BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — In connection with the exhibition “The In Between,” which features artwork by Susan Brearey and Duane Slick, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) presents “Pumpkintown: Songs, Stories, and Magic Lantern Projections from an Imaginary New England Village,” on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at Next Stage Arts Project in Putney, Vt.
A unique and multi-faceted show that has been performed around the world, Pumpkintown is a long-running collaboration by acclaimed American folk musicians Tim Eriksen and Peter Irvine, with paintings and magic lantern projections by Brearey.
Eriksen, a vocalist and instrumentalist, is a Grammy-nominated musical pioneer known for his distinctive interpretations of old ballads, love songs, shape-note gospel, and dance tunes from New England and Southern Appalachia. A musicologist and a professor, Eriksen was a consultant for the award-winning soundtrack of the film “Cold Mountain.” He and Irvine, a percussionist and vocalist, formed Cordelia’s Dad, a folk punk band from Northampton, Mass.
Pumpkintown originated about a dozen years ago after Eriksen visited Brearey’s classes at the Putney School, where she taught art for 32 years before recently retiring. Pumpkintown evolved from their shared interest in blending visual elements with folk music and storytelling. The result is a collaborative show that has been performed from the West Coast to Boston, and worldwide, including Great Britain, France, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.
Brearey said, “In Pumpkintown, we target the real, imaginary, humorous, and often unexpected in the backwoods of everyday life through songs, stories, and magic lantern projections.”
Every Pumpkintown performance “is a little bit different,” Eriksen said. “After all these years, it’s still a work in progress because it has a large element of improvisation. It’s a formal experimentation in shadows and light and plays with the balance between abstraction and legibility.”
In Pumpkintown, Brearey’s use of a magic lantern, a 19th century version of a projector, on her artwork creates a unique multimedia performance. The theatrical backdrop for Pumpkintown is one of Brearey’s paintings, which, she says, “shows the intersection of nature and culture in rural New England.” Brearey’s artwork in Pumpkintown is part of the BMAC exhibit “The In Between,” which is on view until Oct. 19. “The In Between” is the first collaborative exhibit of Brearey and her longtime friend, artist Duane Slick, who has taught printmaking and painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) since 1995. Both Brearey and Slick have exhibited their artwork in galleries throughout the United States and internationally.
Pumpkintown offers a fresh take on history and American music, from a region rarely associated with a regional sound: New England. Audiences will experience “both a funny and strange experience” in Pumpkintown, Eriksen said, adding that it’s particularly special to see the show in New England in October.
“Pumpkintown is an imaginary New England village, but it’s also a narrative about a shared connection to a place,” Eriksen said. “Pumpkintown is a story, but it is presented sideways, through imagery and sounds.”
Admission is $25, $20 for BMAC members. Next Stage Arts Project is located at 15 Kimball Hill in Putney, Vt.
Founded in 1972, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center presents rotating exhibits of contemporary art, complemented by lectures, artist talks, film screenings, and other public programs. BMAC is open Wednesday-Sunday, 10-4. Admission is free, courtesy of M&T Bank. Located in historic Union Station in downtown Brattleboro, at the intersection of Main Street and Routes 119 and 142, the museum is wheelchair accessible. For more information and accessibility requests, visit brattleboromuseum.org, call 802-257-0124, or send email to office@brattleboromuseum.org.
BMAC is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by Brattleboro Savings & Loan, C&S Wholesale Grocers, and Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters.
