Press Release: Vermont Folklife Moves from Middlebury Building to Boost Statewide Impact

The John Warren Building, at 88 Main Street, Middlebury.

Vermont Folklife plans to sell the historic John Warren building in Middlebury, which has been its home since 2006. The sale of the building will advance Vermont Folklife’s goal to better serve constituents across the entire state. 

Although long associated with Middlebury, the work of Vermont Folklife has always been statewide in scope. In recent years, Vermont Folklife has increasingly prioritized this statewide role and expanded their direct engagement with local communities across Vermont. “As a community-focused nonprofit we find it so important to bring our programs and mission to people—where they are—rather than asking people to come to us,” said Executive Director, Kate Haughey. “And that  enables us to foster the face-to-face connections that are at the heart of what we do.” 

In line with these priorities, over the last several years Vermont Folklife has gradually deemphasized its Middlebury location as a destination for visitors—an approach that accelerated due to the pandemic. “We closed our onsite gallery in the spring of 2020,” said Associate Director and Archivist Andy Kolovos, who oversees Vermont Folklife’s exhibit program, “and rather than reopen it, we decided to bring our exhibits to partner organizations around the state—sites like the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, and the Manchester Community Library. It has been immensely rewarding to build new connections in these communities.”

Founded in 1984, Vermont Folklife grounds its work in collaborative ethnographic research and interviewing, recording thousands of interviews over the past 40 years. These recordings serve as the basis of award-winning documentaries, exhibits, publications and programing, and form the heart of the Vermont Folklife Archive, a collection of cultural memory whose contents span the late 19th century to the present. Through the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship and Young Tradition programs, Vermont Folklife works to sustain cultural practices of Native Americans, the descendants of early European settlers, later immigrants from Canada and Europe, and more recent arrivals, including resettled refugees from Africa, Asia and Europe. 

Vermont Folklife has been based in Middlebury since its beginnings. After renting space in the basement of the Gamaliel Painter House at 2 Court Street for several years, in 2000 the organization partnered with the Vermont Community Foundation to purchase and renovate the former Masonic Hall at 3 Court Street. In 2006, Vermont Folklife purchased 88 Main Street, an important historic landmark built in 1804 by industrialist John Warren, and prominently located on the roundabout in downtown Middlebury. 

“After more than a year of careful consideration and conversation with staff, the Board voted to move forward with the sale of our property in Middlebury” said Board Chair Lindsey Harty. “88 Main Street is a unique, landmark structure,” added Haughey, “and we asked ourselves—is this part of our mission? Should we be the stewards of this historic property? Or is it more important that we direct our resources into fulfilling our mission, getting out there and meeting people on their own terms?”

Once the building is sold, Vermont Folklife staff plan to continue the practice of hybrid work that began during the pandemic, as well as gathering in a small office space they currently rent at 74 Main Street, Burlington. The organization is also actively seeking partners with available space to house its Archive. “We like to say that the Archive is the heart of the organization,” said Kolovos, “so until we find a new location where we can safely store and access the collection, we plan to work out an agreement with the new owner to keep the physical holdings in the climate controlled space at 88 Main in Middlebury.”

The departure from Middlebury after so many years is bittersweet. “I think about it this way: we may be leaving this particular building, but we’re also not going anywhere,” said Haughey. “We will be out there in Vermont interviewing people, creating and sharing exhibits, supporting culturally-based arts, and connecting young people to traditional music. When we say we cover the whole state, that includes Middlebury—so keep an eye out for events and exhibits. We will always return to where it all began.”