Rutland Farm and Food Art Show collaborates with the Chaffee Art Center

In Vermont, food is part of the landscape. There is a farm next door, an orchard just a few blocks away, a dairy next to the school, a farmers market that you can see from your office window. These places can blend into the background from time to time, and appear as ordinary as the buildings lining a downtown street.
Yet local foods are beginning to move from their traditional place on the back burner and into the forefront of people’s minds. More and more people in the Rutland area are shopping at farmers markets (which now have winter components), buying CSA shares, and even growing their own food. Our
community has begun to realize that, much like the rolling hills that we often perceive as banal, farms and food have their own art-like beauty.
Between July 5th and August 11th, the Rutland Area Farm and Food Link (RAFFL) and the Chaffee Art Center will join forces to present the Farm and Food Art Show, with a grand opening on July 12th. This exhibit will be housed at the Chaffee’s new downtown location and will feature the work of Betsey
Hubner and Amy Mosher, as well as that of other selected artists. This will be the sixth exhibit in the downtown gallery since its opening on New Year’s Eve.
In addition to Hubner and Mosher’s painted scenes of farm life, the exhibit will include a fountain with an herb and sculpture garden designed by Russ Marsan of Carpenter and Costin and Nick Santoro, photos from Green Mountain College students’project ‘A Day in the Life of a Vermont
Farmer’, posters from Lexicon of Sustainability emphasizing the educational component of Vermont’s food system, a series of recovered apple crates designed by Robin Taft, and a mobile from Wallingford Elementary School.
The exhibit will also include a series of speakers, demonstrations, and presentations pertaining to both art and food.
Planners from the Chaffee approached RAFFL about uniting for the exhibit a year ago, and both parties saw the partnership as a win-win situation; RAFFL would be able to highlight its educational message about farms and food to a new audience, while the Chaffee would be able to showcase the aesthetic
aspects of farms and food and also connect with another local nonprofit.
Chaffee Gallery Coordinator Courtney Perry emphasizes that the exhibit will be a chance to raise awareness about a lifestyle that many Vermonters experience, celebrate the innovation and prominence of Vermont farms and bring the community together.
The Chaffee’s Executive Director Margaret Barros echoed Courtney’s sentiments about bringing the community together, and added that the show focuses on an issue we all hold dear ‘healthy food. The visual art creates awareness and causes the viewer to think about the creation and existence of
food before it arrives on our plate. ‘We, as a society, have been pushing ourselves as a furious pace and even forced our food to become ‘instant’. I think this show reflects the amount of hard work and dedication our farmers invest into every annual harvest; something more of us are learning
to appreciate. So many of us have learned to slow down and peel our own carrots; some of us are even trying to grow our own vegetables. The two featured artists projected onto canvas reflective thankfulness for what our farms provide.’
RAFFL’s Executive Director Tara Kelly says that the ‘creative partnership with the Chaffee’has allowed RAFFL the unusual but fun opportunity to express their work through art.
The Rutland Area Farm and Food Link is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that supports farmers and strengthens communities. Its mission is to support new and existing farms within the Rutland region, to inspire and expand community-wide participation in the agricultural economy, and to develop an increased
appreciation for the positive impacts local farms have on the whole Rutland region.