Special Note
To ensure that all the images in this newsletter are loaded, please add newsletter@stjathenaeum.org to your email Address Book. If the images don't automatically load, click here for information on how to load images automatically in several popular email programs.
In This Issue
SAVE THE DATE
Annual Athenaeum Gala
Saturday, May 16th at 6:30 PM
Dear Friends of The Athenaeum,
Welcome to our new E-Newsletter. We believe it will bring you news about the Athenaeum in a more timely and convenient manner. It saves us the expense of printing and mailing, and in these challenging economic times, we are trying to use our limited resources as efficiently as possible. If you have any suggestions on how we can make our E-Newsletter serve you better, please let us know - we welcome your thoughts. Our lectures, exhibits and other activities are of community-wide interest and we would be most pleased to include your friends who may not yet be on our mailing list. To learn more about the Athenaeum, please take a moment and visit our web site.
Best regards,
Irwin
March 1-31
Amulets, Remedies and Shrines - Health and Healing Traditions from Diverse Cultures. From the collection of Rachel Spector, Ph.D., R.N. In the Upstairs Gallery.
April 1
First Wednesdays - The Great Camps of the Adirondacks with Vermont State Curator David Schutz. 7:00 PM.
Dean Bornstein and The Perpetua Press: Book Design in the Northeast Kingdom. On exhibit until May 31.
Ceramic Sculpture Exhibit by Kathleen Heidemann in the Upstairs Gallery until May 31.
April 2
Colonial Brass Quintet-A return engagement of this brass ensemble from Hanscom Air Force Base. They play everything from Bach to Sousa to Miles Davis. 7:30 PM.
April 12-18
National Library Week-Come in and enjoy the many joys of our beautiful library.
April 16
Poetry Reading by Galway Kinnell to celebrate libraries and National Library Week. Book signing to follow. 7:00 PM
May 6
First Wednesdays - 1763 and How America Became American with Dartmouth History and Native American Studies Professor Colin Calloway. 7:00 PM
June 3
First Wednesdays - No Laughing Matter: Visual Humor and Ideas of Race, Nationality, and Ethnicity with Dartmouth Art History Professor Angela Rosenthal. Rescheduled from January.
Entries in this annual writing competition accepted online or by mail starting April 1st. All entries must give an insight into the author’s life and be limited to 100 words or fewer. The contest ends on April 30th. Three winners will be featured on the Athenaeum’s website. For more information and entry form please visit our website.
Lorraine Impey is a self-employed psychiatric nurse practitioner. In partnership with her husband, Jim, Lorraine owns Impey Vermont Real Estate, a firm that specializes in historic preservation and has restored a number of local historic properties. She is currently the chairperson of VSNA, an advanced practice registered nurse psychiatric interest group. She is also a member of the Lyndon State College Foundation Board and has served as a board member for the Northeastern Vermont Area Health Education Center. Lorraine resides in St. Johnsbury.
Gil Steil is an organization consultant with over 20 years experience, both nationally and internationally, specializing in whole system change (the development of strategies, plans, and designs through the engagement of whole organizations, communities or complex social systems and their key stakeholders). Gil has consulted with such organizations as United Way of Rhode Island, UNICEF, and America’s Promise (an organization headed by Colin Powell, which mobilizes U.S. cities to help children at risk). Prior to his consulting practice, Gil managed product development groups, and taught a variety of organizational development courses. Gil resides in Ryegate.
Tom Wales worked for 20 years as a trader and specialist at the American Stock Exchange. Tom is presently a board member of Nurturing Minds of Africa, an organization supporting the Sega School for Girls in Tanzania. He also has worked as an emergency responder for Red Cross; has been involved in the Boy Scouts; and has assisted Katrina victims by delivering relief supplies to New Orleans. Tom presently resides in St. Johnsbury.
Bill Webb is Director of Operations for the manufacturing group of Fairbanks Scales in St. Johnsbury. Bill joined Fairbanks Scales as manufacturing superintendent, in November 2000, bringing with him an excellent background in manufacturing from his experience at several large corporations. Bill and his family enjoy raising and showing miniature horses. Bill resides in Newbury.
Downloadable Audio Books from Listen Up! Vermont
The Athenaeum will soon be offering patrons the ability to access audio books at home using a PC, Mac or iPod. And all for FREE! You’ll be able to download audio books at the library or directly from your home computer. Listen Up! Vermont is provided to the state through a partnership between local libraries and the Green Mountain Library Consortium and OverDrive. This statewide project continues to grow at a rapid clip – over 10,000 audio books have been downloaded since the service began in March 2008.
The Listen Up! Vermont service will be accessible through a link on our Web site and a direct link to Listen Up! Vermont. Audio books come in two formats –WMA files work on a wide variety of players and MP3 files that will work on any player, including many phones. Titles will be available for children, teens, and adults in both of these formats and in several genres including general fiction, historical fiction, literature, mystery/thriller, science fiction/fantasy, general non-fiction, biography/autobiography, history, and foreign language instruction. Watch our Web site for more information about the beginning of this exciting new service.
Watch the Home Page of our web site for the launch of our new Resources page. The new page will contain links to online resources such as Wilson’s Biographies, Heritage Quest, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Vermont Online Library and other online databases.We’ll also have a Homework Help section for students.
From the Gallery - Aspasia by Pierre Olivier Joseph Coomans
Aspasia, the brilliant and reportedly beautiful mistress of the ancient Athenian statesman Pericles has intrigued many of our visitors to the Art Gallery over the years with her dreamy or perhaps contemplative gaze and bejeweled attire. She was born sometime between 470 and 465 B.C. in Miletus, a region of western Asia Minor which is now part of Turkey. She moved with her family to Athens around 450B.C where she became a foreigner or metic. With this status she could work outside her home to earn a living and she could own her own business. When she met Pericles, he was the most powerful man in Athens. In 431B.C. Pericles led Athens against Sparta in the first engagement of what would become the 30-year-long Peloponnesian Wars. Pericles died in 429 B.C. and after his death very little is known about Aspasia’s fate.
Coomans, born in 1872, went to Africa as a young man with the French army, where he drew upon Arab history and culture for his inspiration. A trip to Italy in 1857 opened his eyes to ancient civilizations. From then on most of his paintings concerned life in ancient Greece and Rome. Coomans died in 1889.
This Week from the Gallery - each week we highlight one piece of artwork from our collection. Visit this page to enjoy the Art Gallery from your home.
We are thrilled to announce that the Athenaeum has received a $20,000 Cultural Facilities Grant from the Vermont Arts Council. The grant will support the installation of a UV-filtering interior glazing system. This secondary window system will dramatically improve energy efficiency and decrease fuel oil use. It will also protect the priceless book and art collections from damaging ultraviolet light. We are very grateful to the State of Vermont and the Vermont Cultural Facilities Coaltion for their support.
We’d like to see our music CD collection grow. If you have music CDs in good condition, please consider donating them to the Athenaeum. If you have any video DVDs in good condition that you would like to donate, we’ll happily accept them, too.