Arts and Entertainment

NEWPORT — After weeks of renovations, the MAC Center for the Arts is ready to unveil their new and improved Gallery Space on Saturday, January 25, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Come explore, browse, and rediscover the arts in this delightful redesign.

Thanks in part to grants and fundraising, a new ADA compliant bathroom has been added and redesign of the floor space to accommodate wheelchair accessibility has been accomplished.

To support the ADA continuing efforts, MAC will hold a “Leap Year” raffle beginning January 25 through February 29.

The winning tickets will be pulled on February 29, leap day.

MAC artists have donated pieces that are a celebration of the collaborative.

Featured in the raffle are a painting by Victoria Mathiesen, valued at $300, painting by Pixies Durand, valued at $100, Sterling Silver with Garnet earrings by Ellie Roberts, valued at $78, pottery bowl by Diana Poulin, valued at $60, pottery bowl and plate by Nancy Nash, valued at $56, pottery “face” vase by Arlene Goldberg, valued at $50, photograph on canvas by Nancy Nash, valued at $45, Polymer Pendant Necklace by Isobel Marks, valued at $25, and a Book by author, Susan Sanders, valued at $10.

All money raised will go to the ADA improvements at the MAC Center for the Arts.

For more information, visit www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966.

Winter hours are Wednesday through Saturday, from 10-5, and closed Sunday-Tuesday.

NEWPORT — Pianist Michael Arnowitt will return to Vermont with his ImproVisions Jazz Quintet, featuring the outstanding New York City musicians Dave Smith on trumpet and Rick Rosato on bass, joined by Vermont favorites Dan Silverman on trombone and Caleb Bronz on drums.

The concert will take place Saturday, January 18, at 7 p.m. at the United Church of Newport.

Michael Arnowitt will perform a colorful and diverse program of jazz past and present.

Music on the concert includes his creative version of the jazz standard There Will Never Be Another You, and his interesting blending of Jobim’s Brazilian jazz song How Insensitive, with Chopin’s famous Prelude in E minor which inspired Jobim’s song.

Arnowitt’s wide-ranging musical interests can be seen in other offerings on the program, from selections from his Jazz Suite from West Side Story based on the Leonard Bernstein musical, to the music of Stravinsky’s ballets Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, Joni Mitchell’s 1970’s Edith and the Kingpin and jazz-influenced by Bulgarian and Syrian music.

For the music of today, the quintet will perform a song from a recent Dave Holland recording and Michael Arnowitt’s original jazz compositions Pirouette, Migratory Mood, and Bulgarian Hoedown from his 2018 CD “Sweet Spontaneous” which he recorded with Dave Smith, Rick Rosato, and a dozen other stellar New York City musicians.

A special feature of the concert will be spoken word artist Therisa Rogers who will join the quintet to perform poems of Langston Hughes for a classic combination of poetry and jazz.

Michael Arnowitt’s upcoming activities include an 8 concert tour of China in October 2020 with the guitarist Steve Blair where the duo will perform in Beijing and other Chinese cities.

The Washington Post said of a concert Michael Arnowitt performed at the National Gallery of Art, “he played with an exquisite sense of touch, color and musical imagination.”

The concert is presented under the Now Playing Newport banner.

Tickets are $15, general admission.

For more information, email koloman@pacbell.net or call 624-6454.

NEWPORT — The Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) Brass Quintet and Counterpoint Chorus, join forces again to celebrate the snowy season with performances across the state featuring popular holiday melodies, carol singalongs, and all-around festive fun.

The group will be at the United Church of Newport tomorrow, December 20.

The show will start at 7:30 p.m.

The ensemble will be led by guest conductor Kevin Quigley, a member of Counterpoint himself, and director of the Thetford Chamber Singers.

Quigley’s passion for experimental media and his enthusiasm for collaboration among the arts will make for a dynamic and exciting performance together with the VSO’s Brass Quintet.

Selections range from a brass arrangement of a Bach chorale to popular beloved tunes including “Sleigh Ride,” “Let It Snow,” and “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

Attendees can also look forward to a new student composition, as well as selected favorites by the legendary conductor, arranger, director and Counterpoint founder, Robert DeCormier.

NEWPORT — The MAC Center for the Arts is getting ready for their final exhibit for 2019, titled “FACES.”

The opening reception is Friday, December 13, from 5-7 p.m. in the Downstairs Connection.

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.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.

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, located at 158 Main Street, in Newport.

For more information call 802-334-1966, or visit www.maccenterforthearts.com.

NEWPORT — The MAC Center for the Arts will be showing a new exhibit in the Downstairs Connection entitled “Owls Talking to You,” by renowned award-winning nature photographer, Elinor Osborn.

The opening is Friday, November 8, 5-7 p.m.

Osborn’s stunning work will also include a 30-minute talk, Owl Vocalizations, and a Q&A.

This is free event 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, she 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 U.S. Magazines, such as Vermont Life, Click, Cross Country Skier, Stowe Guide, Northern Woodlands, Vermont Sports, Vermont magazine, VT Sports and many books have published my photos.

Watersheds United Vermont 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 she 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.

NEWPORT — The MAC Center for the Arts is getting ready to host an opening reception celebrating the extraordinary work of renowned artist, Victoria Mathiesen.

The event will take place October 4, from 5:00 -7:00 p.m. in the Downstairs Connection.

“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,” Mathiesen said.

Mathiesen works in both oil and watercolor, switching between both as need dictates.

Architecture, particularly that of her first home in the UK, has always provided a rich source of beautiful structures and an insight into the artist’s past.

“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,” Mathiesen said.

This is her first exhibition at the MAC Center for the Arts since joining after moving permanently to Vermont many years ago.

“Someone remarked somewhere that all you had to do was hang a camera out the window and you had a beautiful picture,” Mathiesen sais. “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. 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.”

This is event is free and open to the public. The Exhibit runs thru November 2, 2019.

For more information, visit www.maccenterforthearts.com, or call 802-334-1966.

NEWPORT — MAC Center for the Arts is getting ready to present their first annual “Musings and Music” series, which they promise will “illuminate the colors of your world audibly.”

The event will take place on September 22, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the United Church of Newport.

Everyone is welcome to come explore and enjoy this unique afternoon of readings by MAC Center authors and poets, as well as music by their gifted MAC performers.

Come hear the colors of Jerry Johnson, Patty Oliver-Smith, Ron Lavalette, Susan Sanders, Isa Oehry, Peggy Sapphire, Dianne Laplante, and Mark Creaven, as they 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.

Emcee for the afternoon show 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 their158 Main Street Gallery.

The organization says that community support of this event is appreciated and donation is tax-deductible.

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

NEWPORT — The MAC Center for the Arts will be opening a new exhibit, ANECHOIC, by sculptor Sterling Trail.

The opening reception takes place on August 23, from 5-7 p.m. in the Downstairs Gallery, located at 158 Main Street, in Newport.

A truly unique title, ANECHOIC, defined as free from echo, artist Sterling 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,” Trail said. “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.”

Trail’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.”

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.

NEWPORT — 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.”

This event will take place on Saturday, August 17, at 2:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

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.

Please note that this half-hour film contains brief, artistic, but explicit female nudity.

Gallery hours at the MAC are Mon-Sat 10-5 and Sun 10-6.

For more information visit http://www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966.

NEWPORT — The MAC Center for the Arts is inviting the public to come experience total immersion into the color blue, by joining them at their latest exhibit, “BLUE – An Exploration of the Colour.”

The exhibition opens on June 28, inside the Downstairs Connection at the center, with a reception from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Works in several disciplines will be shown, all of which will represent a personal interpretation of the color blue.

Come out and experience the blue of the painter, the weaver, the jeweler, the potter, and the photographer. 

The exhibit is free and open to the public and runs through August 19 and is open 7 days a week, Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

For more information visit www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966.

NEWPORT — Vermont’s Breakfast on the Farm comes to the Maxwell’s Neighborhood Farm this Saturday, June 22 in Newport.

This is the first time the event has been hosted in the Northeast Kingdom.

This free, public event includes a Vermont-style pancake breakfast featuring local products, a self-guided tour of the farm including 14 educational stations, and a peek into the life and business of dairy farming in Vermont.

Media are invited to see first-hand how the farm cares for their cows, creates renewable energy, enhances their community, supports their employees and protects the environment.

Over 1,000 visitors are expected, including agricultural leaders, educators and industry representatives including.

On site will be three generations of the Maxwell family, owners and operators of the Maxwell’s Neighborhood Farm and their employees interacting with the public, Dr. Julie Smith, DVM, PhD, UVM Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences UVM Extension agronomists and specialists, as well as over 100 volunteers from the agricultural community.

The event will take place between 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and the Maxwell’s Neighborhood Farm is located at 213 Maxwell Road.

NEWPORT — Locally renowned tenor Allen Cubit will present a special concert spotlighting Robert Schumann’s, Dichterliebe, on June 1, 2019, at 7:00 p.m. at the United Church of Newport.

He will be accompanied by the extraordinary pianist, Vivian Spates.

Cubit is well known professional tenor that has graced the stages in the Northeast Kingdom, Canada, and beyond.

He has sung with the Vermont Philharmonic, was a soloist in concert with the acclaimed John Weaver, one of America’s finest concert organist, as well as having sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and performed at the iconic Carnegie Hall.

There is something distinctive about the combination of classical music, romantic themes, and the tenor voice that evokes a sense of overwhelming joy. Robert Schumann is a genius as a composer/lyrist in this realm.

Dichterliebe is one of his best-known works and highlights the poetry of Heinrich Heine in a 16-song cycle which takes the singer and listeners on a journey of a person who is mourning lost love and overcoming the heartbreak that inevitably follows.


“This work is not just a soloist with an accompaniment, as Schumann himself was an accomplished pianist,” Cubit said. “We find a balanced interplay between voice and piano taking the themes and telling the story of love throughout the work.”

It is truly a full collaboration on the part of the artists. Spates is a featured and integral performer in the presentation.

The duo has been rehearsing for several months and will round out the evening’s concert with a cache of eclectic songs, including pieces by Beethoven, Donaudy and Carissimi.

“I enjoy the beauty of Schumann’s music and I am excited to share that beauty with my local community,” Cubit said.

The concert is free and open to the public, however, donations are greatly appreciated.

For more information cubitallen@gmail.com or Click here for the event page on Facebook.

NEWPORT — MAC Center for the Arts presents Gabe Tempesta’s solo Exhibition entitled Selected Paintings with an opening reception on Friday, May 24, 2019, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. in the MAC’s Downstairs Connection.

The opening 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 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during regular business hours.

For more information visit www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 802-334-1966.

NEWPORT — The MAC Center for the Arts will share a posthumous tribute to the late Manfred Rieder starting this Saturday, April 27, from 10:00 – 5:00 p.m.

The tribute will display a selection of Rieder‘s works, housed in the MAC’s newly named space, the Downstairs Connection.

In Manfred Rieder‘s own words:

”My fantasy structures are the result of being brought up by my grandparents 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.”

Rieder‘s 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 his wish was that his legacy is 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 handcrafted and for indoor display only.

The exhibition runs in concert with Portraits in Action – 25 Vermont Pioneers in renewable energy, environmental conservation, and land use planning.

For more information, visit www.maccenterforthearts.com or call 334-1966.