 17, live at 525, the Preservation Burlington Show. Preservation Burlington is a non-profit 501C3 organization whose mission is to preserve and protect the historic architecture and livability of Burlington through education and advocacy. I'd like to thank everybody for tuning in tonight. It's gonna be easy for me. Preservation Burlington's really excited to partner up with Champlain College on this project, this is a grant funded project and we're the community partner. And I'm gonna let my friend Erica, who we've known each other for a little while, give the background to this stuff because you contacted me about the program, right? And you needed a community partner, Preservation Burlington's a natural fit and it's just like really pertinent to a lot of stuff that we've been dealing with lately, you know, with the downtown area and stuff. So do you wanna tell people what the project is all about? Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Erica Donis and I am the Special Collections Director at Champlain College and I'm joined tonight by a couple of our faculty members, I've Jonathan Banfield and Jordan Douglas here and we're so pleased to be here and so pleased to partner up with Preservation Burlington on this grant project. So we have been working with a number of students this past spring semester and then again we will in the fall on a project that's funded by the Council of Independent Colleges and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. So they have this program called the Humanities Research for the Public Good Program and this year there are 13 colleges from across the US who are participating and the point of the project is to bring together undergraduate students, have them do research in archives and primary source material on a topic that has public interest, that's a topic of public discourse. So we picked the topic of urban renewal, the impact of urban renewal in the city of Burlington and so we've had not only a lead student researcher studying this topic and I can tell you a little bit more about what she's been doing specifically but also several classes who have been working on this. Yeah, that was the surprise to me when you guys put the presentation together to show where the kids are at, right? I mean, they're young adults but I didn't know it was gonna be as expansive as it turned out to be. So that was pretty exciting to see how you incorporated these different media and points of view to add to the same story. Yeah, this has been a really wonderful opportunity to do some really deep interdisciplinary research and to introduce students to studying a humanities topic from multiple angles. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We'll do the pitch later too, right? Cause there's gonna be a big presentation at the end, at the end, when is that? We have an event coming up at the end of November. November, yeah. So we'll tell you all about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So thank you guys, both of you for being here. Do you wanna just go this way? You wanna tell me what your students been doing? Sure. I'm Dr. Jonathan Manfield, professor at Chaplain College. I teach in the Interdisciplinary Corps which is kind of a mixture of humanities and kind of publicly focused and applied knowledge going out into the world. I have a background in urban studies. Everything. Yeah, interdisciplinary. Yeah, everything. Everything. And my course was called Urban Sonic Placemaking and it's a course I've been teaching for a couple of years. It's a pandemic course and so we were trying to figure out how to get students to go out into kind of safe environments during 2020, 2021 and then starting to think about it like using the city of Burlington as like a place to open environment that students could explore and kind of engage with. And the way that I did that was through sound and using students using their phones, using kind of microphones to record and gather sounds from the environment and the city environment and the natural environment surrounding us and using that as a way to engage with place. How many students did you send out to? For this class, there are 18 students and we, as the weather kind of warmed up in Burlington over the spring, we started going out into the downtown urban renewal area and students would wander around, listen, use their ears, use their senses and then kind of gather their own little archive of sounds that they would then use and kind of construct into kind of composed soundscapes. So they're really using the city of Burlington and all the things that they might encounter there as an instrument. Right, like what's going on right there and the different noises and sounds that come together. And so they produced everything that was very like one to one relationship with what they just heard to things that were more composed, even like using the sounds of construction or something as like a beat that they then layered kind of larger sorts of compositions, whether musical or poetic or other sorts of things to kind of create a whole piece. And then so our contribution recombinated in producing a whole album where every student contributed a track or part of a track that we then kind of put together in the final weeks of the class and put up on Bandcamp. Oh, Bandcamp, I was going to ask you where. So it's accessible as a kind of auditory sonic document of Burlington around it. Were you pleased with the outcome? I think so, it's like super creative. You never know what quite you're going to get. Like you have students that are, we have a sound study, sonic studies kind of game sound design project. So we have people that are like really, know the software and no microphones, but then you also have amateurs. And so it's like this interesting mix of, and they were teaming up too, right? They were teaming up and they were, yeah. There was a couple songs, like some pretty fun songs. Yeah, yeah, I love the single pebble song. The single pebble. My family loves that place. So a song called Urban Renewal Anthem. But then like some really kind of experimental like compositions, like for instance, that one student recorded all the sounds of like lights kind of around the parking lots and parking garages by the Macy's High School. The hum and the buzz. And like the buzzes and then use that to kind of produce this really like beautiful melancholy kind of soundscape of buzzes and energy, you know, haunting in this weird way. Yeah. But using the kind of, yeah, like that sound. Which is good for an Urban Renewal story, right? Because it is a little bit haunting, you know. I know there were some clips and interviews with people that had grown up there and lost their, their families were from there and lost their homes and stuff. So there's always that sort of darker aspect of, you know, mostly I focus on the architecture, you know. And truth be told, I really don't like most of the architecture that occurred during Urban Renewal all over the country, you know, versus what they replaced. But there's the whole story, the story of the people that were in that area is really the deeper dive and the things that you kind of forget. I'm just, I'm looking at the architecture and the loss here and there, but the loss is to whole families, you know. I'm sorry, and you, your class and you. Yeah, so I'm Jordan Douglas and I teach the dark room photography classes at Champlain and run the photo lab. And every spring I have an intermediate photo class. Students who are a little more prepared to do more mature work. So it was a perfect opportunity to engage those students with this project and have them go out and capture aspects of the Urban Renewal zone. And my intention was to have them approach it from an artistic point of view and not simply document and, you know, speak objectively, but to see if they could translate those places and see if they can pick up on some of the things that Jonathan was talking about, the sort of vestiges of the past, those resonances that you were speaking of as well, the stories of people, how those changes might still be visible, what's of the past in the present and maybe ultimately start to ponder what comes next. And there's a lot of that happening now. So my students went out with film cameras and each student chose a particular area. I had a smaller crew, seven students, and the college provided some grant money to buy some photo paper for the students and some matting materials. Each student had a project based on this where they presented four pieces and we matted one and that will be part of the exhibition. Do you mind pulling that in front of you and just holding it up in the camera can zoom in on it for us? This is one of the images, a detail shot. So it tells part of the story. This is by Walker Mack and this is right in the middle of the pit. Where? The pit. The pit. I think they like to call it city place now. City place. That's what I meant to say. I still call it the pit also. The students really like to say the pit. The pit, yeah, I'm sure they do. That's great. That's really, I mean, it's funny because we all know what it is, but it's such a, you know, it just focuses in on, pardon the pun, the nuts and bolts, you know, you see the track, you know what it is, but it's just a very artsy shot of the effort going into there now, into that space. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. That's cool. And again, I wanted my students to not feel like they had to tell a whole story, but just to capture, spend some time, feel it, see what they could see and interpret it in their own way. Right, evoke a feeling. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah, I think they did a great job. I know at the presentation at the college, one of the first pictures that came up was the top of the cathedral, you know. And I think I'm allowed to talk about the cathedral right now, but we're in the midst of trying to save it, you know, and it's a big part of, there we go. It's a big part of that, I mean, that was its own separate urban renewal, right? You had that burnt, the fire, and then they built this modernist building that served the community really well since, and it's evocative of that time, that whole transition of architectural styles and time, and, you know, obviously, we think it could serve the community well into the future, but that was great, I saw that, and I was like, yes, that's why these things are important, so. And I think for a lot of my students, they wanted to go beyond just simply representing the places, but finding days where there were clouds, one of my students, Autumn Farmer, did double exposures, one student experimented with scrolling and having images overlap each other, and therefore try to convey something about transience and change with a sense of mood. Like you said, I don't know if it's an excuse, but some of them allowed for some of the dust on there to be seen, too, which gives it a bit of an older feel. Yeah. We allowed that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, overall, you're pretty pleased with their efforts. Pretty much so, yeah. And they all expressed really beautiful reflections about it afterward, how important it was to them to kinda hone in and really pay attention to these things that they otherwise take for granted, especially since a lot of these students come for four years and leave, and they don't really think so much about what's beyond their tried and true past. The building's right there at Champlain College. I mean, we all do it. I walk past things all the time, and just don't look up, and all of a sudden it's like when something's suddenly in the news, or it's a pit and it's been there a long time, now we're starting to focus on it, and even that, that's been ongoing for so long now. They just changed some of the design. They're gonna get rid of the rooftop restaurant and go with housing, which is fine. We need a lot of housing, but all the efforts to turn that around and do something. I've been telling people, well, it'll be better. It'll be better, because it's a pit and they're reconnecting the two streets, and so, Lily, right? Yes, so our lead student researcher, Lily Sakaniwa, has been working hard on interviewing a number of different community members who either were connected with the little Italy neighborhood that predated urban renewal, or who are connected with the City Place Project as well, or also some local historians. So she has prepared a podcast, a two-part podcast, and then over the summer, summer she'll be working on a documentary as well. So that content will be available for public viewing, for public listening pretty soon, definitely by the time of our fall event. So she's putting that together now, the podcast. Yep, she's putting it together now. Great opportunity for some sustained research. We went to City Hall. We looked at urban renewal records in City Hall. Of course, we, she did a deep dive into some records that are right at Champlain College in our special collections, and then she's also been to the Vermont State Archives and looked at some records there in relation to the urban studies that happened in what became the urban renewal area in the 1930s. So looking at historical context, primary sources, the perspectives of the people who were directly affected by urban renewal, and then of course, the later view, our contemporary view, looking back on all the change that's happened in downtown. It's a lot of information. She seems to be doing pretty well with it. She's doing a great job. Not overwhelmed at all. Especially because you know, doing background research and stuff like that. Once you start digging into the archives or you're looking at landmaps or it's like a wormhole or a rabbit hole, right? Definitely. Well, the nice thing about this project is she's with us for a full year. She's been working on this project. She will be working on this project for a full year. So she'll have a great deal of time to do some research and talk to a lot of folks who are connected with the project in some way. And she will just have sustained a period of time to produce a really great quality project as well. She seemed really energetic and excited about it. And I love the sound by she got of Dave Farrington's aunt, right? Was it his aunt, her great aunt? I forget. His aunt, Monica Farrington, who's a former resident of the Little Italy neighborhood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So her perspective, now her nephew is building city place and that's just drawing that parallel, that line from here to what was there to what's coming next, it's pretty interesting to hear and somebody alive from then to now. Yes. And I think another great thing about this project for our students is, of course, we all are familiar with the Burlington area. We have a connection to it as probably many of the viewers tonight as well. But for our students, it might be their first time really doing a experiential deep dive into the history of Burlington, getting out and exploring the city. But they're also uncovering some themes that they can use to investigate places, either their hometowns or other places that have meaning to them in the future. So there's definitely some universal themes coming out of this project, which have been really wonderful to explore with the students as well. Yeah, and it seems like a really good opportunity for the, again, interdisciplinary. So they're working together in your group. They're working together, I'm sure, there. Lily's putting her stuff together and all of them are communicating about this one overarching theme. So it's pretty cool. They seem to be really bonding at the presentation. I saw them making faces of each other and laughing and teasing one another, but in that collaborative way, good natured ribbing. Yeah, and we have more opportunity in the fall because we'll have another round of Jordan's photography students joining us. And then we also have a podcasting class that will be working on this project as well. So we have students coming at it from multiple angles and it's great to have a large cohort working on the same project as well. So what's the, I'm getting the emails because we're trying to be a good community partner and visit and stuff like that. But so there are emails about the larger group that are doing the different projects. Obviously, I like our project best, but what is all that about? So what's the end result of all this and how do you satisfy the grant and what they're overarching, what they wanna see from this project? Oh, I think that's a great question. So we're one of 13 colleges across the US working on projects. Every site has a very different theme, but the end goal is the same, which is to introduce undergraduate students to doing humanities research during primary sources and bring the results of their research to the public in some way. So some sites are doing exhibits, some are collecting oral histories. We will be having an exhibit in the Art Gallery at Champlain College in November and then also we'll have a closing event that will be kind of the culmination of the project that will be on November 30th. So that will be an opportunity for community members for the public to join us to hear more directly from the students about their work and to get a closer look at some of the things they've been working on. Right, right. And there's the public benefit and people will come and they'll gain all that knowledge from what your students have been doing. I don't wanna ruin anything, but what's the art show, the Art Gallery kind of thing? Is there gonna be, again, photographs with some background sounds and documentary playing somewhere? Has that all worked out yet or is that they're still working on that? Who puts that together? Six months to kind of see what the students come up with and figure out how it works best together, but exactly what you were describing is kind of what we have in mind at this point. There may, there's some possibility that we may also have an opportunity for members of the public to participate, maybe record a memory or comment as well. I think that would be a great addition. So the students will be the driver, though, putting this together. And so it's one more thing they're gonna have to do and you guys will just make sure that it's just ushered in a little bit or something. Well, this will fit within the framework of a local history event that I facilitated for Champlain for a number of years. So we have kind of this existing structure. And this just works out that we can put the two pieces together and use the structure to showcase the student work in this case. That's pretty cool. It kind of makes me want to go back to school. Yeah. So other thoughts? Like where you want to see the next group of students? I mean, are you pushing them in a certain direction or what are your... Good question. Well, I think one of the interesting things will be when we pick it up again in the fall, it'll be a different season. The students came out of winter that had its own feel and vibe, texture as it were, mostly in black and white. What'll happen in the fall? How will things have advanced with city center? Is that what it is? Oh, city place. City place, yeah, yeah. And with different students and their interests and sensibilities. So yeah, I'll create another project. I'll have two intro classes. So it probably will be midway through this semester when they kind of dig into it a little bit and see what they can uncover in their own way. Yeah, that's cool. And your gang? I won't be teaching that class again. It's only in the spring that we... Oh, is it? It's a yearly course. But I'll also be working on the exhibition and kind of coordinating with some of the students. Is there going to be putting stuff together anyway? So you can stuff together and we'll figure out a way to have the sounds playing in the exhibit as it's happening in kind of a creative and interesting way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. And so the culmination, the November event, what's that all about? So in November, we have reserved the Art Gallery at Champlain College, which is in our center for communication and creative media on Maple Street. And so we have that space for most of the month of November. So stay tuned for the official dates of the unveiling. And then on November 30th, that evening we'll be having our local history event, our community event. So members of the public will be, definitely be invited to join us for that. And that will take place in an event space that's in the same building. So people who come will have the opportunity to visit the exhibit in the Art Gallery and also sit and listen to the formal presentation part of the event as well. Cool, so it'll be a big production that day. Yeah, lots going on, lots to see and take in for sure. No, that's pretty cool. It's fun, I'm really glad to be part of it too. You know, I hope we're doing a good job as a community partner. Absolutely, yeah. You know what's interesting is when we submitted the proposal for this project and we came up with a theme, it was in that dormant period where the city place construction hadn't started and they hadn't received the full go ahead from the city to break ground again. So the pit was really just a pit. And so we had no idea, of course, that things would develop as they did, but the timing is very serendipitous. And of course the discussion in terms of the outcome of the Catholic Cathedral, the Cathedral Immaculate Conception, that is also come about since we submitted our proposal as well. So things are happening. This is a good time, I think, for this project. Yeah, it's a dynamic part of the city. I mean, just so it has been, even if you hated the mall or whatever, but you know, and there's just so much happening down there right now and potential for what might happen. And you know, I do think, I mean, there's high, I never liked the mall. I didn't, you know, and streets stopping and I have to go around and drove me crazy, you know? So overall, it'll be better, I think, you know. And the Cathedral has a lot of community support. There's four separate community groups that have all made basically full price offers to keep it and turn it into multiple different, you know, things that would benefit the community, either a venue for music and events or a local history museum. There's a group that's not the Chittenden County Historic Society, but they wanna create a Burlington history space, you know, and have all that. So we'll see, fingers crossed, you know, everything's up in the air right now over there and happening at the same time. So it's really pretty cool to, like you said, serendipitous to have it all come together at the same time, you know, while this project is going on. Anything else you wanna give us a heads up about? Anything coming up? Just that we had talked about regrouping during this program in the fall. So we'll do an update at that point and that will be much closer to the date of our public event at the end of this project. So we'll be able to give more detail as far as the preview of what that event and exhibit will entail. Good, so I can, like, my driving questions, I can really, I'll start now, you know, and put you on the spot. Well, that's really, that's great. I'm looking forward to that, you know, again. I wanna remind everybody at home too that we have the Preservation Burlington Homes Tour first time in four years. We were very nervous about having it come together and it really did. I think it's gonna be great. Seven Days is doing our tickets now. Flintix doesn't do them anymore, so we went with Seven Days, so it's a little bit different. So people that have done it in the past or, you know, we have a lot of regulars. I mean, we've already sold 336 tickets and got a bunch of donations and stuff. So it's really, it's pretty fun. We always hoped for about 400 people or something, you know, so one year we had 550 or something, which was crazy. But interesting houses, it's gonna be a good time. Everybody can go to our website, Preservation Burlington org and check it out and sign up for tickets to go. What is the date of the Homes Tour this year? Thank you. It's June 10th, my birthday. Wow. And it's from 12 to four o'clock, so it's, yeah, it's a four hour stint, we start. And yeah, so June 10th, 12 to four o'clock, everybody get your tickets and go, because we don't wanna sell out and turn people away. We don't. Thanks everybody for tuning in. Thank you guys for coming here and sharing all this information and the photos and stuff, it's amazing. Oh, good, and we're pulling up the raise, rebuild, repeat, save the date. There we go. Everybody, thanks for tuning in. Live 525, Preservation Burlington. For more information on Burlington history, tours or events, or anything we've talked about tonight, go to our website and get a marker for your historic house, preservationburlington.org. And we'll see you next month. Thanks everybody.