Vignettes 

“Quad” mania has come to the Queen City. That is, anticipation about the Champlain quadricentennial hoopla that will — city and state officials hope — attract tens of thousands of visitors to the area this summer. At a Tuesday afternoon presser, Mayor Bob Kiss, Burlington City Arts Director Doreen Kraft and Bruce Hyde, commissioner of state tourism and marketing, announced a partnership with Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven, who was hired last year to produce the 2009 Burlington International Waterfront Festival. That’s the centerpiece event among statewide activities that will celebrate the 400 years since French explorer Samuel de Champlain came, saw, and named our almost “great” lake. Four hundred freaking years? — about time we threw a party, non? You’ll be hearing much, much more about this between now and July . . . Meanwhile, BCA is hosting a much smaller soirée on Tuesday, February 10, at the Firehouse Gallery to benefit “Art From the Heart,” a program that brings art supplies and volunteers to the pediatric ward of Fletcher Allen, turning it into a temporary art studio. To give this Valentine to the kids, RSVP by February 4 to Elizabeth Langfeldt at 865-5816 or [email protected]. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. . . . Last Saturday’s snow sculptors in Barre managed to fashion 6-cubic-foot blocks of the cold stuff into figures, animals, castles and more in the second annual competition hosted by Studio Place Arts and the Millstone Trails Association. And the winners were: first place, Leslie Baker and Oriana Shaplin of Burlington; second, Giuliano Ceccinelli II of Barre; and third, a team including artists Georgia Landau, Maggie Neale, Janet Van Fleet and Eva Schectman. In the new Junior Division, the Spaulding High School student council took top honors. The sculptures should be on view until, well, they melt.

PAMELA POLSTON

Thanks to new digital projection technology, movies shot in 3-D are enjoying a renaissance — but you wouldn’t know it in Burlington. When Journey to the Center of the Earth played here, it was flat. So was My Bloody Valentine 3D, despite its title (and the many pickaxes thrust at the audience). Last year’s 3-D Hannah Montana concert film, a hit around the U.S., didn’t even make it to Vermont.

Film fans who want to see what the buzz is about will finally get a chance to sample 21st-century-style 3-D this Friday, when Williston’s Majestic 10 tries out its brand-new digital projection system. According to a press release, the Digital Light Projector doesn’t just do 3-D; it also enhances the brightness and sharpness of 2-D films. It does away with those hefty rolls of film in the projection booth, too; movies arrive at the theater via satellite or on a hard drive.

First up: a 3-D presentation of the animated feature Coraline, based on the creepy Neil Gaiman novel. And on February 27, parents can look forward to their tweens dragging them to Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience.

MARGOT HARRISON