By Catherine Crawley 

Vermont’s Cornerstone Creative Community comprises 40 towns and villages in Orange and Windsor counties in Vermont along the east-central border of the state. The region attracts large amounts of visitors interested in the arts, especially during skiing, sugaring and fall foliage seasons. Fortunately, its towns and villages have a number of venues for the arts for their size, including festivals and markets, theaters and galleries. Here we highlight just a few. For more information, visit the Vermont Creative Network.

The Royals of Randolph and other Attractions in Orange County 

The town of Randolph in Orange County is a mecca for arts and culture experiences.  

Located in the historic Kimball House, the White River Craft Center offers workshops and gallery shows on various art and handcraft skills. With a mission to promote arts and craft education, its beautiful building is a place for community and connection.  

The Vermont Weavers Guild is a nonprofit educational association dedicated to increasing technical proficiency and artistic experience of hand weaving and related fiber arts. The Guild holds a variety of workshops, from hand and silk dyeing to blanket weaving, rug making, and tapestry.  

Live music pours out of several performance venues in Randolph, including The Underground and the Chandler Center for the Arts, a gorgeous historic theater with perhaps the best acoustics in Vermont that draws acclaimed musicians from around the world.  

Paintings and sculpture inspire patrons across half a dozen art galleries, including ART Etc, Black Meadow Gallery & Tattoo, Peoples Gallery, and the Chandler. 

Randolph also has a tiny, one-screen cinema called The Playhouse, playing Hollywood hits and local indie movies. 

Another gem to be found in Orange County is the Old Church Theater in Bradford, which has been operating out of the historically significant “Old Church” building since 1984. The theater has presented nearly 40 years of summer productions geared for family entertainment from live theater, music, dance, visual arts, and more. The performance space is located at 172 North Main St.  

Arts Destinations in Windsor County 

From Bethel and Barnard to Weston and White River Junction, a multitude of arts and culture experiences can be found in Windsor County. 

In summertime at the bandshell on the town green in quaint Bethel, you’ll hear a variety of musical entertainment, from Americana to reggae. Bethel’s Council on the Arts maintains a Facebook page with the full line-up. 

Cruise over to Barnard for more music, food, and fun at BarnArts Center for the Arts, founded in 2012 to create more opportunities for the rural community to engage with the arts. With a population of less than 1,000 year-round residents, Barnard can be found at the intersection of three roads in central Vermont, 40 minutes from a stoplight. BarnArts presents world-class artists while also serving the rural community through participatory arts programming, from theater to music in schools, holiday cabarets and carols, to a jazz and funk winter music carnival.  

One of Vermont’s larger towns, White River Junction is a hotbed of creativity and innovation. Try your hand at cartooning through workshops at the world-renowned Center for Cartoon Studies. Take in a show at the 240-seat Briggs Opera House or Northern Stage, a year-round theater company offering professional productions of world premieres, classics, and musicals.  

For those who love quirky museums, visit the Main Street Museum and its “repository of artifacts,” primarily music ephemera, including thousands of piano rolls. Founded in 1992, the space is open Friday nights for Piano Night, Tuesday nights for Movie Night, and other dates for festivals. Admission is by donation.  

In Woodstock, visit the outdoor history museum Billings Farm and Museum, Pentangle Arts for movies, theater, and music, and, just up the road, in South Pomfret, ArtisTree for art classes, theater, and music performances. 

In the historic village of Weston, where the Vermont Country Store might be the main attraction, you’ll also find Vermont’s oldest theater, the award-winning Weston Theater Company, which hosts a summer season of performances, as well as plays, musicals, and concerts throughout the year. 

Situated on a former dairy farm in Reading lies the Hall Art Foundation, which consists of a converted 19th century stone farmhouse, three barns, and a considerable collection of contemporary art. The collections comprise works by several hundred artists including Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Nicole Eisenman, Olafur Eliasson, Eric Fischl, Anselm Kiefer, Barbara Kruger, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Andy Warhol, and Franz West. The bucolic grounds make for a pleasant day outing. The farmhouse and barns sit next to a waterfall on a tributary of the Black River and are surrounded by approximately 400 acres of pastures, hayfields, and extensive woodland. A new reception center and cafe were recently added. Exhibitions are held seasonally, from May through November. 

For more visual art, from fiber to paper, photography, pottery, wood, and more, visit Gallery at the Vault in Springfield, which has hosted workshops and houses several galleries for 22 years. 

This story is brought to you in partnership with the Vermont Arts Council, working for a creative state. Explore Vermont’s arts sector and discover opportunities to engage with the arts, including classes and workshops, through this series of spotlights. The Vermont Creative Network is working to advance Vermont’s creative sector in communities throughout the state.