Exhibit Reception: Vermonters at Work

Join us for a reception for the latest exhibit in our Local History Gallery. Free admission and refreshments. Curators talk with Sarah-Lee Terrat at 2:00 pm. Contact Eileen Corcoran at eileen.corcoran@vermonthistory.org with any questions.

Vermonters at Work exhibition tells the story of the inventiveness and energy that Vermonters have always put into their daily work life. The exhibit features antique tools and machinery, 19th-century printed advertisements for Vermont farm inventions, early photos, and paintings of Vermonters at work on the landscape. These artifacts tell many stories about using the land well and making daily chores more efficient and help the viewer understand what people needed to get the work done. It reminds us that while we've come a long way in the last century technologically, Vermont has always been a place brimming with invention, independence, and hard work.

The exhibit is a collaboration between Jan Blomstrann, the retired co-founder and former owner of NRG Systems, and Sarah-Lee Terrat, a fine artist and designer from Waterbury. Their partnership in this project began in 2000 when Blomstrann contacted Terrat to create custom installation artwork for NRG’s LEEDS-certified headquarters in Hinesburg. While combing through art galleries, antique shops, and flea markets, Terrat was attracted to artifacts and printed pieces that told the story of an earlier era of Yankee ingenuity, and how Vermonters devised solutions to their most pressing problems on the working landscape.

The exhibit is presented by Waterbury Area MakerSphere, curated by Sarah-Lee Terrat.

On view in the Local History Gallery from February 7 to July 29, 2023