How do you describe an abstract painting for someone who isn’t standing before it? A sculpture in space? An installation that transports the viewer to another time and place? A visual arts writer aims to help art aficionados and untrained enthusiasts alike better understand what they’re looking at or experiencing. Vermont has plenty of artists and authors, but rare is the individual who combines the two.
Behold: Alice Dodge. Readers may not realize how lucky we are to have the Montpelier mother of two directing the visual art coverage in Seven Days. From the statewide list of exhibitions, which she compiles, Alice decides who and what we write about every week in the art section. Freelancers Amy Lilly and Seven Days cofounder Pamela Polston are regular contributors, but more often than not Alice does it herself.
To my knowledge, Seven Days is the only media outlet in Vermont that employs a full-time journalist with comparable credentials. In March Alice won the Critics Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association; more recently she was nominated for a prestigious national Rabkin Prize for visual arts writers.
Alice’s expertise is on full display in this week’s cover story on the Art at the Kent exhibition in Calais — an annual group show that occupies every inch of a historic inn at a dusty crossroads in rural Vermont. Chosen by three brilliant curators who live within spitting distance of the venue, the variety of work and the way the pieces are arranged in the many rooms of the house distinguish the monthlong show. That it’s short-lived, like a fall flower, adds to its exceptionality.
Vermont has plenty of artists and authors, but rare is the individual who combines the two.
With her piece, titled “Art at a Crossroads,” Alice sought to explain what it takes to make a show this “resonant,” as she described it. Her reporting, which started in March, revealed how the three talented curators work together; their laborious process of choosing art; their relationship to the building, which they are trying to save; the pressure of success. Unexpectedly, the trio also wanted to talk about succession, Alice said, “so that became the story more. I’m hoping it starts a conversation.”
In a nod to this year’s theme, “Throughlines,” each section of Alice’s story starts with a vivid bite-size description of some work in the show — carefully chosen to illustrate that portion of the narrative. It’s an effective organizing device. But also: “I wanted it to parallel what they are doing,” Alice revealed. “They are trying to tell the story of the show as well, in a pretty abstract way, through the relationships of these different pieces.”
Dan Bolles and Chelsea Edgar edited Alice’s piece, her first cover story since she joined Seven Days more than two years ago. Chelsea called it “a huge pleasure. It was Alice’s idea to include vignettes within each section, which is an immensely tricky thing to pull off. But Alice writes about art so entertainingly, and with such clarity — not something you can say about a lot of writing on art! — that it worked.”
Dan, who edits Alice’s weekly reviews, chimed in: “I always come away feeling like I understand whatever pieces she’s trained her eye on, and I’m often charmed by some clever observation, playful description or broader context she’s introduced. These are the hallmarks of a great critic.
“Helping her translate those skills into a deeply reported 6,000-word story with a knotty tangle of characters and themes,” he went on, “was a reminder of why this work can be so rewarding.”
Please read it. Then go see the show.
P.S. Help us continue to publish the great culture writing of Alice, Dan, Chelsea and our other Seven Days staffers by becoming a Super Reader.
This article appears in September 23 • 2026.
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