Vermont Humanities

Vermont’s Historic Theater Curtains

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Speakers Bureau

Image of theater curtainBetween 1880 and World War II, painted theater curtains were artistic features of most New England villages and towns. In Vermont, painted curtains graced stages in town and grange halls, opera houses, and community theaters. A culture of local variety shows and traveling, professional talent flourished in front of those curtains in some very remote Vermont communities.

In a tour of some of the 177 curtains in Vermont, Christine Hadsel, director of Curtains Without Borders, provides a glimpse into the world of talented and often sophisticated artists who were part of the rural cultural scene, illustrating the rich cultural history of small-town Vermont before World War I.

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About the Presenter

Image of Christine Hadsel

Christine Hadsel

Christine is the Project Director for the Curtains Without Borders conservation project and was the first Executive Director of the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance.

Talks by Christine Hadsel

Image of theater curtain

Vermont’s Historic Theater Curtains

Christine Hadsel provides a glimpse into the rich cultural history of pre-World War I Vermont through the painted theater curtains of its grange halls, opera houses, and community theaters.

Vermont Humanities*** June 29, 2016