Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

'Weathering it Out'

Irene wasn’t the only storm to unleash her fury on Barre last year: The Granite City endured serious flooding the previous May. It’s appropriate, then, that Studio Place Arts is focusing on storm-related art in “Weathering It Out,” through February 25. Janet Van Fleet’s installation, “Pandora’s Box (Nature Spills Her Guts)” (pictured), is made from silt-covered buttons and boxes that were salvaged from one of the floods at SPA. Joan Curtis’ paintings, part of a series called “At Home With Nature’s Wiles” (also pictured), offer a zen perspective from an artist whose hometown, Brandon, was badly damaged by Irene. In them, people sit calmly indoors while the natural world descends into chaos around them. Photo by Jack Rowell.