This year the McCullough Library will again collaborate with Blue Rider Events, The
Left Bank, and Compass Rose Music to ensure that this unusual North Bennington
New Year's Eve tradition adapts to our changing times, and lives on. Tune in to the
McCullough Library's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/McCulloughFreeLibrary)
this New Year's Eve, Friday, December 31, at 7:00 PM for a Watch Party featuring
cellist Michael Finckel, who will perform a Bach suite and other works for cello.
Accompanying him will be local cellists Maxine Neuman, Nat Parke, and Perri
Morris. This will be the sixteenth iteration of the New Year’s Eve cello event.
As always, the concert is free, though donations are appreciated and help to keep
the series alive. Donations can be sent to the McCullough Library, 2 Main Street, PO
Box 339, North Bennington, VT 05257. Checks should be made out to the J. G.
McCullough Library, with “Concert” in the memo line at the bottom.
The concert will again be recorded and edited by master folk musician, music
historian, and veteran video and sound recordist Steve Gillette, whose work can be
found at Compassrosemusic.com and AbouttheSong.com
A native of Bennington, Michael Finckel comes from a family of musicians. Both his
parents were teachers and performers of music. His brother Christopher is also a
professional cellist, and his cousin David, a cellist as well, is co-director of the
chamber music program at Lincoln Center, in New York. The cello tradition in
Bennington is a reflection of the influence of Michael’s father and first teacher,
George Finckel, whose many students and admirers consider Bennington a
welcoming and supporting environment for the instrument. Michael Finckel, now
based in New York, is a soloist, chamber musician, composer, teacher, and
conductor. As a cellist he has performed with orchestral and chamber ensembles in
venues throughout America and across Europe. He currently teaches at the Mannes
School of Music in New York, and for more than twenty-five years he has been
conductor and music director of North Bennington’s Sage City Symphony, one of the
outstanding community orchestras in the country.
New Years Eve Cello
Enjoy A New Year’s Eve Concert
in a
Virtual Format
An Hour of Cello Music
Michael Finckel, cellist
with Nathaniel Parke, Maxine Neuman, & Perri Morris
A Bach Suite and other Music for Cello
Friday, December 31, 7 PM
Search: "North Bennington Cello Concert” or
www.facebook.com/McCulloughFreeLibrary
Sponsored by Blue Rider Events and The Left Bank
in cooperation with Compass Rose Music and the McCullough Free Library
HAUNTING
The annual Halloween Show at The Left Bank Gallery in North Bennington.
Celebrating myths, spectral beings, ephemeral nature and more! Spend some time with a series that explores the mysteries of Bennington Triangle. Works that highlight the legends of The Sandman of Cologne, La Cobra Verde and the Maiden, Mother and Crone. In this age of anxiety, find solace in these guardians, shapeshifters, masks and costumes. Featuring the work of 22 artists.
On View October 11- November 8th 2021
11am-2pm M, W, F
Contact rhondaratray@gmail.com for additional gallery hours
Laura Christensen
Lauren Driscoll
Alexandra Eckhardt
Amber Foster
Jennifer Francini
Danielle Galietti
Emily Giamari
Emily Gold
Raul Gonzalez
Paul Katz
Anima Katz
Henry Kleine
Lexey Lee
Lodiza LePore
Zoe Marguerite
Nate Massari
Claudia McNulty
Madalyn Olsen
Sara Farrell Okamura
Rhonda Ratray
Gregory Scheckler
Greg Winterhalter
September 1st-30th:
Josh's Fantastical Menagerie
Josh Gray is a 49 year old Down Syndrome person who appreciates life in every moment, spreading smiles, love, and hugs wherever he goes. His passions include music and dancing, food, family and friends, hiking and biking, animals and nature. Josh likes making art because “it makes people feel happy.”
He has fans all over the country and currently resides on Amelia Island.
For more information contact the Rhonda Ratray at leftbanknorthb@gmail.com
North Bennington, Vermont: Looking at Small Town America Through A Generation of Self-Portraits
Jay and Sophie Paris, 2021
Twenty-one years ago, in the summer of 2000, two seasoned photojournalists –a father and daughter –came to North Bennington, Vermont to shoot a day in the life of the village, using guided self-portraits with an old fashioned air bulb shutter release to fire off a digital camera. They shot in black and white between sun up and sun down on a Saturday, printed and framed the show overnight and opened it to the community the next day. They had received a grant from the Fund For North Bennington to cover the costs of the project, including the thirty-five prints they would display. Seven years later, the Fund for North Bennington invited them back to do another round of portraits. And then seven years later, they came back again. On August 14, they will return for a fourth shoot, capping a town tradition that will span 21 years.
“This summer marks a full generation of people and places from North Bennington that we’ve photographed,” said Jay Paris, a former photographer for Time/Life, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and numerous other publications, now turned documentary filmmaker.
“Not only have children grown and middle-aged residents become elderly, a gas station became a restaurant, a bakery became a hair salon, and it has gone, reflecting the industrious nature of keeping small towns alive,” added daughter Sophie Paris, a former United Nations photographer who covered events and conflicts from Africa to Haiti.
Several hundred town residents attended the first show, curious to examine the extensive portraits of themselves and each other, as if looking in a broad mirror. They included a volunteer fireman, a banker, the postmaster, a builder of hot rods, a priest, boys who were fishing at a watering hole, a barkeeper, a beekeeper and a college president.
“The faces and storefronts have aged but a lot of the same characters prevail,” said Jay Paris. “The population in 2000 was about 1,650. The population today is about 1,650.”
What links the photos is a spirit of commitment to a place that offers community as it has since 1793 when a salt-glazed stoneware factory was erected along a small river that ebbs through the village. The people who came to North Bennington were willing to labor hard for a living. They still do.
August 15th- 28th
Left Bank Gallery at 5 Bank Street, North Bennington, Vermont
On view till August 28th.
Digital images are viewable on the Fund for North Bennington website: https://northbennington.org/
For more information, and photos, contact Jay Paris jay.paris@gmail.com
ABSOLUTE REALITY
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream..."
Excerpt from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, 1959
ABSOLUTE REALITY is this years incarnation of our annual show inspired by the writing of the author Shirley Jackson. The title was plucked from the opening paragraph of The Haunting of Hill House. “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream..."
Real or imaginary, exquisite renderings of subjective realities.
With works by:
Anima Katz
Paul Katz
Tom Longtin
Angelina Radocchia
Rhonda Ratray
Greg Winterhalter
Lee Williams
Teru Simon
Lodiza LePore
Pam Carey
Polly E.G.G.
and selected works from private collections
ON VIEW JUNE 26- August 7th
This show is in coordination with the McCullough Library and The Shirley Jackson Foundation. We will be posting a link to view the recorded broadcast of this year's Shirley Jackson Day Celebration (Saturday 6/26).
contact leftbanknorthb@gmail for gallery hours
IN THE MAKING: SELECTED WORKS BY LEE WILLIAMS
Lee's work investigates the relationship between the familiar, the other worldly and the many layers in between. His recent sculptural work has been created using materials that are developed as assemblages or reconfigurations with links to formal or art historical references.
"I have always drawn, made and invented objects and installations exploring and challenging the way I make meaning, finding connections between seemingly disparate things. I am fascinated by the intangibility of time, which we punctuate with markers, like the marks and pauses in musical notation. Weaving together my fascination with the elemental forces of nature, man- made constructions, stories and sensory experiences. In essence exploring my involvement with the human-nature relationship."
-Lee Williams
Originally from Wales in the UK. Lee Williams studied at Cardiff School of Art, Birmingham School of Art, Goldsmiths University, London and The University of South Wales. He has worked for many educational institutions and colleges in the UK and Ireland and has initiated many artist led projects and socially engaged projects. He currently lives and works in Shaftsbury, VT and is an artist /teacher with Vermont Arts Exchange.
ON VIEW TILL JUNE 19th, 2021 Contact leftbanknorthb@gmail for an appointment.