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Art of the River...Art of the Rails

The works illustrate the rich tradition of railroads, boats, bridges, and industrial landscapes in the development of the Upper Connecticut River Valley. The Museum, which opened last September, displays memorabilia celebrating the history of the region as a major railroad center dating from 1850.

Featured works will include etchings by Brian Cohen, artistic director of the Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River and art teacher at Putney School, and reproductions from the work of Paul Sample, noted artist in residence at Dartmouth College during the 1930's and 1940's.

Norman Miller, Museum Curator, and Sandra Hayward, Coordinator, have assembled an outstanding collection of work by Cohen, Sample and other outstanding area artists, such as Dale Stein of Windsor, Retired Distinguished Teaching Professor of Drawing and Design at the State University of New York; Rick Harden, whose work has been displayed at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; and David Plowden, probably America's pre-eminent living railroad photographer, with 20 books to his credit.

Other works on display include paintings by Weathesfield's Charlie Hunter, painter, designer and owner of Hunter Studio in Bellows Falls; Liam Sullivan, painter, printer, and teacher at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester; Jay Barrett, a Fairlee architect who has an extensive collection of slides on railroading in the Upper Valley; and Russ Barber of Norwich, whose combined interest in railroading and photography has taken him to China, Mongolia, and Cuba. His work, including regional post card art, will be arranged in a special gallery.

Other exhibiting artists, all well known in their field, include Harry Dayton, Edwin Fulwider, Robert Weaver, Jerry Pfohl, Herb Rather, and John Semple.

Six of the 40 works in the exhibit are on loan from the Hood Museum at Dartmouth and other organizations and individuals in the Upper Valley.

Directions to the Museum: Follow signs off Interstates #89 and #91, Routes 5 and 4 to the Amtrak Station in Downtown White River Junction, VT.

The Museum and the exhibits are open on Tuesdays from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm, and Wednesdays through Saturdays from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm Closed on Sundays and Mondays.