Sundays, Oct 6 & 20, Nov 3 & 17, Dec 1, 2024. 11am-12pm
Fiddleheads Ensemble with Laurel Swift - Fall 2025
Join Laurel Swift for this Spring Fiddleheads Teen Ensemble for intermediate to advanced players of all instruments at the Brattleboro Music Center.
The focus is on exploring ensemble playing and developing creativity in folk music. Learn great tunes and how to accompany them, make harmonies and build a groove! We'll work in both small and large groups, and there are simpler and more complex lines accommodating a range of abilities.
Ticonderoga Listening Party at the Shelburne Museum!
Join us for a Ticonderoga-themed Listening Party hosted with our friends at Shelburne Museum! A Listening Party brings people together to share the experience of listening deeply. A bit like a DJ set of the spoken word you'll hear stories and sounds of the world around us drawn from the Archive at Vermont Folklife.
Sugar in the Pan at the Smithsonian Folk Festival
Vermont Folklife's youth trad ensemble Sugar in the Pan, with current Touring Group members Eli Glasser, Emmett Stowell, Fiona Stowell, and Henry Kervick, joined by Touring Group alumni Grace Martin and Owen Kennedy, will be performing at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC in July! We are honored and so excited to be a part of this great festival!
Sound Recordings as Primary Sources: Local Learning and Vermont Folklife
A FREE, one-day professional learning workshop for educators about teaching with audio recordings from folklife collections and using oral history interviewing in the classroom, presented in partnership with Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education and the Vermont Rural Education Collaborative.
Sansari Festival 2025
The Bhutanese Nepali Kirat Rai & Limbu community cordially invites you to the Sansari Puja Celebration in Burlington! This springtime festival is an appeal to the gods of nature for blessings for a successful agricultural season and for individual health and wellbeing.
Concert with the Pine Tree Flyers and Young Tradition Touring Group - 2025 Young Tradition Festival
Join us for a joyous evening of music with the Pine Tree Flyers and the Young Tradition Touring Group!
Workshop: Green Mountain Greatness with the Pine Tree Flyers - 2025 Young Tradition Festival
In this 90-minute workshop, the Flyers will introduce a favorite New England classic (Green Mountain Petronella, for the great state of Vermont!), teaching both chords and melody. After a short break, the second half of class will focus on how we arrange for the concert stage. With a combination of demonstrating, discussion, and full-group playing, we'll use Green Mountain Petronella to make some magic happen.
Student/Mentor Showcase - 2025 Young Tradition Festival
Join us at the Burlington Farmers Market for a showcase performance of students performing music and dance from a wide range of traditions alongside their teachers and mentors.
Performances will include folk fiddling, Tibetan Dranyen, Jazz ukulele, Scottish harp, and Irish step dancing.
Community Dance Party - 2025 Young Tradition Festival
Join us to enjoy an evening of participatory dance and learn about the range of traditional arts practiced in Vermont today. This event is an opportunity for attendees of all ages and abilities to gather, move together to live music, and learn from dance leaders representing a diverse array of Vermont’s cultural communities.
Community Potluck and Dance Leader Roundtable - 2025 Young Tradition Festival
Join us for a potluck dinner to open the 2025 Young Tradition Festival! During the meal, Vermont Folklife’s Mary Wesley will host a round table with community-recognized dance experts and longtime VT Folklife partners, Migmar Tsering (Tibetan musician and dance leader), Mediha Jusufagic (Bosnian dance leader), Urmila Chhetri (Bhutanese Nepali and Bollywood Dance Instructor), and Aline Mukiza (Burundian singer and dance leader).
Touring Group at the Upper Valley Music Center
Join the Touring Group for a performance hosted by the Upper Valley Music Center at the First Congregational Church, Lebanon, New Hampshire, on Sunday, April 27th, at 2:00pm.