News

Peter Christie steps in as Chair of the Board

Movement at the Art Center: Peter Christie steps in as Chair of the Board and the members will vote on three nominees to the Board of Trustees

Helen Day Art Center in Stowe will hold its Annual Meeting for members on Thursday, February 23rd at 5:30 pm.  Members will have the opportunity to elect three new nominees to the Board:  Toni Barr, Remy Joseph and Yu-Wen Wu.  Peter Christie, a member of the Board since May 2010 has been elected by the Trustees as the Chair, following in the very capable footsteps of Shap Smith who has served for six years on the Board, four of them as Chair.

Peter Christie and his wife Brenda have owned a home in Morrisville for over 30 years and now live here full time.  With a background in insurance, Peter has lived and worked in Montreal, London and New York.  Serving on the Art Center Board for him combines a life-long passion for the arts and is a way to give back to the community.

Toni Barr is an advocate and an organizer who describes Gertrude Stein as her inspiration.  She holds a Masters degree in Gerontology from NYU and has been a consistent advocate for aging community members through her work as President of the Board of Out and About, and as Program Director at several nursing homes and adult centers in New Jersey.
She and her husband Russ were inspired to move to Stowe twenty years ago as they began raising their then one-year-old daughter in New York City.  Hannah, now 20, is away at Rollins College, while Harrison (16) is a Junior at Stowe High School, and Rachael (13) attends Stowe Middle School.  Family heads the list of Toni’s passions followed by connecting people with community, helping organizations, and making a difference in people's lives.  She was a founder of the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe which has grown to be a critical organization in the community.
The arts and culture are staples in her life and Toni seeks out museums and art centers wherever she goes.

Remy Joseph has lived in numerous places around the world, Tokyo, London, Paris and all over the United States.  She and her husband, David Zabel decided to leave Fairfield, CT and "live the dream" in Vermont.  This past May Waterbury Center became home. Remy has a Master's degree in Russian Studies from Columbia University, was a marketing representative at IBM and most recently was the Director of Marketing at a non profit school for the arts in Bridgeport, CT.  Remy and David have two sons both of whom live in Washington, DC.

Yu-Wen Wu is a practicing professional artist who lives in Boston and Stowe.  She studied psychology and neuroscience as an undergraduate at Brown University and graduated from the Diploma program in painting from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her work is interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary. Yu-Wen is a full time practicing artist with an extensive exhibition history, including a recent solo show in South Korea, Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, Miller Block Gallery in Boston, and the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, MA.  She is represented by the Ellen Miller Gallery in Boston. Yu-Wen currently serves on two other Boards--the St Botolph Foundation and the Danforth Museum of Art, and has been a member of the Art Center’s Curatorial Committee since June 2011.

Art Center receives grant from John M. Bissell Foundation

Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:36

Helen Day Art Center has partnered with the John M. Bissell Foundation to acquire equipment for the exhibition of film and video as part of their ongoing exhibition program.

The Foundation is dedicated to promoting the production, distribution, and exhibition of films in the Vermont community.  Katie Reen, Creative Director said that she and the Board recognized a compelling need in the proposal submitted by the Center. 

“I was able to name 5 different exhibitions from the last three years where film or video had been or would be critical components of the curated exhibition.” Says Nathan Suter, Executive Director of the Art Center. “Increasingly, some of the most compelling and meaningful artwork is in short film or video.  We need the ability to present this to our audience on the wall - along with the more traditional mediums.  I knew that our upcoming exhibition on the subject of Manhood would include at least five video works.  We were stuck, I had no way of displaying this work without a significant investment in equipment.”

The Bissell Foundation was able to bridge the gap for the Center, granting $2,600 for monitors, dvd players and other equipment.

“We opened the show on Friday night to a crowd of over one hundred people.  The integration of the video work is seamless and we have the Bissell Foundation to thank for that.  It is our hope that the show will attract school groups from the region, magnifying the impact of the grant by sharing the exhibit with hundreds of students.” said Suter.

The John M. Bissell Foundation is a 501(c )(3) private foundation that accepts donations. Its past projects have included the exhibition of the traveling exhibit of Roma Artist Ceija Stojka, funding to Vermont Historical Society for digitalizing films, and funding toward The Vermont Movie which is a collaborative film involving over 20 Vermont filmmakers.
For more information about the Bissell Foundation and its ongoing projects, we urge you to contact its Executive Director, Edward French, Jr. or its Creative Director, Katie Gruca at c/o Stackpole & French Law Offices, P.O. Box 819, Stowe, Vermont 05672.

2011 Stowe Home Tour Features Four Unique Homes

The Helen Day Art Center is holding its 2011 Stowe Home Tour on Saturday, October 1st from 10:30 am-3:30 pm.  This year, four homes will be featured:  the 2011 “Dream” Home as seen on HGTV, an Adirondack-style Great Camp known as “The Tree House”, an historic 1840s Farm House, and a beautiful Ski Getaway. Now in its 20th year, the Home Tour was created as a major fundraiser for the Helen Day Art Center.  Tickets are $23 (or 5 for $100) in advance and $25 at the door.  A light lunch is included.

The Stowe Home Tour features homes with distinguished art collections, creative or innovative architecture, superb interior treatments, and notable views and sites.  The opportunity to visit these homes comes only once, and is in support of the exhibitions, education and public programs offered to the region by the Art Center.  The Home Tour is scheduled for peak foliage season when Stowe and the Lamoille Valley are resplendent in color.

The Helen Day Art Center is a major cultural asset to the Stowe community.  Since 1981, it has collaborated with local businesses and organizations to bring the arts to Stowe and the surrounding area.  The Center has produced major exhibits featuring internationally and nationally recognized artists, as well as exhibits by local artists.  The Center offers art classes for children and adults year-round.  Class offerings include everything from figure drawing to video animation, Photoshop to plein-aire painting.  The Helen Day Art Center also welcomes over one thousand students a year to docent-led tours of its exhibits through scholarships made possible by its members, donors and sponsors.

Tickets available here.
For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 802-253-8358.

Transitional Moments: Jurors and artists discuss Curatorial Process and Artists’ Trajectories

Date: Thursday, September 1st 6:00pm

The Best of the North East Masters of Fine Arts exhibition presented by People’s United Bank

An art historian, two curators and three artists will gather at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, VT on Thursday, September 1st at 6:00 pm to discuss contemporary practice in their realms, with special attention to the careers of artists, the judgements of curators and how they influence today’s art world.

Anthony Grudin, Nina Bozicnik, Jennifer Cawley, Francisco Moreno, and Melanie Perreault are excellent reporters on the intimacies, challenges, defeats and revelations of making, showing, and writing about art. What strategies do artists, curators and historians employ to advance their work, draw attention to relevant topics, and achieve meaningful outcomes through visual art?

With the Best of the North East Masters of Fine Arts exhibition as a backdrop for this discussion, the audience will gain insight into those who shaped the show and the future of contemporary art now.

Best of the North East Masters of Fine Arts Presented by People’s United Bank:

Helen Day Art Center is the first institution in New England to offer an introduction show to participants in MFA degree programs in the North East.  The Exhibit connects visitors with the strongest emerging artists from New England, Quebec and New York, while giving those artists the opportunity to showcase their work to a new audience of Vermont residents and visitors.

When Helen Day Art Center decided to organize an exhibition to include the best artists of the next generation, they had no idea what to expect.  “We wanted to bring some of the most impressive new talent in the North East to Stowe, Vermont to exhibit their work.  We never expected the number of submissions that we received.”  Said Nathan Suter, Director of Helen Day Art Center and Curator of the exhibition which closes September 5th.  “At the deadline there were 107 artists who sent their work for the jury to consider.”

The jury process took place over two days in late April and resulted in seven artists selected.  The Jury was composed of some of the rising stars in contemporary art curation and interpretation; one artist-curator, two curators, and one art historian:

Nina Gara Bozicnik, MA,  Assistant Curator, Currier Museum of Art
Dina Deitsch, MA, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art DeCordova Sculpture Park + Museum
Anthony Grudin, PhD, Assistant professor of Art History, University of Vermont
Rachel Moore, MFA, Fulbright Fellow and Independent Curator, Co-Founder of Spoke: Chicago

Though the artists all were active MFA degree candidates at schools in New York, New England or Quebec, the final 7 are from a much broader geographic range - signaling the increasingly global community of artists.  They hail originally from the U.S., London, South Africa, Korea, Mexico City and British Columbia.  Their work includes photography, painting, sculpture, video, site-specific installation and social practice / intervention work.

Artists Selected:
Jennifer Cawley, Photography, Rhode Island School of Design
John C. Gonzalez, New Genres, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Joo Lee Kang, Painting / Drawing/ Printmaking, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Francisco Moreno, Painting, Rhode Island School of Design
Christopher Page, New Genres / Sculpture, Yale University
Melanie Perreault, New Genres, Concordia University
Robert Watermeyer, Photography, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

The exhibition is curated by Nathan Suter, Executive Director, Helen Day Art Center