100 Best Small Arts Towns in America

John Villani, June 1996

#7 - Burlington, Vermont

Location

A mecca for the performing arts and music, Burlington puts on a happy face by calling itself the "West Coast of New England" and turning it's best natural asset, the shores of Lake Champlain, into a focal point for much of its cultural and artistic life.

Great Outdoors

Half of the state's best ski areas are within an hour's drive, and Stowe and Stratton are even closer. Winter rolls into town in early November, and doesn't leave until April. Summer and fall are glorious. Twelve-mile-wide Lake Champlain is lined with city parks, running trails, marinas and ferry docks. White-water canoeing and kayaking are wildly popular with locals, but some of the better river stretches are very crowded on weekends.

Lifestyle

Burlington, the state's largest city, is a magnet for technology companies, so there are plenty of jobs when the economy's strong. Burlington is a safe community with a srtrong committment to multiculturalism.

The public schools take art education seriously, and many local artists participate in residencies. The city employs other artists through it's mobile arts academy project for community centers. Public art has become an integral part of the city's landscape, with murals scattered about town and a public sculpture garden on it's busy waterfront.

Arts Scene

Burlington's annual arts calender is jammed with professional and amateur theater, dance, jazz, chamber music and kid's theatre. The city's summer jazz festival is a week-long bash featuring the nation's best jazz musicians.

City Arts, Burlington's far-reaching urban arts organisation, operates the non-profit Firehouse Gallery for contemporary and traditional Vermont artists. The gallery is an anchor of the Church Street Marketplace, a downtown pedestrian mall. If you want to see the latest foreign films, catch the Vermont International Film Festival each October.

Alternatives

Besides the non-profit art spaces operated by City Arts and Arts Alive, there are dozens of cafés, restaurants and public buildings where visual artists exhibit their work and make a surprising number of sales. Daily Planet is one of the best, as is Leunig's and Red Onion Deli.

At night the marketplace is a magnet for Burlington's creative set, with rock 'n' roll shaking the Club Metronome, blues acts crooning at Halvorson's, and folkies strumming at the Burlington Coffee House.

Art Perspectives

Katharine Monstream has made Burlington her home for more than a decade. She works in a renovated industrial building that has been turned into studio spaces with views of Lake Champlain. "There are no billboards, no natural disasters, great ski area, and a feeling of safety. I'm a painter, so for me having a visual connection with the lake is an important influence in my work."