Did You Know? - Deer Hunting
Although not as central as it once was, hunting remains an important part of Vermont culture, whether out of necessity, for enjoyment of the outdoors or both. In this installment of DYK?, we'll hear from two different long-time hunters: Prentiss Dwinell of Marshfield, VT, and Doug Lawrence of Braintree, VT.
Visions of the Future - Halloween in the VT Folklife Archive, 2024
Spooky Season is upon us! As a part of our partnership with Local Learning and the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program we recently discovered a wonderful description of a turn-of-the-century Halloween fortune telling game in the VT Folklife Archive. In 1984, Daisy Turner of Grafton, VT shared an account of her sister, Wilhelmina, using the Magic of Halloween to discover the identity of her true love!
VTAAP Spotlight: Ballad Singing, West Glover, VT
In this VTAAP Spotlight meet Lorraine Hammond and Grant Cook who spent their apprenticeship year exploring the practice of unaccompanied ballad singing, in particular drawing inspiration from Oscar Deegrenia’s singing. Lorraine’s family were neighbors of Oscar’s, and she grew up hearing his songs. Their apprenticeship culminated in a free concert last August in West Glover in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where Oscar was born.
Announcing the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program 2024/25 Cohort
Vermont Folklife is pleased to announce the latest cohort of master artist/apprentice pairs comprising the 33rd cycle of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP)! Seven projects will be supported this coming year, including Franco-American fiddling, warp-weighted loom weaving, Tibetan music and dance, granite carving, and more.
Did You Know? - Music for Social Dancing
In this month's “Did You Know?” we share archival recordings of four different musicians who provided music for social dancing here in Vermont across the 20th century.
Traditional Arts Spotlight: Judaic Weaving
This month VT Folklife staffer Mary Wesley visited with weavers Adina Daar and Carol Goldsmith who have been working together in the central Vermont region to learn how to make connections between their weaving practice and their Jewish heritage.
Did You Know? - Music of Childhood
In the latest installment of our Did You Know? series about music in the Vermont Folklife Archive, we feature songs and music for children. Across cultures, we use music with children to soothe, to celebrate, to instruct, or to just have fun. This month, we’ll hear a lullaby from China, songs that a Sudanese family sings to their infant son, and Tibetan music that accompanies children’s games.
Did You Know? Communities of Song
In this month’s Did You Know? we continue exploring music in the Archive with a feature on "Community of Song." There are so many reasons people come together and sing–whether for celebrations, spiritual purposes, companionship in adversity, or just to express joy. In this blog post, we hear from three groups of people who join together in song: Jamaican apple pickers in Shoreham, pub singers in Brattleboro, and a Burundian women’s chorus in Burlington.
Did You Know? Music in Vermont: Songs of loss and longing
While interviews make up the vast majority of the audio and video recordings in the Archive, the collection includes a great deal of music as well. This month we feature songs of loss and longing, including hearing from Franco-American singers, Carmen Beaudoin Bombardier and Kim Chase
Traditional Arts Spotlight: Scottish Fiddle and Dance
This month Mary dropped by Joanne Garton and Fiona Stowell’s fiddle lesson in Montpelier, VT. A lifelong musician and and Scottish dancer, Joanne is Fiona’s neighbor. The pair have been working together to explore the Scottish music tradition using both fiddles and feet!
Did You Know: Getting Around in Winter, Part III - The Ice Industry
In this month’s Did You Know? we look at the once-thriving business of cutting, harvesting, storing, and selling ice through the experiences of Albert Morelli. As a boy in the 1920s and 1930s, Albert worked with his father, Frank Morelli, who had an ice business based in Rouses Point, NY, serving New York state towns on Lake Champlain as well as towns in Québec. His stories come from a 1994 interview with Vermont Folklife's Greg Sharrow as part of a collection of interviews about life around Lake Champlain.
“Turkeys and the moon brought us together.” — A very special meet-cute
It’s February 14th, St. Valentine’s Day, a time to celebrate love in all its forms. Here at Vermont Folklife, we often mark this sentimental season by turning our microphones towards friends and neighbors who are in love to ask the simple question, “How did you meet?” This year, we found one in an unexpected place, during an interview for an oral history project centered around the hunting and wildlife management of wild turkeys in Vermont,
Did You Know: Getting Around in Winter, Part II
In this month’s Did You Know we share winter travel stories from Alden Bettis of Waitsfield, Vermont. Alden was born during World War I, and grew up during the Depression. He shares about sledding to school, getting his milk truck out of the ditch using only a piece of rope, and riding an empty gas tank down the slopes at Mad River Glen!
Traditional Arts Spotlight: The Long, Slow Burn of Stone Carving
Mary and Eliza paid a visit to Heather Milne Ritchie’s stone carving studio in Barre, VT where Heather and her apprentice, Becky Lovely of Northfield, VT, wield pneumatic hammers and diamond-blade grinders to bring granite slabs to life.
Did You Know: Getting Around in Winter
Whether crossing a frozen body of water, or traveling hilly rural roads, Vermonters have had to come up with some particularly ingenious ways to get around in winter. In this month's "Did You Know?", we hear from four people who describe clever–and sometimes humorous–ways they and their friends managed to get from place to place in a world beset by ice and snow.
Did You Know? Ticonderoga Part 5: The Ticonderoga in Winter
The VT Folklife Archive is full of amazing first-person accounts of everyday life in Vermont and New England–past and present. In this feature, we share these stories with you.
Well, last month we thought we were concluding our four-part series on the Ticonderoga, but there were just too many good stories about the Ti left untold. So this month with cold weather setting in here in Vermont, we're adding one more set of stories about the Ticonderoga in winter–a time when the work changed to fit the needs of the season.
Traditional Arts Spotlight: Rolyang Lobling Prepares for the Tibet Festival
The 2023-2024 ‘cohort’ of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program includes 18 collaborations between mentor artists and apprentices who are working together to keep traditional cultural expressions vital and relevant to the communities that practice them. In this ongoing series of Field Notes we’ll introduce you to some of this year’s program participants and the traditional art forms they practice. Today meet the students of Rolyang Lobling, a Tibetan music and dance class led by Migmar Tsering.
Did You Know? - Ticonderoga Part 4: Life at Shelburne Museum
This month, we continue with the fourth and final article in our four-part series on the steamship Ticonderoga. In this month's article, we hear recollections from Lynn Bottom–a former captain on the Hudson River Dayline, but with a long history with Lake Champlain–about how the Ti was moved from the lake to its current location on land at the museum. Then we hear from Chip Stulin, the project manager who oversaw the restoration of the Ti in the 1990s. Both are recorded in interviews with VT Folklife founder Jane Beck in the mid 1990's.
Traditional Arts Spotlight - How to Play the 5-String Banjo
The 2022-2023 ‘cohort’ of the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program included 12 collaborations between mentor artists and apprentices who worked together to keep traditional cultural expressions vital and relevant to the communities that practice them.This note features interview excerpts, audio, and photos from a recent site visit from VT Folklife staffer Mary Wesley had with mentor artist Rik Palieri (Hinesburg, VT) and his apprentice, Jason Baker (Burlington, VT).