‘Poetry of Local Life’ Is Aim Of Gifford/Chandler Project

‘Poetry of Local Life’ Is Aim Of Gifford/Chandler Project

Vermont poet Verandah Porche will spend the first two weeks in May in residence at Gifford Medical Center to encourage the process of "releasing the poetry of local life."

The Chandler Cultural Foundation and Gifford Medical Center have just been awarded a $3750 grant from the Vermont Arts Council in support of the collaborative project.

Porche will work a variety of populations at the medical center: patients and families served by the Menig Unit for long term care, physicians and caregivers, cancer support groups, the volunteer Auxiliary, and chaplaincy and hospice volunteers. She’ll work with both individuals and groups.

Prior to her two-week residency, Ms. Porche will work with volunteer scribes, training them in the practice of "told poetry", so that they can assist her in the creation of collaborative poems.

This residency is not just about poetry, however: Photography, calligraphy and design are involved as well.

Herald photographer Robert Eddy will record the process as it unfolds. Calligrapher and design artist Karen Thorkilsen will work with the poetry to create pieces of art that highlight the text. Julia Pattison of Tiger Bridge Graphics will combine photographs and poetry in several large works.

The project will culminate in an exhibit featuring "the words and images of illness and healing" in October. The pieces are scheduled for exhibition first at Gifford Medical Center during Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the following spring in the Chandler Gallery. A small book of poetry and photographs is also planned.

The project was conceived last March when Chandler director Rebecca McMeekin met Verandah Porche at an Arts and Accessibility conference in Cambridge, Mass.

"The longer I spend in my job at Chandler, the more I am convinced that accessibility to the arts doesn't just involve wheelchair access," said McMeekin. "We are being called to bring art to populations that don't have easy access to the arts and whose lives can be immeasurably enriched by a experience of this sort."

Nancy Hoggson of Gifford Medical Center secured a major grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation to help fund the project. The Vermont Arts Council funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont legislature.

"Gifford Medical Center and the Chandler Cultural Foundation are pleased to be collaborating on such an exciting project," Hoggson said.