“Sharing Our Past — Shaping Our Future” Since 1974

Fall Conference 2006

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Office in Montpelier

 

11 Loomis Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602

802.262.2626

Fax: 802.262.2620

E-mail: info@vermonthumanities.org

Report from Fall Conference 2006

 

Nearly 200 guests convened at the Killington Grand Hotel November 3–4 for VHC’s 34th annual fall conference, “Setting as Character: Vermont’s Landscape, Stories, and Sense of Place,” held in partnership with Vermont Land Trust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vermont Humanities Council Annual Fall Conference

Setting as Character:

Vermont’s Landscape, Stories, and Sense of Place

Forester Gary Salmon leads the Mendon outdoor trip

Friday’s events featured a chilly and informative outdoor excursion to a forest site in Mendon with Vermont Community Forester Gary Salmon, and a slide lecture, “Imaging and Imagining the Place that Was and Is Vermont,” with University of Vermont Geology Professor Paul Bierman. The evening culminated with “Save Us a Place,” a spoken and

Saturday began with welcoming remarks from VHC Executive Director Peter Gilbert, followed by thoughts from Vermont Land Trust President Darby Bradley on what makes Vermont special and how the humanities illuminate the state’s ongoing story. VHC Board Chair Melissa Hersh then presented the 2006 Victor R. Swenson Humanities Educator Award to Vergennes Union High

The Speakchorus works its verbal magic

Attendees inspect the Woodstock Antique Show’s exhibit, “Lost Vermont Images.”

The afternoon brought a delicious lunch of locally produced foods, followed by a panel discussion, “Vermont Land and Life: Historical and Geographic Perspectives,” with professors Dona Brown, Paul Searls, and Blake Harrison.

 

Author and Middlebury College Professor John Elder delivered the endnote address, “Landscape,

“This is a model for a traditional, localized working landscape in which people share stories, in which we think about how we can move forward together in community. As the Speakchorus had it, ‘Community: not perfect, but together.’”

Middlebury College Professor John Elder delivers the endnote address

School teacher Roberta Steponaitis.

musical recitation of nature writing performed by the Woodstock High School Speakchorus, which drew a standing ovation and inspired much discussion into the evening.

John R. Harris, director of the Monadnock Institute for Nature, Place, and Culture, delivered the keynote address, “Cultivating Place and Community in Northern New England,” after which conference goers participated in scholar-led breakout sessions exploring Vermont landscape poetry, painting, and photography, the Back to the Land movement, the history of borders and boundaries in the state, and other topics.

Community, and the Destiny of Vermont,” emphasizing the importance of stories and “localized culture” that root us as Vermonters to our common past. For Elder, a maple syrup maker, one example of this is sugaring season.