A Museum-Based Charrette on Riverfront Revitalization

A new museum exhibit in Vermont invites visitors to review various proposals for updating the riverfront in Brattleboro -- and allows them to submit their own ideas.

1 minute read

September 22, 2010, 5:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


"Circle stickers have been in high demand at the Brattleboro Museum & Arts Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. Visitors to the 'Renewing the Riverfront' exhibition, organized by a multidisciplinary workshop under the auspices of Marlboro College and its Center for Creative Solutions (CCS), have been using the adhesive dots to show support for their favorite proposals for the town's waterfront, arrayed on walls of a gallery here. And museum-goers have not only voted for a number of the proposals that the CCS team has offered up - from a riverside boardwalk to a performance space - they've also posted ideas of their own on blank note cards on hand, and planted dots of approval on some of those, too. A 'river museum,' scribbled one visitor, earning a smattering of dots. 'Outdoor seating next to the river,' suggested another. 'Paved space for skaters/bladers/BMXers,' urged a third."

The exhibit focuses on a 1.3 acre piece of land bordering the Connecticut River, and places short-term programming to test out ideas about how best to reinvent the riverfront.

Monday, September 20, 2010 in Change Observer

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