Celebrating 20 years of Open Studio in Vermont

Vermont's 20th Open Studio Tour is about two weeks away. Never has a to-do list and a calendar been such a stimulus. Okay, first we register and then we attend a marketing meeting. We always learn something and share our nearly ten-year experience. This year is different. There is a hype.

One thing does not seem to change. Lew and Bonnie are the "leaders" of our group

of six Chester-Andover artists - a new contemporary arts gallery in town, a talented abstract artist, a wood turner, a glass blower, a VT landscape artist and a doll maker. We picked up all the YELLOW directional materials and maps, collected our groups' pieces for a glass case at the Guilford Welcome Center and wrote the press.

Perhaps the most fun was celebrating the twentieth year with marvel director of

VCC, Martha Fitch. Poppy and Grammie took granddaughters Beatrice and Shiloh and their namesake Bundles to the Vermont State House last weekend to witness the proclamation of May being Vermont Craft Month by Governor Shumlin. Guess who outshined the artists! Lunch was devoured at the Culinary Institute Restaurant and we just had to have Wilcox (yummy) ice cream at the Capitol Grounds. We left a message for former Green Mountain UHS principal Norm Stevens who was being honored in the Great Principals Hall of Fame, and delivered Emily and her artist invitation palette to the Montpelier Visitor Center to invite visitors to Chester. We missed William's first baseball game, but yes, our girls wrote thank you notes to the Governor. Saturday night we celebrated with Madeline Kunin, Martha, and the geniuses behind Open Studio at the National Life Building in our state capital, again enjoying the fixings of the Culinary Arts Institute.

Back home, we cut off 58 dead daffodil heads; we hung our beautiful new vinyl front door welcoming banners (thank you, Paul Gordon of mountainlakecreations). They mimic our sweet new brochure and its calico VT map. We had time to share our historical epic story at the Springfield Adult Day Care Center, entertain ten quilters from Massachusetts and host the Happy Homemakers of Ascutney. Lew and I squeezed in fine editing work on our website, using facts and figures from Google Analytics and where viewers got stuck. And finally I had time to finish Kam's birthday doll, Morgan.

Now it is about filling our gallery display with our precious product and letting you know that visiting us will be a treat (and our five other compatriots). As a come-on we are offering seven flower girls, including the first motif, April, at $20 off to celebrate twenty years of welcoming eager visitors into our Vermont galleries - especially those in homes - to experience a very special connection.