Granite Festival rocks this Saturday
Toolbox
By David Delcore TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: September 11, 2009
BARRE – There's nothing quite like a good, old-fashioned granite get-together, according organizers of an event that has evolved into a popular summer-ending celebration in Barre.
"It's like a reunion," Patty Meriam said of the annual Granite Festival set to start at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Vermont Granite Museum and Stone Arts School on Jones Brothers Way.
Meriam, the museum's part-time executive director, said the festival, which is now in its 12th year, provides a valuable opportunity to celebrate Barre's industrial heritage, while reacquainting folks with the yet-to-be-realized dream of a year-round museum.
"This is a chance to showcase what we do here in Barre and what we're proud of," she said. "It's about the history of this community."
It's also an opportunity to update folks on a museum that has been a work-in-progress since 1995.
According to Meriam, most of this year's success stories – the grant-funded renovation of the former Pinsly Depot on Depot Square and the opening of a museum annex at the Millstone Hill Touring Center – occurred off-site.
The depot building now houses Simply Delicious and a visitors center and the annex is viewed as a small, but important step at demonstrating the sort of exhibits that could one day be on display in the main museum.
"We've accomplished a lot, but there's still plenty to do," said Merriam, who predicted the focus would shift back to the former granite plant she hopes will one day house the museum and its currently idle Stone Arts School.
Merriam said getting the school back up and running is a priority, as is completing a blacksmith exhibit in the huge granite shed. Meanwhile, she said, the museum's board is working on plans it hopes will result in the construction of additional restrooms in the building and the pouring of a concrete foundation on an isolated section of the shed's dirt floor. Those improvements, she said would create new opportunities to make the facility publicly available for everything from rock concerts to trade shows.
While festival-goers will likely hear about those plans from Meriam and others on Saturday, she said they will also be treated to a mix of lectures, presentations, demonstrations, and hands-on activities throughout the day.
Sculptors Ken Maurice and Ryan Mays will be on hand demonstrating their craft throughout the day and residents will have the opportunity to try their hand at etching or sandblasting.
"We want people to get a feel for it," said Meriam, who explained folks should also have the chance to try out one of the pneumatic tools commonly used by sculptors and there will be a demonstration of rock-splitting.
Although most of Saturday's activities – including a performance by the folk band Atlantic Crossing and a chicken barbecue sponsored by the Barre Rotary Club – will occur indoors, there will be bocce games on an outdoor bocce court and at two guided tours of Hope Cemetery – one at 9 a.m. and the other at 3:30 p.m.
Historian Paul Wood will describe the museum's collection and research library at 11 a.m. and at 11:30 Richard Cobly will describe how machines he recently donated to the museum were used to make wire and gaskets used to cap glass vessels filled with acid that was commonly used in the granite industry.
At noon photographer Leslie Bartlett will describe his photography of local granite quarries and his book on Barre sculptors entitled "Give me Your Hands."
A recently added exhibit featuring various renditions of Alfeo Brusetti's patented Barre rose will be on display throughout the day along with the museum's expanded collection of plaster models created by local sculptors.
Tickets for the barbecue, which will be served by Rotarians from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Advance tickets are available at Simply Delicious and Grakles in downtown Barre, or can be purchased at the door.
Following the festival folks are invited to visit the museum Annex at the Millstone Touring Center on Church Hill Road in Websterville from 3 to 5 p.m. The series of exhibits there focus exclusively on the history of quarrying.
david.delcore@timesargus.com
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