click to enlarge - Amy Lilly
- "Soar" by Tina Grier
During the first pandemic winter, Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro came up with a novel way to draw visitors: place outdoor sculptures on the property and adjacent farm fields and connect them with a ski-and-snowshoe trail. The center even opened a weekend takeout window at its café and built outdoor firepits ringed with tree stumps for seating, giving art adventurers a place to congregate and warm up.
The pandemic may have fizzled into an endemic, but Highland has revived its Open Air Gallery and open-air HCA Café for a third season. This year, 38 sculptures by 17 artists are sited along a 1.8-mile trail that has remained roughly the same for the past three years.
Some works are arresting sights against the snow; others, integrated into woodland borders, must be discovered along the trail. One branching trail appeals to children, with colorful plywood bunnies hiding in the bushes and arches to pass under. Many of the sculptures are worth lingering over — when temperatures and wind levels allow.
As they arrive, visitors pass the festive installation "For a Spoon Full of..." by Sharon artist Ria Blaas. The giant, yellow-painted wooden spoons hang by their handles from trees, creating welcome spots of color against the gray and white landscape that this skier encountered on a recent visit.
click to enlarge - Amy Lilly
- "The Incurious Seekers" by Ria Blaas
Blaas also contributed the show's most strikingly sited work: three thin, 20-foot-high figures reminiscent of the work of Alberto Giacometti that are positioned at the trail's highest point. Titled "The Incurious Seekers," the trio towers against the sky, each made from a tree trunk with a crackled, burnt surface. Though the figures are not quite united in purpose, their attitudes and angles suggest awareness of one another.
Many of the sculptures are made of wood, a durable outdoor material. Sophia DiLibero, a recent graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design who lives in Burlington, created "Splinter," a massive hand resting palm-up at a trail intersection. Although it was carved from pine with a chain saw, the work is realistic and expressive, its index finger extended as if to reveal the splinter's location.
Thirteen carved cedar figures, in two groups, greet skiers not far from the trail's start. The interest of these totem-like carvings lies in their wildly diverse heads and faces, which range from blank modernist masks to horned chimeras. Barton artist Ann Young, better known for her skillfully executed realistic paintings, created the figures 25 years ago and stored them in a barn until this show, according to Highland executive director Keisha Luce.
Luce cocurated the Open Air Gallery with Maureen O'Connor Burgess, the center's interior gallery curator. The two invited only a handful of artists from previous years, Luce said; the rest are all new, discovered at other sculpture events or by word of mouth. Luce first spotted "Splinter," for instance, at the Franconia ArtWalk in New Hampshire, she said during a phone call.
click to enlarge - Amy Lilly
- "Splinter" by Sophia DiLibero
Luce met Blaze Konefal, a New Hampshire artist, at the Sculpturefest in Woodstock, Vt. Konefal contributed two fun bouquets made from golf balls secured at the ends of wires — "Flower Bed" and "Dandelion Seed" — and a wind-activated sculpture of small, square mirrors strung together over a metal table frame. "Mirror, Mirror" manages to turn the biting winter wind into a shimmering visual delight.
Among the returning artists, Peter Schumann, the cofounder and director of Glover's Bread and Puppet Theater, contributed several printed bedsheets in his "Screaming Tree Series." Most likely environmentalist and political in intent, the banners were twisted and wrapped around trees when Seven Days visited, due to recent storms.
This year's extreme weather caused widespread harm to the exhibit for the first time, Luce said. Samantha Eckert's "Celestial Ribbons," made from metal flashing, was damaged beyond repair. Forty- to 50-mile-per-hour winds took out "Border Crossing," a suspended sign made from individual letters strung together by Burlington found-metal artist Kevin Donegan. "We didn't actually recover all of it," Luce said.
click to enlarge - Amy Lilly
- "Directional Knot" by Kevin Donegan
Donegan's other pieces survived and add a droll note to the skiing experience. "Directional Knot" acts as a signpost beside the trail, but its arrow, painted on a baking sheet, is twisted in a knot. "Yield to Change" consists of two triangular black signs sited on either side of the trail, their punched-out words ("Yield" and "Change") suggesting directives in conversation with each other. "The Elevation of Manual Labor," a shovel head atop a dramatically tall sapling, literalizes its subject.
Much of the work is for sale. Donegan, who uses bed-frame rails and other repurposed items, lists his work as "free" but encourages interested collectors to donate what they feel is an appropriate price, part of which will go to Highland.
All along the trail, creative touches abound: vintage cross-country skis stuck in the snow as trail markers; a series of cheery signal flags called "Soar," designed by Luce's mother, Trina Grier; five birdcages filled with miniature scenes hanging from wood-stick tripods. The latter series, "Bird Song," was made by the HCA Scene Shop, a collective of artists that includes Luce.
click to enlarge - Amy Lilly
- "La De Da" by Judith Wrend
Highland continues to cook up more interesting ways to attract winter visitors, including a "Curds & Curling" event on Saturday, February 25, on the skating pond beside Blaas' hanging yellow spoons. The curling stone will be a giant cheese wheel donated by Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro Bend.
And this year the interior gallery has optional seating for those who want to munch on their café takeout in a heated space. Soups, lemon-glazed berry scones and other treats will be provided by Highland's new chef, Charlotte Greene of Craftsbury Common, formerly the baker at Flour Bottom Bread.
It's a rewarding way to end a session of art skiing that challenges participants to endure the elements almost as much as the sculptures do.
"Outdoor artwork in Vermont is not easy," Luce said. "We're really lucky that artists are willing to take the risk."