Past Exhibitions and Events | 2019

The Walmart Community Giving Grant has been awarded to the MAC Center for the Arts for $1,000.00 as part of the fundraising efforts for the MAC’s ADA compliance project.  The Walmart grant for strengthening the community highlights the diversity, equity and inclusion and provides a critical component for the MAC Project. (l to r) Vice President, Pam Ladds; Gallery Chairperson, Victoria Mathiesen; MAC President, Lynn Leimer Flint; Walmart Front End Manager, Derrick Snay; and Gregg Willey, Home Line Manager share in this Holiday Cheer! MAC is a local nonprofit providing a variety of Exhibits, Lectures, Performances, Educational classes, Scholarships and much more that benefit the Northeast Kingdom.  Renovations at the MAC Center for the Arts begins January 6 and will be closed until the grand reopening on January 22, 2020.

FACES  – MAC Center for the Arts Final Exhibit for 2019

The MAC Center for the Arts Final Exhibit for 2019 is entitled “FACES”.
Opening Reception is Friday, December 13, 5-7 pm. This is a free event and open to the public.

As Kurt Vonnegut once said, “We are what we pretend to be. So, we must be careful what we pretend to be.”

Faces can be represented in various ways. However way you think of the subject, human portraits immediately come to mind; but think outside the box…The Man in the Moon, the masked faces of Halloween, Mardi Gras, The Lone Ranger; a rock face, animals, flowers, clouds, crowds or a mirrored reflection. Faces are everywhere.

Whichever way we see and are seen; recognized or not, the profile or headshot evokes emotions well beyond what emojis could possibly capture. This subject is open to multiple interpretations and they will all be on display by a plethora of MAC artists as well as art on loan in Mixed Media, Clay, Bronze, Oil, 2D, 3D, Fiber and Jewelry maybe even the Old Man in the Mountain will show up.  All are on display until January 4, 2020.  This exhibit is curated by Victoria Mathiesen, Andrea Strobach and Arlene Goldberg.

Come enjoy the juxtaposition of emotions captured, aesthetics created, and ethereal atmospheres FACES can conjure in MAC’s 2019 FINALE exhibit, 158 Main Street, Newport; for more information 802-334-1966, www.maccenterforthearts.com.  Please note, MAC will be closed for three months: January, February, March and reopen in April 2020.

Evergreen Centerpiece Family Workshop at MAC Center for the Arts

Thinking about decorating for the holidays? Wondering how to make new memories and Fun-lore to pass down to generations?  We have the perfect unique experience to satisfy both!  On Saturday, December 7th from 10:00-11:00 a.m., MAC Center for the Arts welcomes you to celebrate the holidays by creating a beautiful seasonal centerpiece made of local evergreens and festive materials.  This is an activity for family members, friends and neighbors, so come with a parent or uncle, child or best friend.

Instructor Nancy Nash will conduct the workshop in the MAC lower gallery. This annual event is usually a sell out, so early registration is suggested.  Workshop is limited to 35 participants and has a nominal fee of $7.00 per participant to cover supplies; ages 9-99yrs welcome.

After you have finished creating your masterpiece, take time to browse through our upstairs gallery and select from an astonishing array of extraordinary pieces of arts and crafts, music and books, jewelry and furniture; the distinctive collection is matchless and supports shopping local.

For more information, visit www.maccenterforthearts.com, call 802-334-1966,  stop by the MAC and pick up a registration form, or email pattyos@earthlink.net. MAC Center for the Arts, a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization and supports Vermont’s Creative Economy.

MAC Center for the Arts presents Elinor Osborn

Join the MAC Center for the Arts as a new Exhibit graces our Downstairs Connection entitled “Owls Talking to You” by renowned award-winning nature photographer, Elinor Osborn, Friday, November 8, 5-7 pm for the Opening Reception. Ms. Osborn’s stunning work will also include a 30-minute talk “Owl Vocalizations” and a Q&A.  This is free and open to the public.

In her own words, “Photography enables me to see details of nature which remain hidden from casual observation. There are so many exciting aspects of plants, animals, weather phenomena etc. to find and learn about, that I enjoy being outdoors more than anything else, especially here in Vermont….My photography includes a variety of outdoor subjects, including natural history, scenics and outdoor sports—cross country skiing and sled dogs.”

Using a digital camera and computer, Elinor enjoys creating both traditional photo prints and creative “Art Image” prints. All are giclée prints that she brings to life on glossy, fine art, or metallic papers.

She was the 2009 winner in ‘Nature’s Best Photography Backyards Contest’ sponsored by Nature’s Best, the most prestigious nature photography magazine in the United States. Magazines such as Vermont Life, Click, Cross Country Skier, Stowe Guide, Northern Woodlands, Vermont Sports, Vermont magazine, and VT Sports have published her photos. Watersheds United Vermont (WUV)  just used her river photo for a cover for “Living in Harmony with Streams”.

Project UltraSwan (a children’s book published by Houghton Mifflin) which Elinor wrote and photographed, tells the story of the trumpeter swan migration project following ultralight aircraft. Her pictures have been published in a plethora of books including Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of Vermont, Peterson-Hummingbirds of North America, Ortho-All About Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies, Weisel-Cross Country Ski Vacations, The Nature Conservancy National and many  more.

Come meet this fascinating world-class photographer at the MAC Center for the Arts, 158 Main Street, Newport, November 8th.  The exhibit runs through December 7th.  For more information, www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966

MAC Center for the Arts
Special Presentation of Edgar A. Poe by Bradleigh S. Stockwell

Do you know Poe? Edgar Allan Poe: America’s original “mad genius,” “tormented artist”, and the writer-poet whose works have thrilled, shocked, amazed, and entertained the world for 175 years. Since 1845, when “The Raven” made him the most famous writer in America, his writings have been filmed, performed, recorded, parodied, and set to music.

Saturday, November 2nd at 2:00 his poems and stories will be presented in a solo reading by the MAC Center’s Bradleigh Stockwell. He will give dramatic readings of stories including “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Oval Portrait.” Also, on the bill are a collection of verses including “Annabelle Lee,” “The Haunted Palace,” and, of course, “The Raven.”

As an added attraction, Stockwell will be performing a musical interlude on his handmade Theremin and screening a surrealistic 1928 silent film based on “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

The MAC Center’s “midnight dreary” will take place in the Downstairs Connection and last a brisk 75 minutes or so. This special event also celebrates “National Write Your Own Epitaph Day,” so come prepared to indulge you inner Poe. A $5.00 donation is suggested, payable at the door, 158 Main Street, Newport. For more information, www.maccenterforthearts.com or 802-334-1966.

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NEK VT Rocks!  Pam Ladds interviews MAC Center For The Arts’ Mary Brenner

Filmed October 17, 2019 at NEK-TV Studios in Newport, VT

MAC Center for the Arts presents

“Victoria Mathiesen – A Retrospective”

Please join us at the MAC Center for the Arts, 158 Main Street, Newport, October 4, 2019  from 5-7 pm in the Downstairs Connection for the Opening Reception celebrating the extraordinary work of renowned artist, Victoria Mathiesen.

In the artist’s words: “Notably, a Retrospective looks back; and at a certain age looking back seems to be more a part of life than looking forward, though that is not exactly true if you are a painter.  Definitively, a maker of any sort really, because each day is an opportunity to think about the next piece of work, the next idea, and to make the next marks, as they say now.”

Victoria continues, “Making those marks has been my constant companion from childhood, wanting to put something down on a surface somewhere. My luck was in having a mother who understood that, but feared it as well. Her own mother was a painter, so she knew whereof she spoke.  She was right, of course, in that years are spent learning the painter’s craft and there is no end to that. One learns something new with every idea that prompts yet another piece of work…and another…with no certainty of any future at all.”

“I work in both oil and watercolor switching between both as need dictates, and they are very different. This provides a relief, of sorts, and a concentration in other ways of working. Architecture, particularly that of my first home in the UK, has always provided a rich source of beautiful structures and an insight into the past, which thanks to good preservation still stands, mostly.  The idea that I can recreate on paper aspects of a thousand-year-old cathedral or a five-hundred-year-old cob cottage is simply astounding to me….and something I treasure deeply.  But there are more too, not just the manmade structures, but the landscapes in which they reside; and landscape, no matter where  is ancient, eternal and constantly inspiring.”

“Here in northern Vermont are some of the most beautiful landscapes for the painter and while I record many in my sketch books in watercolor, pencil, ink, all in some ways are a preparation for subsequent paintings in oil, many of which are in this exhibition.”

This is Victoria’s first exhibition at the MAC Center for the Arts since joining after moving permanently to Vermont many years ago. Victoria explains, “Someone remarked somewhere that all you had to do was hang a camera out the window and you had a beautiful picture…I can’t remember who said it, but it is true, in all seasons but one…. fortunately mud season is relatively short. It is also untrue of myself since for me, photography is a means to an end, and not an end in itself, something I am constantly reminded of when I see the beautiful work of photographers. Painting however is the end in itself – and living here in this lovely environment provides a different way of seeing the world and one which I attempt to convey in what I do. I am grateful to MAC for the invitation to a Retrospective,” concluded Ms. Mathiesen.

Victoria’s resume is intensely fascinating and cannot be captured in its entirety in a press release. So instead, visit the exhibition for a thumbnail of her breathtaking body of work. This is event is free and open to the public. The Exhibit runs thru November 2, 2019 .

For more information, www.maccenterforthearts.com 802-334-1966. MAC is a local non-profit and exists to nurture our community’s understanding, appreciation and support of the arts, cultural heritage and humanities.

MAC Center for the Arts proudly presents the First Annual

MUSINGS & MUSIC

Newport.  With the changing of the seasons and the colors that surrounds us during autumn, have you ever thought about what colors sound like? On September 22, 2:00-4:00 at the United Church of Newport, MAC Center for the Arts presents MUSINGS and MUSIC which will illuminate the colors of your world audibly. MAC Center for the Arts has a challenge for the community…come and test your PHOTISMS and your philanthropy by joining us.

Now you may be wondering, just what are photisms? So, we want you to explore and enjoy this unique afternoon of Readings by our illustrious Authors and Poets and music by our gifted MAC Performers.  Hear the colors of Jerry Johnson, Patty Oliver-Smith, Ron Lavalette, Susan Sanders, Isa Oehry, Peggy Sapphire, Dianne Laplante and Mark Creaven as the share their insight, humor, and poetry as well as Janice Luce, Ben Luce, Ben Kinsley, Linda Schneck, and Deb Wesoja performing vibrant music that will provide a myriad of kaleidoscopic sounds. Can a word be red? Can a note be blue? Come, listen to the palette….discover your personal photisms.  Emcee for the afternoon is Lynn Leimer.

MAC Center for the Arts is a local non-profit and is fundraising to create an ADA compliant venue for our community at our 158 Main Street Gallery. Your support of this event is appreciated and your donation is tax deductible.

For more information, please visit www.maccenterforthearts, email macartspr@yahoo.com or call 802-334-1966.

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MAC Member Appreciation Event

September 15, 2019 held at Le Belvedere

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Thanks to Bradleigh Stockwell for the photography.

August 30, 2019 

Our MAC Center for the Arts, Founder, Impresario has gone to organize the angels art collective. They obviously needed the best organist ever to play their hymns. GODSPEED, Jim, you will be eternally missed and greatly celebrated for all of your artistic vision and considerable philanthropy ….See you at the BLUE NOTE! Jim passed away on August 30th, Saturday morning at 9:30a.m.

Service for Jim will be Sept 7, 11 a.m. St Mark’s Episcopal Church 2nd Street Newport

MAC Center for the Arts Presents a New Exhibit –

ANECHOIC by sculptor Sterling Trail

MAC Center for the Arts is proud to announce the newest exhibit, ANECHOIC by sculptor, Sterling Trail. Join us for the Opening Reception on August 23, from 5-7 pm in the Downstairs Gallery, 158 Main Street, Newport, VT.

A truly unique title – ANECHOIC – defined as  free from echo; Mr. Trail describes his work as “…focused on aesthetic. Aesthetic is how an object is made; the choices made by the maker to uncover a cohesive form. I hope that my works capture a balance. I hope that the reader will either find an understanding in my work, or an aesthetic enjoyment.”

Sterling’s work is distinctive and one of a kind.His art is the reimagining, repurposing and redesigning of hardscapes.  “I see discarded machines; their vacant husks laying scattered, partially submerged in the annual sediment of the summers now past. These machines are the corpses of function, returned to the earth, devoid of a conduit beyond the artist’s appreciation for their form. I can’t tell you what these forgotten things will be tomorrow or the day after, all I can tell you is what they were made from,” he explains. “I have made the journey down the old road, through trees and shallow puddles to another world that is divided by an intersection. The world I seek is obscured by a vacancy of necessity; it was left behind by its previous stewards who only dealt in abandonment. Now all that remains of the ritualistic discarding of functionless articles are the remnants of machines and structures, submerged under accretions and deposits made annually by the silent sentinels of the forest.” His words are as unique as his art.

He continues, “To some, this world is inconsequential, its use was lost years ago as laws stood in opposition of this world’s function.  Now the only remainder of its glory rusts and sinks into the earth’s recesses. It is here where I find the old triumphs of mankind, and it is here where I find function in the functionless. Around me lay their figures crumpled half buried, lost objects, machines, the unidentifiable, all stamped with ornate motifs and marked by the pit and scratch of nature. I carve, grind, and weld, these are the objects of a past world, the objects I create with them are remnants.”

Sterling shares that his art is influenced by the iconic Lee Bontecou, an American sculptor and printmaker and a pioneer figure in the New York art world; Theodore Roszak, an abstract, impressionist sculptor; and Italian sculptor, Quinto Ghermandi.

This sculpture exhibit is a first for the MAC Center for the Arts and celebrates emerging artists. Curated by Victoria Mathiesen, Andrea Strobach and Arlene Goldberg,  MAC has hosted several  exhibits this season by Touring Artists, Members and Invited Artists.  These exhibits are free and open to the public. Stop in to see this extraordinary display of modern art.

ANECHOIC runs through September 22. For more information, please visit www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966. MAC is a local non-profit.

The MAC Center for the Arts presents

“Yves Klein: The Man Who Invented Blue”

As a special presentation on the final weekend of the MAC Center’s stunning exhibition “Blue: an Exploration of the Colour,” local artist, filmmaker, and MAC Center member Bradleigh Stockwell will present a lecture about “Yves Klein: The Man Who Invented Blue.”

When he died in Paris in 1963 at the age of 34, Klein was a successful artist and poised for international fame. In his brief career, he created many of the performance and artistic techniques which would become standard practices in the decades to come. Among his most notorious was creating art in front of an invited audience as musicians performed. More important was his creation of a special type of blue paint, now known as International Klein Blue. Klein made it his artistic signature, applying it to large canvases, sponges, sculptures, massive murals, and even models who became, in his words, “living paintbrushes.” The MAC Center exhibition includes a large work created with “IKB.” Mr. Stockwell’s lecture will include a live demonstration of this hue.

Also on the program: a fascinating filmed interview with Klein’s widow, Rotraut. This film is being shown by special arrangement with Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark.

Advisory note: this half-hour film contains brief, artistic, but explicit female nudity.

“Yves Klein: The Man Who Invented Blue” will be presented at the MAC Center, 158 Main Street in Newport on Saturday, August 17th at 2:00 p.m. This is a free event and open to the public.

Gallery hours: Mon-Sat 10-5 and Sun 10-6. For more information visit https://maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966.

MAC Center for the ARTS presents a New Exhibit:

BLUE – An Exploration of the Colour

What does the word “BLUE” mean to you?  A feeling, the sky, the water, Bluegrass Music, Blue Humor, blue jeans, bleu cheese…or your favorite artwork.  Well, experience total immersion into BLUE by joining us at the MAC Center for the Arts as we open our latest exhibit, ‘BLUE – An Exploration of the Colour’, June 28, 158 Main Street in the Downstairs Connection for a reception from 5-7 pm and feel the BLUE HUE come over YOU!

Works in several disciplines will be shown, all of which will represent a personal interpretation of the colour blue, with which we are surrounded.  Experience the blue of the painter, the weaver, the jeweler, the potter and  photographer.  Does an artist or artisan still use the fabled lapis lazuli? Yes, in ultramarine! So get out of your blue funk and hurry over to the MAC Center for the Arts. We could go on and on until we’re blue in the face. One disclaimer – sorry, no BLUE MAN GROUP!

This exhibit is free and open to the public and runs through August 19 and is open 7 days a week. Mon-Sat 10-5 and Sunday 10-3. For more information visit www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966.

 A Press release on Blue’s Opening Reception:

A well attended opening for BLUE – An Exploration in Colour was recently held at the MAC Center for the Arts. Curated by Victoria Mathiesen (not pictured), her vision for this recent exhibition is simply breathtaking. Adding to the evening’s festivities, many attendees dressed in blue, adding to the ambiance of the show.

The myriad of curated artwork encompasses pottery, jewelry, watercolor, oils, walking sticks, fiber arts including scarves, rugs, pillows, hats, stained glass, and much more. The body of work highlights the members of MAC Center for the Arts and visiting artists from the area.

Every shade of blue in the spectrum is displayed in the array of exquisite pieces. BLUE – an Exploration in Colour is Free and open to the public. Gallery hours: Mon-Sat 10-5 and Sun 10-6. for more information visit https://maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966

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June 28, 2019

MAC Center for the Arts officially names the annual scholarship the Jim McKimm Scholarship after the founder of the Memphremagog Arts Collaborative. This years recipients are Sydney Harper and Addie Poginy both graduates from Lake Region Union High School. Ms. Harper is matriculating to Northern Vermont University with a double major Writing and Theatre Ms. Poginy is attending University of Southern Maine with a double major in Education and Theatre

Courtesy photos L-R – Lynn Leimer (Vice President- MAC), Addie Poginy, Sydney Harper, Isobel Marks, (President – MAC)

NEK VT Rocks! Pam Ladds interviews MAC Center For The Arts’ Lynn Leimer

Filmed June 27, 2019 at NEK-TV Studios in Newport, VT

NEK VT Rocks!  Pam Ladds interviews MAC Center For The Arts’ Ben Luce 

Filmed May, 2019 at NEK-TV Studios in Newport, VT

MAC Center for the Arts presents

Gabe Tempesta – Selected Paintings

MAC Center for the Arts presents Gabe Tempesta’s solo Exhibition entitled Selected Paintings with an Opening Reception on Friday,  May 24, 2019, from  5-7pm in the MAC’s Downstairs Connection. This is free and open to the public.

To highlight Tempesta in his own words,

“Being born and raised in the Vermont landscape has given rise to the current scope of my artwork. I am continually inspired by the natural landscape while exploring at home or while traveling and look to capture and celebrate that with my paintings. My formal education is from Montserrat College of Art where I studied illustration. After training and pursuing a career as an illustrator as a matter of practicality for ten years I felt an urge for more creative freedom in the form of fine-art landscape and wildlife painting.

My black and white paintings have evolved from a charcoal and watercolor mixture to oil paint. I recently switched to oil paint in order to more easily mimic the lens effects of photography. I love the process of capturing an image through a camera lens with pixels then bringing it to life by hand with paint. Early on I considered pursuing photography as a career until this was superseded by my passion for drawing and painting. Now I feel I have come to a balance between the two.

I leave out the color in my paintings in order to focus on composition, form, and contrast and to engage in a more simple and direct creative process. I strive to create a fresh approach to traditional landscape painting where I look for dynamic vantage points in which to portray common features of the landscape and the wildlife within it. I want the viewer to be familiar with what they see but to get the feeling that they ‘haven’t quite seen it like that before’.”

The exhibit will continue through Saturday, June 22, 2019 and can be seen 10-5 during regular business hours at MAC, 158 Main Street, Newport.  For more information, www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966.

MAC Center for the Arts will share a whimsical albeit posthumous tribute with a selection of works by the late Manfred Rieder starting Saturday, April 27, 10-5 at the MAC’s newly named space, the Downstairs Connection, 158 Main Street, Newport.

In his words…”My “Fantasy Structures” are the result of being brought up by my grand-parents and after my grandmother’s death when I was eight years old by grandpa alone. He was a well-known Austrian architect and from an early age taught me how to draw and paint and then had me assist in making his architectural dioramas and models for his clients. The love of architecture has never left me and now I express it through my little houses and scenes. I have always been fascinated by any form of transportation, from trains to cars, to airplanes and ships and I try to incorporate some of this in my work as well. I only use “found” wood, unwanted articles and everyday items I find in my shop or in the woods.”

His ingenious talent was not limited to the wooden creations,  he also produced hundreds of pen and ink or pencil drawings, paintings, clocks, and many more.  All of the wooden diorama’s are for sale and will benefit the MAC Scholarship Fund which is given annually to graduating seniors pursuing any arts discipline in college. It was Rieder’s wish was that his legacy be hallmarked by this largesse.

The unique showcase will be on display April 27 through May 23 during regular business hours . The exhibition is free and open to the public. It should be noted that these items are hand crafted and for indoor display only.  The exhibition runs in concert with Portraits in Action – 25 Vermont Pioneers in renewable energy, environment conservation and land use planning. For more information, visit our website, www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 334-1966.

Celebrate National Poetry Month at MAC’s Vermont Poetry Festival

Are you a Vermont Poet?  If you are a Vermont poet or poetry lover, come out of your winter cocoon and join us for a National Poetry Month tribute to Vermont poets, past and present, well-known or unknown on Saturday, April 20th from 1:00-3:00 pm at the MAC Downstairs Gallery, 158 Main Street, Newport. Free to the public.

Read one (or more) of your own poems or choose a favorite from among our many Vermont poets to read or recite. For instance: Robert Frost, Ruth Stone Sidney Lea, Ellen Voigt, Galway Kinnell, Major Jackson, Verandah Porche and many more! Depending on the number of sign-ups, Poets/Readers will have up to 10 minutes to read.

Sign-up and registration to read deadline is April 15th .  For more information visit our website at www.maccenterforthearts.com, email Patty Oliver-Smith at pattyos@earthlink.net or Dianne Laplante at laplante@vtlink.net or call 802-334-1966.  Celebrate the spoken word.  This event is free and open to the public.  We invite anyone interested to come share the enjoyment of listening – no sign-ups necessary and refreshments will be served

 MAC Center for the Arts presents

Vermont Folklife Exhibition – Portraits in Action

MAC Center for the Arts will host a special exhibition from Vermont Folklife entitled Portraits in Action.
Opening reception, April 12, 5-7 pm in the lower gallery 158 Main Street, Newport. The exhibition  presents 25 Vermont pioneers in renewable energy, environmental conservation, and land planning” in photography and text and runs through May 18, 2019.  This event is FREE and Open to the Public.

From VT Folklife:  For over a decade, the Vermont Folklife Center has been exploring the roots of the environmental movement and renewable energy in Vermont, documenting an evolving course of action that extends from the mid 1960’s to the present. Since this arc of activity has occurred within living memory, it has been possible to seek out and speak with the very people whose work has been an engine of change.

Seventy-two interviews later, “Portraits in Action” presents twenty-five Vermont pioneers in renewable energy, environmental conservation, and land use planning. This diverse cross section is intended to be suggestive rather than comprehensive, recognizing that there are many more whose work has also made a difference.

The exhibit pairs portrait photography and interview audio as a way for visitors to thoughtfully connect with each person featured. Image and audio are linked to personal statements written in response to the question: “What will bring us to the next level in meeting the energy and environmental challenges we are facing today?

In our current political environment, consensus on the defining issues of our era continues to elude us. “Portraits in Action” offers the opportunity to spend time with a group of people who have been thinking hard about many of these issues over the course of their working lifetimes.  It is both and oral history and a call to action.

For more information, www.maccenterforthearts.com, 802-334-1966.  MAC is a 501 non-profit.

MAC Center for the Arts 

Junque and Trunk Sale – April 6th

Just when you think you’ve had enough of winter; MAC Center for the Arts comes to the rescue with a unique event… Junque and Trunk Sale on April 6th. The indoor yard sale will be replete with FUN for shoppers of all ages when you show up to MAC’s 3rd Annual Sale.  This fundraiser’s profits will go to specifically to installing a handicap bathroom and lift to the lower gallery.

Come one, come all to 158 Main Street, Saturday, April 6, 9:00-2:00 (no early birds please) to a Festival of Junque (junk) items for 99 cents and TRUNK – larger items priced to sell. We want all the Cabin Fever bargain hunters to come to our downstairs gallery and get busy SHOPPING!  For more information, please visit our website, www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 334-1966. MAC is a 501(c) (3) non-profit.

The Power of Personal Metaphor: A Memoir and Poetry Workshop

MAC Center for the Arts will hold a writing workshop The Power of the Personal Metaphor: A Memoir and Poetry Workshop, Saturday, March 16 from 1:00-4:00.  Discover how personal metaphors inspire the creation of poetry and memoir.  Whether your interest is in writing poetry or prose, this workshop will delve into the ways metaphor and figurative language work to express the power of our individual experiences and emotions.

In the workshop we will use short writing exercises and spend some extended writing time to explore, develop and extend metaphors into poetry or prose.

This workshop will also be relevant for visual artists who use metaphorical imagery in their work.  The workshop will conclude with volunteers sharing their work.

The workshop is limited to 15 participants, ages 14 years and older.  Pre-registration is suggested by March 13.  Registration forms can be found online or by stopping in to the MAC Center for the Arts.   For more information, please contact 802-334-1966, visit the website www.maccenterforthearts.com. 

Inspired writers (left – Ron Lavalette and Susan Sanders; right front to back – Victoria Mathiesen, Barbara Elzohairy and Lisa Cordeau). Future workshops will be held, said instructor Patty Oliver-Smith, as the group was enthusiastic for more. Ron Lavalette said “It was a nice range of material, and the 3 prompted exercises were certainly helpful for focusing the short writings. It’s always good for writers to interact…I look forward to further interactions.”

NEK VT Rocks!  Pam Ladds interviews MAC Center For The Arts’ Patty Oliver-Smith and Peggy Sapphire

Filmed March, 2019 at NEK-TV Studios in Newport, VT

Liberated Libretto – An Evening With Gilbert and Sullivan

Presented by MAC Center for the Arts as the Grand Finale for the “NOW PLAYING NEWPORT” series.

Now Playing Newport presents its final production as well as its finale. NPN will be retiring with no future shows. This Grand Finale is in concert with the MAC Center for the Arts performing Liberated Libretto: A Frolic with Gilbert and Sullivan. This is a tour du force of talent Saturday, January 12, at 7 pm at the United Church of Newport on Third Street. All proceeds will benefit the MAC’s ADA upgrade to their venue. Tickets are available at the door. Anita Morin, Sally Rivard, Allen Cubit, Ron St John III and Lynn Leimer with Janice Luce on piano showcase the humor and history of the dynamic G&S duo with favorites such as Modern Major General from Pirates of Penzance, Three Little Maids from the MIKADO and When I Got Out of Doors from Patience. The revue captures the satire as well as the musicality that made the operettas famous.

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Interview with Jim McKimm by the Newport Dispatch.

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