Friday September 28, 2012

Oil Painters exhibit

BENNINGTON - The Oil Painters of America 2012 Eastern Regional Exhibition is this year being hosted by The Bennington Center for the Arts, from Sept. 29 through Oct. 28. Many exhibiting artists will be in attendance for the opening events taking place Sept. 28 and 29, with the formal opening reception taking place on Saturday evening.

The opening events include lectures, demos and a display of work completed by the attending artists that will be painting around Bennington on Friday, Sept. 29. The artists will meet back at the art center late in the afternoon to display and possibly sell the work that they painted en plein air in locations such as the Southern Vermont College, the Old First Church, downtown Bennington and the covered bridges.

Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m., Master Signature Artist Kenn Backhaus will conduct a painting demonstration, followed at 2 p.m. by guest lecturer Michael Cassin from the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute. He will present a talk on three of the Clark’s most preeminent artists, Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington and John Singer Sargent. The opening reception begins at 5:30 p.m. All of these events are free and open to the public. For more info: 802-442-7158, TheBennington.org.

Manchester First Wednesdays

MANCHESTER - Amherst College professor Michele Barale will explore the

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work of novelist Willa Cather in a talk at First Congregational Church in Manchester on Oct. 3. Her talk, "Willa Cather’s Prairie Landscapes," is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series at 7 p.m.

The European immigrant farmers in My Antonia and Cather’s other novels fail nearly as often as they succeed. Professor Barale will examine the relation between Cather’s art and her very tangible earth.

The Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May. Talks in Manchester are held at First Congregational Church and are hosted by Mark Skinner Library. All First Wednesdays talks are free and open to the public.

Upcoming talks in Manchester include "Champlain’s Dream" with acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer on Thursday, Nov. 1 and "Monkeys, Mathematics, and Mischief: What Are the Lifelong Lessons of Education?" with Williams College professor Edward Burger on Dec. 5.

For more info: 802-362-2607, 802-262-2626, vermonthumanities.org.