When I was in high school in New York City in the ‘70s, it was de rigueur for girls to clothe themselves from local thrift shops. It was not unusual to see your friends in Lanvin or Schiaparelli working a Bunsen burner in bio class. That was before Upper East Side ladies donated to the Met, and before the Costume Institute was established and before there was a sizable tax benefit to giving away your vintage Valentino. As a societal force, sustainability was just getting a bit of traction and it was a small circle of worrywarts who pondered, “what’s going to happen to all this stuff in 59 years?” The Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC) has mounted a thought-provoking exhibition entitled, “Unusual Threads: Stitching Together the Future of Fashion,” that centers on the haute couture fashion industry’s need to reinvent itself season after season with the dual purpose of producing a … [Read more...] about SVAC’S RECYCLED BEAUTY: UNUSUAL FASHION THREADS SHOWCASED IN VERMONT
recycling
SAMUEL LEVI JONES: ENCOURAGING INCLUSION THROUGH ART
NATIONAL ARTIST SPOTLIGHT SAMUEL LEVI JONES by Nancy Nesvet In today’s world, the art of the cover-up is being torn apart and exposed. An artist with strong New England ties, Samuel Levi Jones — with his upcoming early-2019 show at Northeastern University, part of “Personal to Political” — is causing waves in the art world as he reveals, tears up, paints over and deconstructs history. In February 2017, Jones told me his work addresses “Systems of power and how we navigate the structure of those controlling. Who can and cannot participate, the way we think about history: who writes it and controls that information, the way we deal with history or not deal with it, processing it and thinking about where we are going.” His artistic practice began when Jones, working at a recycling plant, wanted to find a way to recycle books. “I didn’t limit my process to being in the … [Read more...] about SAMUEL LEVI JONES: ENCOURAGING INCLUSION THROUGH ART