Overview

Chittenden Town Hall

The Vermont Painted Theater Curtain Project began in 1996 with a survey to find and assess the condition of Vermont’s collection of historic theater curtains. At the time, we knew of only a half dozen curtains, but the number is now up to 176. As of November, 2006, 110 curtains have been cleaned, mended and judiciously in-painted. About 80 of these have been installed for use on their home stages in town halls, grange halls, community theaters, and opera houses. About 20 are ready to be installed when the stage is ready for them. We have put only half dozen curtains into “deep” storage because they are really too fragile to be used. All this has been accomplished since we began conservation work in November, 2002.

Vermont is the first state to pay attention to these reminders of a time when every small town was visited by traveling troupes of players, opera companies, vaudeville, and itinerant musicians. Between 1880 and 1940, curtains like these were produced in other states, but it seems that the great majority were discarded as they became worn and dirty and as tastes changed. However, in Vermont, many curtains were simply bundled up with baling twine or stashed in ceiling crawl spaces or shoved under the stage. By bringing the curtains back into use, we rejuvenate small town performance and meeting spaces: we have seen an increase of local theater and the re-use of town halls for town meeting.

The crew in Barnet.

Our Curtains team consists of three Vermont conservators from different disciplines (textiles, painting, and paper), a pair of technical assistants, and the project director who doubles as an extra assistant. The project is designed to incorporate local volunteers and teach them the basics of care and handling of their curtains as they work along side the professional team. We call them Curtain Caretakers and rely on them to keep an eye on the curtains’ condition after we leave. We also require a financial contribution from every community, although grants pay for three-fourths of the cost. We use materials from local sources whenever possible and we seek out donations from hardware stores and companies such as Fibermark (maker of Tyvek^®). 

Our primary financial support has come from the National Endowment for the Arts and “Save America’s Treasures” through a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior. There have also been important contributions from the Vermont Legislature and curtain communities. We have also had support from the Vermont Community Foundation, the Walter Cerf Fund, the Windham Foundation, the Freeman Foundation and the Preservation Trust of Vermont, the Connecticut River Valley Commission, Vermont businesses and individuals. We could not accomplish the work without the help of countless volunteers from all over Vermont.