Out With the Old and In With the New (Group Art Exhibit)
2024-06-07 - 2024-06-30 | 118 Elliot
New Artwork at 118 Elliot, with Mary Therese Wright, Ellen Maddrey, Tina Olsen, Molly Melloan, Jack Pombrian, Liza King
June 2 – June 30
Available to view during all 118 Elliot events, and by appointment at 118elliot@gmail.com
Opening Reception at Gallery Walk, June 7th.

An Evening of Progressive Folk with Jack O’ the Clock, Benjamin Jayne, Flynn Cohen
2024-06-14 19:00 (America/New_York)
118 Elliot Street,Brattleboro, VT 05301($10 suggested donation)
“Jack O’ the Clock [are] one of the most original and compelling groups I know playing some amazing compositions that seem to tread effortlessly between Van Dyke Parks and folk music from an as yet unidentified culture, while making all the things you’ve always thought of as difficult sound as effortless and natural as breathing.” -FRED FRITH
“Jack O’ the Clock weave folksy Americana with a fusion 70s rock vibe…” –THE WIRE
Benjamin Jayne’s music is “both breezy and startling as dark as it is imperishably hopeful…”–Stereo Embers
Flynn Cohen is “a versatile string virtuoso.” –Dirty Linen Magazine

Dreaming An-Other World: a discussion with Margaret Cerullo
2024-07-24 18:30

Free Movie Night: Israelism by Tikkun Olam
2024-07-27 19:00

Nu Mu 3: The Land of Mu | Spontaneous Music and Art Festival
2024-08-02 - 2024-08-31
Festival opens with Action Painting to Live Music as part of Brattleboro’s Gallery Walk on August 2 from 5 to 8pm, and extends through Saturday August 31.
Nu Mu 3, The Land of Mu is coming to Brattleboro’s 118 Elliot every weekend in August. Nu Mu 3, The Land of Mu is a Spontaneous Music and Art Festival that combines great performances by world renowned visiting artists with opportunities for local musicians to showcase their music. All events are free, but a $20 donation is suggested at the door. Organized by musician Jeff Lederer in collaboration with John Loggia of 118 Elliot, Nu Mu 3 performances range from new music rooted in the Jazz tradition to the ‘way-out’ and sonically experimental.
The lost continent of Mu
The Land of Mu is a mythological continent in the Pacific, much like Atlantis. The concept was best put forth by author James Churchwood (1851-1936) in a series of books about Mu. “The people of Mu were telepathic astral travelers and artistic spiritualists who lived in harmony,” Loggia said. “This festival and our music aspire to bring people together in a similar way and add a fun literary component to the happenings.” The original books by Churchwood will be on display at 118 Elliot.

Jeff Lederer is a Saxophonist/clarinetist/composer who has been included in the Downbeat Critics’ and Readers’ Poll each year since 2014. Jeff and his wife Mary LaRose, who is also an amazing vocalist and artist, and their two children, have been part-time residents in a rustic cabin in Guilford for over 30 years. Nu Mu is planned around their annual August sojourn to Southern Vermont.
The Festival opens with Action Painting to Live Music, during Brattleboro’s Gallery Walk on Friday August 2 from 5 to 8pm. All members of the community are invited to join in the creative process. The idea is simple: musicians play while painters paint. Art Supplies will be supplied. Musicians should bring their own instruments. The art created during this event will remain on the walls for the duration of the festival as the August exhibition at 118 Elliot.
Our second weekend features Jeff Lederer and Mary LaRose with Joe Fonda, Michael Rabinowitz, and Harvey Sorgen on Saturday August 10 at 7pm. Joe was “Bassist of the Year” in 2023 according to the New York Jazz Record. Saturday’s show will be what Loggia calls “top shelf stuff,” a high energy full spectrum exploration of what contemporary Jazz can be. On Sunday, August 11 at 7pm, Mary LaRose will lead the same group with her extraordinary vocalizing.
On the weekend of August 16 -18, Nu Mu hosts a festival within a festival. XFEST is a creative artist’s jamboree. More than 50 regional musicians, dancers, multimedia artists, and poets will run creative programming throughout the weekend. Many of them will be camped out at Fort Dummer State Park or placed in the homes of local hosts. Organized by vocalist Dei Christ. Check out their website xfestma.com. This weekend will be chock full of outrageous experimentation and cross pollination.
Another great show in the Jazz tradition will be on Friday August 23 at 7pm. The show will consist of teachers and students who were part of the Bennington College Music and Black Music Division program. In the early 70s legendary musicians and Bennington music faculty members Bill Dixon and Milford Graves guided their students through a cultural awakening using music as a guide. Organized by Vance Provey, the ensemble will consist of Vance with Stephen Haynes, Arthur Brooks, Eric Zinman, Glynnis Lomon, Alby Balgochian, Dennis Warren, David Bindman and Paul Austerlitz. Each one of these musicians alone is worth leaving the house for. Together, they will blow paisley swirls of sonic euphoria all across Mu.https://curriculum.bennington.edu/fall2024/2024/03/25/black-music-black-music-division -a-50-year-retrospective/https://libraryguides.bennington.edu/blackmusic/faculty
Nu Mu will also cross paths with the Sonic Circus Music Festival on August 24th in Marlboro, VT. See soniccircusfestival.com for details TBA.
The last weekend will be a mixed bag of Free Jazz and inspired movement organized by the incredible Bonnie Kane featuring Ayumi Ashito, Eric Plaks, Aron Namenwirth, Tom Law and Claire Elizabeth Barrett. The weekend will begin with a special concert streamed live from Holyoke Media in Holyoke MA on Thursday, August 29. The next day, Friday August 30, those artists will bring their sounds to 118 Elliot for further explorations of the Land of Mu.
Nu Mu 3 will end with a Sonic BBQ, a joyous open jam for all Saturday August 31 from 6 to 8pm at 118 Elliot.
John Loggia lives in Brattleboro, co-directs 118 Elliot and is a drummer, filmmaker and visual artist. He helped produce the recent critically acclaimed film “Fire Music” (Criterion Channel) and is deeply involved in the experimental music scene in New York and New England.
*****

Interviews available with organizers by writing to 118Elliot@gmail.com or calling (802)380-9072. There are also lead musicians for each weekend: Jeff on the 10/11th, Dei Christ on the 16-18, Vance Provey on the 23, and Bonnie Kane for the final weekend of the 29-31. All have a lot to say about this unique music and festival!
Full Schedule:
Fri Aug 2, 5-8pm: Action Painting to Live Music. Gallery Walk – Open to all- Art Supplies Provided
Sat Aug 10, 7pm: Joe Fonda’s “Bass of Operations.” Joe Fonda, Jeff Lederer, Michael Rabinowitz, Harvey Sorgen
Sun Aug 11, 7pm: Mary LaRose “Obligato”: Mary LaRose, Jeff Lederer, Michael Rabinowitz, Joe Fonda, Harvey Sorgen
Fri to Sun Aug 16 – 18, 2-11pm: XFEST Improvisational Challenge. 50 Performers All Day/Eve Music, Dance, Video – Lineup at XFESTMA.com
Fri Aug 23, 7pm: Bennington to Brattleboro: A Musical Journey. Vance Provey, Stephen Haynes, Arthur Brooks, Eric Zinman, Glynnis Lomon, Alby Balgochian, Dennis Warren, David Bindman, Paul Austerlitz, John Loggia

Sat Aug 24 7pm: Nu Mu Goes to The Sonic Circus! See soniccircusfestival.com for info.
Thurs Aug 29, 7:30pm: Masters of Sonic Liberation @ Holyoke Media. Special Streaming of Live Show (https://www.youtube.com/@bonniekane): Ayumi Ishito, Eric Plaks, Aron Namenwirth, Tom Law, Claire Elizabeth Barrett, Al Margolis, Bonnie Kane, John Loggia
Fri August 30, 7pm: Masters of Sonic Liberation @ 118 Elliot: Same as Thursday with extra set by 118’s local Anarchoharmonists
Sat Aug 31, 6pm: SONIC BBQ – Local & Visiting Musicians Cook-Up a Hot Jam!
All Events Free! Donations Accepted.
Links for further information about the musicians coming to Nu Mu 3:
WEEK 2 August 10/11:https://www.littleimusic.com/about, Jeff Ledererhttps://www.marylarose.com/bio, Mary LaRosehttp://joefonda.com/biography.html, Joe Fondahttps://www.harveysorgen.com/about-harvey-sorgen, Harver Sorgenhttps://www.jazzbassoonist.com/, Michael Rabinowitz
WEEK 3August 16-18 Organized by Dei Christ:https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/dei-xhrist/See XFEST.Com for more info.
WEEK 4August 23 features:https://www.schilkemusic.com/artists/featured-artists/stephen-haynes/, Steopphen Hayneshttps://www.facebook.com/arthur.brooks.52/, Arthur Brookshttp://ericzinman.com/, Eric Zinmanhttps://albeybalgochian.com/, Albey Balgochianhttps://bonniekane.com/, Bonnie Kanehttps://www.facebook.com/vance.provey/, Vance Proveyhttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/glynis-lomon/, Glynis Lomonhttps://www.sevendaysvt.com/music/undiscovered-jazz-with-dennis-warrens-full-metal-revolutionary-jazz-ensemble-38394991, Dennis Warrenhttps://www.davidbindman.com/, David Bindmanhttps://www.paulausterlitz.org/, Paul Austerlitz
WEEK 5August 29-31: https://bonniekane.com/bio, Bonnie Kanehttps://www.ayumiishito.com/about, Ayumi Ishitohttps://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/eric-plaks/, Eric Plakshttp://weavervilleyoga.com/blog/2952, Claire Elizabeth Barretthttp://bigsphinx.com/words.html, Tom Lawhttps://namenwirth.bandcamp.com/, Aron Namenwirthhttps://www.electroniccottage.org/al-margolis, Al Margolis

Nu Mu 3: Spontaneous Community Expression Art Exhibit
2024-08-02 - 2024-08-31
The Nu Mu Festival opens with Action Painting to Live Music as part of Brattleboro’s Gallery Walk on August 2 from 5 to 8pm. All members of the community are invited to join in the creative process. The idea is simple: musicians play while painters paint. Art Supplies will be supplied. Musicians should bring their own instruments. The art created during this event will remain on the walls for the duration of the festival as the August exhibition at 118 Elliot.

Nu Mu 3: Action Painting to Live Music
2024-08-02 17:00 - 20:00

Nu Mu 3: Joe Fonda’s “Bass of Operations”
2024-08-10 19:00

Nu Mu 3: Mary LaRose “Obligato”
2024-08-11 19:00

Nu Mu 3: XFEST Improvisational Challenge
2024-08-16 18:00 - 23:00
more info at xfestma.com

Nu Mu 3: Bennington to Brattleboro: A Musical Journey
2024-08-23 19:00

Nu Mu 3: Nu Mu Goes to The Sonic Circus!
2024-08-24 12:00 - 22:00
Nu Mu will also cross paths with the Sonic Circus Music Festival on August 24th in Marlboro, VT.
552 Higley Hill Road Marlboro, VT
visit soniccircusfestival.com for more info

Nu Mu 3: Masters of Sonic Liberation @ Holyoke Media
2024-08-29 19:30
Special Streaming of Live Show (https://www.youtube.com/@bonniekane)

Nu Mu 3: Masters of Sonic Liberation @ 118 Elliot
2024-08-30 19:00

Nu Mu 3: SONIC BBQ – Local & Visiting Musicians Cook-Up a Hot Jam!
2024-08-31 18:00 - 20:00
Nu Mu 3 will end with a Sonic BBQ, a joyous open jam for all Saturday August 31 from 6 to 8pm at 118 Elliot.

Sensing Landscape: New Paintings by Mary Wright and Ellen Maddrey
2024-09-06 08:00 - 2024-10-28 17:00
118 Elliot Presents
Sensing Landscape:
An exhibit by
Mary Wright and Ellen Maddrey
September Through October 2024
Opening Gallery Walk – Friday September 6

For Immediate Release: Contact: 118Elliot@gmail.com
Website: https://118elliot.com/
118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro,Vermont 05301
Brattleboro VT, 31 August 2024: An Exhibition of paintings by Mary Wright and Ellen Maddrey, Sensing Landscape will open on Gallery Walk September 6th. Mary and Ellen share a studio in Wilmington, Vermont where they each approach painting as a process of discovery. Through a dialogue with the natural world, there is an understanding that painting goes beyond the visual; we “see” with more than our eyes, sensing with our whole being, as we open ourselves to the influence of place and memory. The painter and the viewer are invited to discover, to wonder, to get close or stand back, to explore through color, texture, shape, space, feeling, and consciousness. In other words, to allow your edges to blur and see what happens.
These artists share a process of allowing the paint to guide them. Instead of starting with a specific image in mind, they allow their hands to start moving paint on the canvas or paper, and follow their senses of color, proportion, and feeling. Their paintings emerge from an effort to deepen the personal connection with our elemental home – plants, rocks, water, mountains, animals. Both artists have their own language of marks, yet they learn from each other and feel privileged to share creative space.
Wright lives in Jacksonville, Vermont, and draws from her relationship with the trails and water of Lake Whitingham. She is a life-long artist and her artwork and community-based projects have been shown throughout the United States since 1989. She has a keen interest in materiality,whether painting, printmaking or metalsmithing.
Maddrey’s artistic inspiration is deeply embedded in the mountains and waters of Seattle, her childhood home, and the natural world of Vermont, where she has a second home. She finds a deep satisfaction with expression through oil paints and pastels and has been painting for about ten years.
II8 Elliot is a collaborative environment for the creative arts and education including film showings, gallery exhibitions, musical performances, workshops of all kinds, conferences as well as physical culture classes. It is also home to the National Endowment for the Humanities-supported Brattleboro Words Project’s Brattleboro Words Trail murals and community-produced audio stories.
Gallery is open by appointment for private viewing throughout September and October (118Elliot@gmail.com).
Stay tuned for details about Saturday, October 5, Art Party.

Mary Wright

Ellen Maddrey

Tina Olsen: Elisions (solo exhibit)
2024-11-01 - 2024-12-31
Open during 118 events and by appt. 917-860-5749Opening reception: November 1, 5-9pm
Artist Talk on abstract expressionism: Sunday, November 24, 4-6pm
Schuyler Gould will share the space and exhibit light sculptures December 6-31opening reception: Dec 6, 5-8pm

118 Elliot presents new works by painter Tina Olsen opening November 1, with a public reception from 5:00 to 9:00 pm with refreshments. The Vermont Jazz Center will provide an exciting musical backdrop to the work with young emerging musicians from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.
ELISIONS refers to Olsen’s increasingly bold abstract expressionism defined as much by what is left out as the explosive color and form that results as she pushes the limits of what is possible on canvas.
Over her 50 year painting career, Olsen keeps discovering: “Painting allows me to get into my body, to physically be with the paint and materials and let my body find the faces in the landscape, the landscape in faces. The process is a primal embrace of nature and feelings and the mystery of how they emerge on a static plane as forms and colors with a dynamism and life all their own.”
Olsen says she’s lately been heavily inspired by the writing and work of German expressionists pre World War II and quotes from these greats will appear throughout the gallery giving context to the work over space and time.
Olsen has been a defining presence at 118 Elliot Gallery as a mentor an instigator/curator of the well-received ‘Creative Relations’ shows in 2022 and 2023 where she led a community-wide effort to chart the current of creativity through families and significant others.
Olsen grew up in Springfield MA in a Mennonite family and moved to New York City to teach art at the progressive Walden School in 1965 where she married and had two daughters. Tina stayed in the city for 40 years where she was immersed in the creative energy of the 60’s cultural revolution. She worked as an art therapist at Staten Island Psychiatric Institute for 20 years before moving to Brattleboro in 2007 where she has deepened her dedication to her painting, meditation and making music. She also teaches a class on ‘Art as Meditation’ at the River Gallery School.
Olsen will host an interactive artist talk with live participatory painting for the public exploring expressionism and abstraction on Sunday, November 24, from 4:00-6:00 at 118 Elliot.
From December 6 thru 31, she will be joined by her partner Schuyler Gould who will merge his light sculptures made with unusual found objects with her work to form a whole new show.
Other area painters are impressed with Olsen’s work. “Tina Olsen’s larger landscapes have a ruggedness in keeping with the New England environment much of her work represents. The building of shape and line, restricted perception of depth brings to mind Cézanne’s mountainsides. But we are not transported to Provence, rather we are invited inside her very unique Northern American landscape. We are allowed to accompany her struggle, pushing the horizontal plane of rock against the stark vertical line of a tree, working her surface until she gets it right,” Lauren Poster said.
Elisions can be seen at all events at 118 Elliot or by appointment. Call 917-860-5749.

Turbulence Orchestra & Sub Units Perform Tempestuous Hubbub
2024-11-09 19:30
The Turbulence Orchestra is a large format improvisation ensemble comprised of six or more horn players and a rhythm section. For this performance we will play four 15-minute improvisations each with a quarter of the total ensemble, take a short break and then perform an hour-long improvisation with all the musicians.
Evil Clown’s projects have been focused on the very interesting and difficult aesthetic problem of large ensemble free improvisation. Free improvisation is typically performed by smaller ensembles (duos to quartets). Larger ensemble size combined with a broad-palette approach where most of the players play many different instruments allow us to construct a journey through a series of highly varied sonorities of the duration of the work. This ensemble includes seasoned improvisors from the Evil Clown Roster who are all very experienced at large ensemble broad palette free improvisation.
Since the pandemic, the Turbulence Orchestra has Livestreamed to YouTube ten times from Evil Clown Headquarters in Waltham with the ensemble size between 8 and 10 musicians – the largest unit that can easily fit in the Evil Clown Livestreaming Studio Space. Each of these performances is posted on the Evil Clown YouTube channel, released on CD/download available at bandcamp (turbulence2.bandcamp.com/) and other locations, and has an album page on the Evil Clown Webpage (evilclown.rocks/turb-orchestra).
This is only the third Live Performance of the Turbulence Orchestra & Sub Units, and currently has 13 performers booked with a few more likely. Another Evil Clown ensemble, The Leap of Faith Orchestra, however, has had many performances with units this size and larger. We performed 13 times in three years before the pandemic at the Third Life Studios in Somerville MA with as many as 15 players in the orchestra. The Third Life Studios sessions used exactly the format we will use at this concert – Short 15 or 20 minute improvisations by Sub Units of the entire ensemble followed by an hour long improvisation with everyone. The entire run of performances was released on download/CD and is available both as a 25 CD set and individual double CD sets of each performance. The Evil Clown Album page for the box set is evilclown.rocks/lofosu-boxset/ which contains links to bandcamp, YouTube and other web content.
Also, between 2016 and 2019, the Leap of Faith Orchestra performed six Graphic Scores composed by PEK with the orchestra size as large as 25. The vision of the overall Evil Clown project is to create an extremely broad universe of sound and to realize music which transforms into widely different sonorities within a single performance. The full Leap of Faith Orchestra performing a PEK frame notation score is the most complete implementation of that vision. The large ensemble size (15 to 25 performers) and the details provided in the score directing the improvisation allowed us to create a story through a huge number of controlled textures over the 75 minute duration of the works. See the Evil Clown website here.
Performers:Reeds: PEK, Bonnie Kane, Michael Caglianone, Victor Signore, Dennis Livingston Brass: Bob Moores, Eric Dahlman, Vance Provey, John Fugarino, Duane ReedPiano: Eric ZinmanBass: Scott SamenfeldDrums: John Loggia

Homegrown horror-comedy film script read and crowdfunding kickoff
2024-11-15 19:00

Tina Olsen: Artist Talk on Abstract Expressionism
2024-11-24 16:00 - 18:00
Abstract Expressionism: What it means to me and and other painters. For the first hour three or four participants will work side by side on a large 5’x12’ canvas drawing, mixing colors, and painting free form — responding to what each other paints as they work. Planning is suspended as the forms and lines emerge intuitively. Work may be layered over. We will discuss ideas of meaning together as images and forms arise.
I will also share the evolution of 2 of my most important works, “Mother – Identity Erased.” I painted over an abstract painting by Betsy Macarthur of an abstract seated woman. I felt that I spoke for both her and myself as I blotted out her face and painted her as if she were part and the same as the white empty background space. As a mother I had struggled with a sense of loosing my identity and becoming lost in a background. The meaning for me remained unclear until I felt finished. As I looked at it I was jolted into the recognizing that painful time. The memory of feeling I had lost myself and my children enabled me to come to terms with that most painful and important time in my life.

“My Lady”; the meaning of this painting came to me much after it was finished. I painted directly from life and a live model – a young clerk from Brown and Roberts. I was taken with the beauty of her skin. I recognized that she was one of the few paintings I had ever done of a very peaceful person. I see that she is myself at a much later time of equanimity and presense after much turmoil.
The work of the artist in particular expressionism is personal, its meaning emerges from with in, it is spiritual work – the work of the soul to come to know itself. To look with equal acceptance upon the ugly and beautiful, the joy and the pain. To embrace it all as human without judgement. Like dreams it is available to us all. I invite you to try joining yourself with the paint and see where it takes you. Like me you see will that you have gone through times of struggle and times of peace like everyone else.

ELISIONS refers to Olsen’s increasingly bold abstract expressionism defined as much by what is left out as the explosive color and form that results as she pushes the limits of what is possible on canvas.
Over her 50 year painting career, Olsen keeps discovering: “Painting allows me to get into my body, to physically be with the paint and materials and let my body find the faces in the landscape, the landscape in faces. The process is a primal embrace of nature and feelings and the mystery of how they emerge on a static plane as forms and colors with a dynamism and life all their own.”
Olsen says she’s lately been heavily inspired by the writing and work of German expressionists pre World War II and quotes from these greats will appear throughout the gallery giving context to the work over space and time.
Olsen has been a defining presence at 118 Elliot Gallery as a mentor an instigator/curator of the well-received ‘Creative Relations’ shows in 2022 and 2023 where she led a community-wide effort to chart the current of creativity through families and significant others.
Olsen grew up in Springfield MA in a Mennonite family and moved to New York City to teach art at the progressive Walden School in 1965 where she married and had two daughters. Tina stayed in the city for 40 years where she was immersed in the creative energy of the 60’s cultural revolution. She worked as an art therapist at Staten Island Psychiatric Institute for 20 years before moving to Brattleboro in 2007 where she has deepened her dedication to her painting, meditation and making music. She also teaches a class on ‘Art as Meditation’ at the River Gallery School.
Olsen will host an interactive artist talk with live participatory painting for the public exploring expressionism and abstraction on Sunday, November 24, from 4:00-6:00 at 118 Elliot.
From December 6 thru 31, she will be joined by her partner Schuyler Gould who will merge his light sculptures made with unusual found objects with her work to form a whole new show.
Other area painters are impressed with Olsen’s work. “Tina Olsen’s larger landscapes have a ruggedness in keeping with the New England environment much of her work represents. The building of shape and line, restricted perception of depth brings to mind Cézanne’s mountainsides. But we are not transported to Provence, rather we are invited inside her very unique Northern American landscape. We are allowed to accompany her struggle, pushing the horizontal plane of rock against the stark vertical line of a tree, working her surface until she gets it right,” Lauren Poster said.
Elisions can be seen at all events at 118 Elliot or by appointment. Call 917-860-5749.

Skylights: Tina Olsen (painting) and Schuyler Gould (sculpture)
2024-12-06 - 2024-12-31
Open during 118 events and by appt. 802-479-7227
Opening reception: December 6, 5-8pm

Tina Olsen’s paintings, watercolors & drawings are paired with Schuyler Gould’s unique light sculptures fashioned from found artifacts no longer serving the purpose for which they were originally created.

BUHS Peacejam Students: Peace Through Creativity
2025-03-01 15:00 - 18:00

Vermont Theater Company | The Bacchae
2025-03-14 19:00
Vermont Theatre Company in partnership with 118 Elliot Street are proud to announce our production of “The Bacchae.”
This production will use an original translation by playwright Alex Hacker, who will also direct. Hacker has translated Euripides’ tragedy into a modern idiom that explores music and dance as intoxicating vehicles for the experience of the divine Dionysus, god of wine, theater, and ritualized madness. The play pits the values of openness, fluidity, and equality represented by Dionysus against the hierarchical power and authority inherent in the political establishment.
“The Bacchae” will be performed at 118 Elliot Street on the weekends of March 14, 15, 16 and 21, 22, 23. Evening performances will begin at 7 pm, with Sunday matinees at 2 pm.
For more information about Vermont Theatre Company, please visit our website at vermonttheatrecompany.org or find us on Facebook.

Health Care and Rehabilitation Services Art Show
2025-04-04 17:30 - 20:30
Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS), southeastern Vermont’s non-profit community mental-health agency, proudly announces its 6th upcoming multidisciplinary art exhibition to be held at the 118 Elliot Gallery in Brattleboro, Vermont throughout the month of April. Showcasing the diverse talents of artists within the HCRS community, both seasoned professionals and emerging talents, the event promises to be a celebration of creativity and resilience.
The exhibition will feature the works of many artists affiliated with HCRS, both people receiving services and their staff, offering a glimpse into the rich tapestry of artistic expression nurtured by the non-profit agency.
The opening reception is scheduled for Friday, April 4, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm, featuring live musical performances and light refreshments to enhance the vibrant atmosphere.
About HCRSFounded in 1967, HCRS is a non-profit, community mental health agency serving Vermonters in Windham and Windsor counties. HCRS serves over 4,000 individuals every year through its mental health, substance use, and developmental disabilities programs. The Agency provides a wide range of social services that support optimal mental health and functioning. Visit www.hcrs.org for more information.
Press Contact:Alice J. BradeenHCRS(802) 886-4567 ext. 2191abradeen@hcrs.org

David Peck Improvisational Orchestra
2025-04-12 10:00 - 11:00
118 Elliot and Sparkles PresentTurbulence Orchestra & Sub-Units Perform ‘Crescendo of the Tempest’12 April 2025 – 7:30 pm

March 25, 2025, Brattleboro VT: 118 Elliot and Sparkles, the Giant Evil Clown, presents Turbulence Orchestra & Sub-Units – Crescendo of the Tempest at 118 Elliot in Brattleboro Saturday April 12,2025 at 7:30 pm
$15 suggested donation.
The Crescendo of the Tempest will be a series of dynamic improvisations that will take the listener on a sonic journey through time and space. More than 20 experienced improvisors drawn from the large roster of musicians who perform at different Evil Clown events will convene for an immersive evening of expressive music making. This will be their third performance of The Turbulence Orchestra at 118 Elliot.
Evil Clown has been working for many years on the very interesting and difficult aesthetic problem of large ensemble free improvisation. The larger ensemble combined with a broad-palette approach allows the music to travel through a series of highly varied tempos and sonorities. The performance will include a series of short compositions by small ensembles followed by a longer improvisation with all the musicians.
This is a great opportunity to experience large format improvisation performed by seasoned improvisors in a wonderful setting. The Crescendo of the Tempest is a reflection of the times we live in.
Performers:Reeds: PEK, Michael Caglianone, Cliff White, Dennis Livingston, F, Jared Holaday, Victor SignoreBrass: John Fugarino, Eric Dahlman, Vance Provey, Duane Reed, Scott MooreCello: Glynis LomonPiano: Eric ZinmanGuitar: Tor Snyder, Steven ArnerichElectric Kalimba: Absence of ThoughtVoice: Molly MelloanBass: Scott SamenfeldDrums, Percussion: John Loggia, Ben James, Dennis Warren, Stephan Brandstatter, Drew Kovach
II8 Elliot is a collaborative environment for the creative arts and education including film showings, gallery exhibitions, musical performances, workshops of all kinds, conferences as well as physical culture classes.
The Turbulence Orchestra: Victor Signore, John Loggia, Dennis Livingston, Michael Caglianone. Kieth W, Duane Reed, Dave Peck, Molly Maloen, Scott Prato, Bonnie Kane. Photo by Lissa Weinmann

These Colors Kill Fascism: How Art Highlights Our Shared Humanity
2025-06-06 - 2025-10-31
118 Elliot presents ‘These Colors Kill Fascism’, a group show of local artists featuring Mary Therese Wright, Gayle Robertson, Tina Olsen, Ellen Cone Maddrey, John Loggia, Nick Garder, and Liza Cassidy.
The exhibit is on view during 118 Elliot events and by appointment.There will be an artists’ talk on July 24, 6:30 pm, at 118 Elliot.
“This machine kills fascists” is a message that musician Woody Guthrie placed on his guitars in the mid-1940s.The idea originated from a sticker that American machinists attached to their metalworking lathes. Since then, many musicians have been inspired to reference the phrase or versions of it. The artists in this exhibition invoke this saying to state that creativity, in its many forms, helps us resist attempts to limit self-expression.
Many people, from both sides of the political spectrum, still desire a society that applauds self-expressionism, allows opposition, and questions any social hierarchy. This show recognizes that art can build connections and a sense of community in a time of divisiveness. The use of color, texture, field, and line evokes emotions that can sensitize us to our shared humanity and the natural world we live in. These paintings weren’t necessarily chosen as political statements. The artists believe viewing paintings together creates community, emotional resonance, and connection. This creative empathy helps us see people as fellow humans and helps us break down the sense of obstacle or threat in another person. The show opens July 4th for viewing between 5pm – 8pm. Tina Olsen will host readings by local writers reflecting on the current state of the world.
The Artists:Mary Therese Wright’s artwork and community based projects have been shown throughout the United States. Wright has a keen interest in materiality whether painting, printmaking or metalsmithing. Her current work is a response to the vibrant colors and dynamic shapes of nature. She lives in Jacksonville, Vermont, and draws inspiration from her deep relationship with the trails and water of Lake Whitingham.
Gayle Robertson has been artistically active all her life. Her experiences in the fields of lighting design, computer graphics, 2D and 3D traditional media, spirituality, end of life and bereavement, mix to bring different lenses to what happens in her studio. She uses her art as a way to engage with the moments of life and a tool for exploring all its meaning, calling upon her materials to bring her interests to light. She lives in Southern Vermont where she enjoys being part of the vibrant arts community.
Tina K. Olsen has been painting and working therapeutically in the expressive arts most of her life. She moved to Brattleboro in 2006 to live near her daughter and found a community of artists at the River Gallery School and 118 Elliot. Olsen’s works in oil and watercolor bring life to the healing light of nature. Ellen Cone Maddrey came to painting later in life after careers as a lawyer, an elementary school teacher and a parent of three. Her artistic inspiration is deeply embedded in the mountains and waters of Seattle, her childhood home, and the natural world of Vermont. Her paintings express the comfort and thrill of nature through color and shape. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and has a second home in Wilmington, Vermont,
John Loggia has been painting and working in the arts since 1979. He has maintained a practice of drawing and painting while working in film as a production designer and producer. In 2015 John opened 118 Elliot, an arts and education center in Brattleboro, Vermont that he runs with his partner. John, a jazz musician, feels that playing music and painting are two sides of the same coin with each practice informing the other and encouraging experimentation, risk, and unexpected revelations.
Nick Garder works in oils, acrylics, and restaurants. Since 1992, he has tried his hand at various art mediums, including music, but oil painting is home. He tried school, but it wasn’t for him. He is thrilled to join new friends here on the walls of 118 Elliot Street, a venue he has come to appreciate more and more as his time in Brattleboro moves along.
Liza Cassidy is a visual and performing artist with a long time studio practice in Brooklyn NYC, and for the last seven years in her home town of Brattleboro, Vermont. Her focus is on large scale abstract mixed media collage utilizing discarded materials, mostly receipts, to convey human experience, and plein air landscapes in oil. She teaches Sequencing at River Gallery School as well as painting, studio art, and community mending/sewing sessions. She is also a long time collaborator with Theaterlab in NYC as a writer, director and performer.

Nu Mu 2025, The Shade Tree: Week 4 August 22, 23, 24
2025-08-22 - 2025-08-24

Architecture + Design Film Series: My Bones Are Woven
2025-11-19 18:30
Doors open at 6pm, Screening starts at 6:30pm. Running time 73min.
The Architecture +Design Film Series continues Wednesday, November 19th with, My Bones are Woven. For the full season lineup, visit the ADF FILMS page.
Ann Sutton is an iconic British artist, author, and educator who early in her career won world acclaim as an innovative textile designer working for brands like Ralph Lauren and Issey Miyake. Then, in her 80’s, she gave up her looms and dedicated herself to pushing the boundaries of fine art. In her “laboratory” of a studio in Sussex, England she works alongside her assistant Ruth to turn her endless ideas into radical creations. Ann is a magnet for artistic collaborators who enjoy her energy and wry humor, and her world changes when curators from Britain’s biggest art institutions—The Tate and V&A—start knocking on her door. Now in her 90’s, Ann and her work defy definition as she continues to squeeze every last ounce out of life, inspiring all of us to do the same.
Directed by Jane Mote & Joshua Kershaw, 2021, UK.

Film: Teresita's Dream, Cuba's Battle Against Alzheimer's
2025-11-21 18:00
$10 suggested donation (no one turned away)

About The Size of It: Group Show
2025-12-01 - 2025-12-31
Group show featuring artwork by Mary Therese Wright, Ellen Cone Maddrey, Tina Olsen, Liza Cassidy, Gayle Robertson, and John Loggia
Official Opening December 5th Gallery Walk. 118 Elliot open gallery hours: Thursdays 3 to 6 pm
The exhibit “About the Size of It” is open at 118 Elliot Street in Brattleboro. The exhibit features the work of six painters who make up the 118 collective of artists: Tina Olsen, Ellen Cone Maddrey, Gayle Robertson, John Loggia, Liza Cassidy and Mary Therese Wright. The exhibit explores the notion of size in painting – the miniature and the monumental. Also on exhibit is the window display, “All Under One Sky,” the collective’s contribution to the Brattleboro Festival of Miniatures.
The artists contemplated the miniature and the monumental in painting, and how it is expressed in their individual work. In most representational painting, the image is exactly that – a representation of a (usually) much larger scene. The majestic landscapes of Bierstadt and Church are miniature when compared to the scenes they represent. But any painter, whether the work is representational or abstract, faces the question of how large to make the image. Queries arise for the artist and the viewer: how does the size or shape of a painting relate to what the painter is expressing, or what the viewer is seeing and feeling? This exhibit allows both the artists and the viewers to “try out” different sized works, discover how the eye reacts to each, and form new ways of seeing.
The 118 artists’ collective also worked together to create the window display “All Under One Sky” as a contribution to the Brattleboro Festival of Miniatures. These artists tend to create art from their physical interaction with the materials, rather than starting with specific ideas that are translated onto a visual medium. They used this process to work together in an improvisational mode, creating the universal sky that connects us all. The colors and shapes, and the light they create, remind us of the vastness of the natural beauty that surrounds our daily lives. Moving from “monumental” to “miniature,” the artists added whimsical miniature scenes of life under the sky.
Please enjoy our offering of color and line to brighten the winter solstice and holiday season. The exhibition will be on view at Gallery Walk, December 5, during 118 Elliot open gallery hours, Thursdays from 3 to 6 pm, as well as during all 118 Elliot events and by appointment.

Gayle Robertson has been artistically active all her life. Her experiences in the fields of lighting design, computer graphics, 2D and 3D traditional media, spirituality, end of life and bereavement, mix to bring different lenses to what happens in her studio. She uses her art as a way to engage with the moments of life and a tool for exploring all its meaning, calling upon her materials to bring her interests to light. She lives in Southern Vermont where she enjoys being part of the vibrant arts community.
Tina K. Olsen has been painting and working therapeutically in the expressive arts most of her life. She moved to Brattleboro in 2006 to live near her daughter and found a community of artists at the River Gallery School and 118 Elliot. Olsen’s works in oil and watercolor bring life to the healing light of nature.
Ellen Cone Maddrey came to painting later in life after careers as a lawyer, an elementary school teacher and a parent of three. Her artistic inspiration is deeply embedded in the mountains and waters of Seattle, her childhood home, and the natural world of Vermont. Her paintings express the comfort and thrill of nature through color and shape. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and has a second home in Wilmington, Vermont.
John Loggia has been painting and working in the arts since 1979. He has maintained a practice of drawing and painting while working in film as a production designer and producer. In 2015 John opened 118 Elliot, an arts and education center in Brattleboro, Vermont that he runs with his partner. John, a jazz musician, feels that playing music and painting are two sides of the same coin with each practice informing the other and encouraging experimentation, risk, and unexpected revelations.
Mary Therese Wright’s artwork and community based projects have been shown throughout the United States. Wright has a keen interest in materiality whether painting, printmaking or metalsmithing. Her current work is a response to the vibrant colors and dynamic shapes of nature. She lives in Jacksonville, Vermont, and draws inspiration from her deep relationship with the trails and water of Lake Whitingham.
Liza Cassidy is a visual and performing artist with a long time studio practice in Brooklyn NYC, and for the last seven years in her home town of Brattleboro, Vermont. Her focus is on large scale abstract mixed media collage utilizing discarded materials, mostly receipts, to convey human experience, and plein air landscapes in oil. She teaches Sequencing at River Gallery School as well as painting, studio art, and community mending/sewing sessions. She is also a long time collaborator with Theaterlab in NYC as a writer, director and performer.
