Dorset Event

2025 Juried Member Exhibition: Energy and Stillness at SVAC

Esteemed curator and artist Janie Cohen, former director of the Fleming Museum of Art at the University of Vermont, serves as this year’s juror. Cohen brings decades of curatorial experience and a deep understanding of Vermont’s contemporary art scene to the exhibition. Her own artistic practice involves creating hand-sewn works from unique historical and contemporary textiles, with her art featured in numerous exhibitions across New England.

Janie Cohen remarked, “I’m delighted to present an exhibition of thoughtful interpretations on this year’s theme of energy and stillness, through a wide range of mediums and approaches. There was a strong response to this year’s theme, and the show holds some surprises!”

The exhibition’s theme, Energy and Stillness, invites artists and viewers alike to explore the interplay between dynamic movement and serene pause. Cohen elaborates: “Cycles of energy and stillness are internal environments that are with us always. They accompany us through the seasons, through the years, through any given day in one’s life. We do not always acknowledge them; we may not even be aware of them. They interact with our external environments in ways that are sometimes in alignment, sometimes not. Artmaking is affected by both energy and stillness, enriched by both states, reflecting them and sometimes even taking them as subject matter. Whether you experience these states as objective or subjective, cognitive or embodied, dreamlike or crystalline, or in other ways, we invite you to be aware of them as you create, and to recognize their presence in your work.”

SVAC’s newly appointed curator of modern and contemporary art, Danny Volk, commented: “It’s been fun to work with Janie and to see the work through this particular curatorial lens. What a great way to energize the member exhibitions program at the arts center!”

The exhibition features works from a diverse group of SVAC member artists, including Karen Allen, Peter Anderson, Barbara Ackerman, Ann Barrett, Art Brod, J.E. Daly, Todd DePerno, Susan Dibble, Julie Dunigan, Michael Ellenbogen, Kathleen Fleming, Janet Fredericks, Dona Mara Friedman, Patty Hudak, Leigh Marie Hodgin, Lily Hinrichsen, Annie Ireland, Tom Johnson, Cristine Kossow, Robert H. Lafond, Matthew Lerman, Deborah Liljegren, Lily Lyons, Linda Lynton, Scott Niemi, Robert O’Connor, Karen Ojala, Anna Noelle Rockwell, Stanton Sears, Lynn Shanks, Mark Sickler, Margaret Sparrow, Carolyn Shattuck, Amy Swartele, George Van Hook, Katrin Waite, Susan White, and Ella Workman.

For more information, please visit svac.org.