One of my favorite things to do in the summer is take Vermont day trips. There are plenty of reasons to drive around the state, from simple sightseeing to getting oneself to an outdoorsy excursion such as climbing Camel’s Hump or kayaking. But if, like me, you enjoy (a) looking at art, and (b) eating, then a road trip that includes an arty destination and a lunch spot is heaven. But I recommend also planning in advance a pit stop or two, and checking out other attractions in the target area.... Read more

We’re conditioned to think of the performing-arts “season” as fall through spring, but summer is when many of the state’s stages come alive. (Indeed, some of them are unheated and don’t thaw out until June.) Professional thespians from urban areas flock to Vermont for summer-stock theater, while plenty of locals forgo hot-weather indolence for a chance to act out under bright lights. ... Read more

Like any artist, James Vogler wants the public to see — and, ideally, buy — his work. So you’ve got to wonder why he’d hang it in a place that requires you to show ID, go through an X-ray scanner and check your cellphone. A place where pretty much nobody goes unless they work there, and in fact is not open to the public. But that’s exactly what he’s done.... Read more

Last fall, when Seven Days checked in with Lance Olson for our Performing Arts Preview Issue, the executive director of the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe was brand new. He came to the job from the Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College and had plenty of programming experience under his belt.... Read more

South Burlington’s Michael J. Strauss seems to be a study in contrasts: a scientist who is also an artist; a painter who is also a writer; a realist who also has a thing for magic tricks. Or you could say he’s something of a Renaissance man. Strauss calls on all those skills and ways of thinking in his newest book, The Mind at Hand: What Drawing Reveals.... Read more

What’s a woman to do with a pickup truck full of fiber? If you’re Ishana Ingerman, you’re about to launch a very warm-and-fuzzy enterprise: making stylish coats from the hair of animals raised in Vermont.... Read more

In case you haven’t heard, April is National Poetry Month, and once again Vermont’s capital is doing it up. You’d be hard-pressed to find a downtown Montpelier window that doesn’t have a poem adhered to it — on a neat, white sheet of paper with “PoemCity” inscribed at the top. Even such typically art-free sites as the fire and police departments, trailer-supply and hardware stores, and a chain fast-food joint are waxing poetic.... Read more

Unlike his colleague and rival, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla ended his days on this Earth poor and mentally unstable, despite having invented electrical alternating-current distribution and the radio. Edison, who invented the light bulb, the phonograph and the motion-picture camera, achieved household-name status — that name lives on in New York City’s energy company, Consolidated Edison, aka Con Ed. But in the 21st century, it’s Tesla (1856-1943) who has acquired a romanticized, near-cult status. Why?... Read more

Vermont has a lot of nonprofits — more than 6000, according to a list from Vermont Business Magazine — and competition for donor dollars can be fierce. It takes more than phone-a-thons to raise the dough needed to keep the state’s arts, human services, health, educational and religious institutions afloat. ... Read more

Burlington actor Dennis McSorley has played any number of tough guys in his theatrical career. A pungent Queens accent may have helped him get there, but he delivers the goods onstage. His avuncular, mustachioed physicality suits Everyman parts, as well. But in McSorley’s one-man show, Who Made Me?, which he reprised last weekend at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, the spotlight shone not just on the actor but the man. That is, the piece he created and performed was autobiographical.... Read more