In response to the CoVID 19 pandemic we have rescheduled the first segment of our 2020 programming to June, 2021.
Throughout 2020 and 2021 BigTown Gallery will present a series of interrelated exhibitions and lectures titled,
A Year in Photography: An Exploration of The Assault on Man and Nature
Held in conjunction with the Vermont Curators Group’s statewide initiative, 2020 Vision: Looking at the World Through Technology, these exhibits will show how advances in photographic technology have been accompanied by parallel shifts in aesthetics as well as photographers’ capacity to effectively record and examine history. This focus on the history of photography and on prominent contemporary photographers reflects the confluence of art and activism.
In this highly symbolic year, we present eight exhibitions in three segments:
I-HISTORIC – Democratization of the Documentary Impulse (June 2 —August 29, 2021)
II- CONTEMPORARY – Documenting Disaster (July 8 – September 27)
III - FUTURE – The Ascendancy of Art in Activism (September 30, — January 16, 2021).
Through these exhibitions we honor the work of artists, photographers, photojournalists, scientists, and writers around the world who have worked to shed light on all aspects of human life, illuminating the most urgent challenges facing humanity and the environment. Their work has impressed upon us, at different junctures in history, the responsibility we have to act with greater respect for the profound interconnectedness of our society.
Our Year in Photography highlights the work of six contemporary photographers who have called attention to the changing landscape of our times and others who have set the stage for the Farm Security Administration’s documentation of America during the Great Depression. An accompanying Teaching Portfolio of the history of photography displays examples of the evolution of technology and the significance of this medium.
The Contemporary and Future segments of our programming feature seminal projects by our six artists: 1 - Princeton Professor Emeritus, Emmet Gowin – The Nevada Test Site, gelatin silver prints; 2 - Senior Lecturer in Photography at Dartmouth, Virginia Beahan – Salton Sea, archival digital color prints; 3 - Photojournalist and war photographer, James Nachtwey – Photographs, archival digital prints; 4 - 2016 USA FELLOWSHIP / Ford Foundation award recipient, April Surgent – 'Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program field station, at Pearl and Hermes Atoll. pin-hole camera prints and cameo glass engravings; 5 - Photojournalist, Jon Brack – Chernobyl 2020, panoramic color prints and Virtual Reality Glasses; and 6 - Peter Moriarty, Emeritus Professor of Art from the Vermont State Colleges, the author of Lotte Jacobi Photographs, GODINE Boston, MA 2003, is the advisor to the Historic segment of our programming and exhibiting, Warm Room: Photographs of Historic Greenhouses.
Our 2020 Corresponding Special Events:
Rescheduled 2021 TBD Special Opening Reception for I-HISTORIC – Democratization of the Documentary Impulse
Opening remarks from Thomas Denenberg, Director of the Shelburne Museum
& Peter Moriarty, Emeritus Professor of Art, the Vermont State Colleges
Rescheduled 2021 TBD PRESENTATION: Charles Sheeler and Albert Einstein: Pioneers in the Exploration of Spacetime
American Art Dealer & the Author of Fresh Perspectives on Grant Wood, Charles Sheeler, and George H.Durrie, James H. Maroney, Jr.
Saturday July 11 Special Opening Reception for II-CONTEMPORARY – Documenting Disaster
Opening Remarks from John Stomberg, Director of the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
Sunday August 16 READING: Poet Kerrin McCadden, and memoirist, Helen Fremont, exploring the themes surrounding the conditions and societal ills permeating the family system.
Sunday September 13 LECTURE: The Nevada Test Site Emmet Gowin
Sunday October 18 LECTURE: Contemporary Art and Climate Crisis Julie Reiss of Christie’s Education
Saturday October 24 LECTURE: Reinventing Humanity – An Emergent Ethics for the Anthropocene
Marcelo Gleiser, Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College.
Saturday November 7 Special Opening Reception for III-FUTURE —The Ascendancy of Art and Activism
ARTIST TALK: Life, Art and Science on Location April Surgent and Jon Brack
Sunday November 15 LECTURE: 25 Years of Climate Activism, Not Much Progress. What are the prospects?
Mark Bowen, MIT Physicist & author of Thin Ice, Censoring Science and The Telescope in the Ice: Inventing a New Astronomy at the South Pole