This page was last updated on August 2, 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed how we interact in the world. Here you will find Vermont-based online archives and documentation projects, virtual galleries, and performances that allow continued engagement with art and cultural heritage during these times, and that explore our own personal and collective experiences throughout the crisis.
Documentation Projects
- The Vermont Historical Society COVID-19 Archive collects and documents the lives of Vermonters throughout the COVID-19 emergency. You can contribute your own materials.
- The Vermont Folklife Center’s Listening in Place Project documents the Vermont experience through a crowd-sourced sound archive and online virtual story circles. You can contribute your own materials.
- The Vermont State Archives & Records Administration COVID-19 documentation projects include portraits of Vermont families and businesses gathered by local photographers during the pandemic.
- The Norwich Historical Society’s “You Are a Witness to History” project allows participants to fill out a reflection form, download journaling prompts, and upload photos or artwork to document their pandemic experience.
Artistic Response
- Kingdom COVID Chronicles, a project of Catamount Arts, explored the experiences of Northeast Kingdom residents through sketchbooks participants kept for four weeks.
- The Reckonings exhibit at the Fleming Museum is a selection of items from the collection by museum staff and interns that reflect upon the themes of 2020.
- Unprecedented? was an in-person exhibition at Burlington City Arts that explored the psychological, social, and cultural impact of the extraordinary events of 2020.
- The Norwich Historical Society Circles Project is a community mural that features painted canvas circles contributed by over 175 Norwich residents reflecting on what has brought them hope during the pandemic.
- The Howard Center Arts Collective Connections! Exhibit explores overcoming isolation and staying connected during a pandemic that has affected so many aspects of our lives.
- The Vermont Utopias: Imagining the Future exhibit and closed-bid auction benefited the Bennington Museum and regional artists.
- The Southern Vermont Arts Center Unmasked exhibit explored the ways that pandemic-related challenges have impacted artists, catalyzing shifts in their artistic output.
- Read how the pandemic has affected artists and performing arts groups around Vermont in this blog series from the Vermont Arts Council.
Virtual Museums, Galleries, & Performing Arts
- Virtually tour art, history, and science museums through the Vermont Art Online project.
- There are several virtual art exhibitions available through the Vermont Curators Group.
- The Vermont Dance Alliance fosters a thriving dance community for Vermont and had several virtual classes, events, and performances.
- The Vermont Arts Council maintains a calendar of virtual events and performances.
- While many arts festivals had to be canceled in 2020, several transitioned to the virtual environment, and some have made their digital content available to all, such as the Manchester Music Festival, the Killington Music Festival, the Brattleboro Literary Festival, SolarFest, the Craftproducers Art and Craft Festivals, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Vermont International Film Festival.