Community Projects

The Milton Artists' Guild has received a $3,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation's Spark Connecting Community grant program. The grant will help the Guild further our goals of connecting families through art, focusing on our Social Sundays Program!

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Our Social Sunday Program has been running for 3 years, and with the help of grant funding, we are able to provide free weekly art projects to families of all shapes and sizes! Pre-Covid, these programs were offered in the Milton Artists' Guild Workshop Space each Sunday afternoon. During and after COVID, these classes have been offered with pick-up kits that families can pick up throughout the week, with all supplies and instructions included. Each weekend, an instruction video is uploaded for each project, so that the families can watch the project happen in real time, and follow along with their own supplies!

Milton’s “Follow your Heart Project” was a community wide project to spread, hope, love, joy and happiness. Hearts were be created with words of encouragement and kindness for you to distribute throughout the town.

The hearts were free! Stop by The Milton Artist’s Guild during business hours, and they will be happy to give them to you. They will be available through the month of February or until they run out. Your job is to brighten someone’s day. Put it on a windshield, on a front porch, a window, or simply hand it out.

If you receive a heart, please take a picture of you and your heart, (or just your heart) and post it to this page. After you do that, please display the heart in a window or place we can all see it! The goal is to spread kindness and see a town full of hearts! Follow the hearts through town!

Girl Scout troop 30476 will also be writing messages on hearts and spreading the love.

Milton Community Youth Coalition Mentor Art Programs: 2019 - Present. Partnering with MCYC Mentor pairs, the Guild offers 5-10 classes a year for MCYC focusing on creating a creative and comfortable atmosphere for mentorship partners to meet and make art together! Projects range from painting to sculpture, and support all levels and ages.

Northern Family Institute: COVID Art Classes 2020

In 2020, we offered weekly classes for NFI in the Spring and Fall of 2020, largely over Zoom due to COVID-19, by supplying 1nstructions and materials in kits that would be distuributed to

students and their helpers. Cultivated a collaborative and supportive environment for creativity.

“MILTON, VT- The Milton Artists’ Guild is a collection of artists from all over Vermont. Their mission is to support artists across the state and beyond. Among the artists they support are what’s known as fiber artists. Fiber artists are artists who work with quilts or felt, or any kind of artwork that involves sewing or knitting materials.

Over the past few weeks, these artists have taken on a new kind of artwork. They have been working hard to make masks."

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The Milton Artists' Guild's Team of Sewists has donated over 2,500 masks to workers all around Burlington and Chittenden County! They have contributed to the pool of more than 20,000 masks made and distributed to more than 80 organizations as of May 15, 2020.

"The City launched this initiative after initial conversations with regional medical partners, sourced 1,400 yards of  "bull denim" (a thick fabric) and lighter cotton in partnership with local fabric store Rags & Riches, and partnered with the Lyric Theatre Company and Milton Artists' Guild to help create prototype masks and Gadues to help clean them. Added partnerships with Vermont Teddy Bear, hundreds of community sewers, Queen City Dry Goods, and many others to help scale production"

In April 2019, the Milton Artists’ Guild reached out to Green Mountain Power about a possible mural on their small brick building at Clark Falls, Milton, VT.

GMP graciously met with the representative of the Milton Artists’ Guild, and after reviewing the building, it was found that these bricks were of historical stature.

GMP took into consideration the option of providing outdoor public art for Milton by generously sponsoring a large mural to the ‘Ice House’, owned by the town of Milton. They chose Jon Young as the artist. Jon submitted sketches to the Milton Selectboard and to GMP. Once the design was approved, it was executed and finalized on September 30, 2019. The Milton Artists’ Guild is very appreciative to have the town of Milton approve this important project in adding public art for everyone.

We are all very thankful to Green Mountain Power for their generous gift to the town of Milton!

In the fall of 2017, the Milton Artists’ Guild was fortunate to have been allocated a $5,000 grant from the Promise Community. This grant, appointed to us, by the Milton Family Community Center, was to promote artistic endeavors for families and their young children.

As per our Mission Statement of sharing the appreciation of the arts, we organized a large community event. On June 23rd, 2018 the Milton Artists’ Guild invited all of the children, and their parents, to partake in painting the 7 Bombardier Field dugouts. We hired one of our members who is a muralist, Jon Young, to create the 7 colorful designs. Once approved by the Milton Select Board, Jon painted an outline where all participants could ‘paint by numbers’.

As the children grow, they can return to this park with pride, knowing that they created these murals.

In 2016, the Milton Artists’ Guild embarked on a mission to incorporate outdoor art for everyone in Milton. Our team reached out to the Route 7 Industrial sector of Milton, many businesses.  With binder in hand, the contents consisting of portfolio images created by numerous qualified muralists from Vermont and some from neighboring States, a great campaign was born.

After numerous meetings, discussions with local business leaders along the corridor, Gardener’s Supply Warehouse, with great vision, agreed to undertake the project.

Out of 7 muralists, Gardener’s Supply chose Sarah C. Rutherford, out of Rochester, VT, to design and deliver the desired mural for the East and South walls of this very large building.

We are incredibly thankful to all of the employees of Gardener’s Supply Warehouse and to the property owner Bill for funding this MAGnificent mission by providing public art to all who travel on the Route 7 Southern gateway of Milton. Enjoy this amazing mural and stop by to take a closer look or take a picture!

"In 2013, the Town of Milton received a private donation for a matching grant of $10,000 to replace the aging Municipal Building sign and Gateway Signs. The Milton Artists’ Guild made a call to its membership for design ideas. Lorraine Manley, Amy Cook, Jane Morgan, Mary Ann Duffy Godin, Gisela Alpert and Bill Kaigle submitted designs. Graphic designer Bill Kaigle garnered a nuance from each design and produced the final rendering. The grand unveiling was in perfect timing for Milton's 250th Birthday Celebration. In 2015, Milton received another private donation, to replace the remaining Municipal Building signs as well as the Bombardier Park East entrance sign. In 2017, the Bombardier Park West entrance sign was replaced, funded by the "1/2 Penny for Parks" capital reserve fund."

In 2013, developer Ernie Pomerleau contacted the Milton Artists’ Guild seeking designs to complement the newly built Hannaford market.  Seven MAG members submitted designs.

Out of those 7 designs, two were chosen: The Torii Gates designed by Amy Cook to create a pedestrian gateway, and the depiction of Milton’s two highest peaks and topography designed by Gisela Alpert.

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Amy Cook:

"The Japanese torii gate, which marks the transition from one state of being to another, provides the inspiration for this pedestrian avenue. Like us, the gates are solitary structures yet connected by something unseen."

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Gisela Alpert:

‘In celebrating the diverse topography of our town – the sparkling waterways, sandy soil, and our highest peaks- may this work of art inspire a unity of purpose, direction, and pride.’

Mr. Ernie Pomerleau was the benefactor of the first MAG public art project in Milton, VT.