Reflection on Community Art Projects

By Madeline King

Madeline working at French Heritage Day, helping with En Plen air watercolor painting activity

During my internship at the Winooski Mill Museum, I assisted with the Story Quilt and the Community Mandala Weaving workshops. Both activities gave Winooski residents an opportunity to create and use art as a way to tell stories and connect with their community. I was excited to have this internship opportunity since I knew I would be moving to Winooski at the end of the summer, and it has allowed me to get to know the local history and my new community.

Both projects were great learning experiences, but my favorite was the Community Mandala. I liked hearing about the project’s background from artist Sarah Haskell, who held a workshop at the end of August for volunteers. The participants learned about the project’s three parts: weaving the mandala, crafting clothespin people to represent the community, and writing your favorite thing about Winooski on a ribbon. Meeting other volunteers during the workshop made me feel like part of a wider, connected Winooski community. This feeling grew as I got to share the creative process with everyone who contributed to the mandala during the Fiber Fair and Onion Fest.

closeup of Clothespin Dolls from Community Mandala

 My favorite part of the project was making clothespin dolls with community members. Not only were they incredibly fun to make, but they also let the personality of the community shine brightly. One doll I will never forget was made during the Onion Fest by a little boy around two years old. I could tell that he was making up his design on the spot, but he had great fun while choosing fabric for a cape and a popsicle stick for a staff. By the time he came to me for gluing he was making a vampire. Every time I confirmed what he wanted me to glue, he would answer with a firm “Yes” as if that had been his plan all along. Now, every time I see his vampire in the mandala I will be reminded how much fun the little boy had while participating in the community project.

Interning at the Mill Museum has been a valuable experience and allowed me to plunge deeper into my study of Anthropology. This field is all about the people involved in a community. During my time at the Mill Museum I learned important anthropological skills and have grown in my ability to work with different groups within a community. These projects were a great way for me to dive into everything a museum has to offer and to give back to the area as a local college student.

Madeline King interned at the Mill Museum during the summer and fall of 2024. She grew up in Franklin County, Vermont and now lives in Winooski while attending the University of Vermont. She is a junior studying anthropology and astronomy.

Listening Party: Sharing Audio Recordings from the Past

By Will Hamilton

As an intern at the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum, I got the opportunity to help realize a collaboration between the museum and Vermont Folklife through a "listening party" held April 17th, 2024. A listening party is when a curated selection of clips from oral interviews is played for an audience and accompanied by group discussion. Vermont Folklife has used this format to bring historical records out of archives and into engagement with communities. This particular event highlights a collection of cassette recordings in the University of Vermont's Special Collections library. The tapes were created between 1985 and 1989 by a Vermont Oral Historian named Roberta Strauss. Roberta was interested in Winooski's labor history and interviewed those who'd been observers or, more often, participators in the unionization of the Winooski/Burlington mills. The goal of the listening party was to offer a glimpse of 20th-century Winooski through these recordings in an environment many of the voices once inhabited: the Champlain Mill. 

My role was to sift through the collection for engaging stories. The main challenge was finding the hidden gems within a collection that contained about 20 hours' worth of tape. Through this unique and valuable experience, I learned about Winooski's history and other things I would have never encountered in a more traditional research project: French-Canadian home remedies, the process of wool carbonization, etc. Furthermore, by the end of my research, I felt I'd gotten to know the voices, particularly Roberta Strauss.

Alongside the museum's executive director, Miriam Block, and Mary Wesley from Vermont Folklife, we decided on 13 final clips. They ranged in subject matter from accidents in the mills to the Great Flood of 1927 and in speakers from Raymond Roy, the former superintendent of the Burlington/Winooski mills, to a "labor priest" named Edward Gelineau. Among the audience were members of the Roy family, along with others who have family who've worked in textile mills. The audience's makeup allowed our discussions to extend far beyond the clips and into other stories of life in Winooski. During these discussions, I felt most grateful to be part of this project. I've spent much of college thinking about how to translate my learning into services to my community, a goal that can feel distant in academia. This project was a great way to connect to a community beyond UVM and learn about local history in the process.

Will Hamilton was the 2024 spring intern during his sophomore year at UVM. He studies anthropology with minors in Eastern European and environmental studies. Next semester he is studying abroad in Adelaide Australia where he will take a course in curatorial studies focusing on aboriginal artifacts at the South Australian Museum. 

World Child Labor Map

by Ava Fusco

During my internship at the Mill Museum, I have had the opportunity to dive deep into the appalling world of modern child labor, a pervasive and often ignored issue that continues to affect children around the globe. My research has allowed me to contextualize child labor in the present day garment industry in tandem with its extensive history in textile mills.  

Mill history is intertwined with the history of child labor. In the 1800s and early 1900s, it was common, even expected, for children to work in textile mills. Often from rural, impoverished areas, many children migrated to cities and industrial labor hubs to support their families. Work in the mills was extremely dangerous: children were expected to work long hours, often inhaling harsh chemicals for hours at a time. Many of them lost fingers and limbs to the massive machines. In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was founded, and sought to abolish all child labor in the states, launching a massive campaign to raise awareness around the horrors of work in factories and mills. It wasn’t until 1938 that Congress passed a child labor ban and Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law – and yet, the issue continues.

When people from the United States think of child labor, they are most likely imagining a concept far-off and foreign, concealed in the factories of China and the mines of the Congo. This perception is not entirely inaccurate. Countries in Asia, such as China, have the highest rates of child labor worldwide. Child labor is found in all steps of the garment manufacturing process. Children in Uzbekistan and Benin pick cotton under threats from authorities and traffickers. Young girls and boys in India and Bangladesh drop out of school to spin yarn for hours a day. Embellishments and final touches are made during the “cut-make-trim” stage, where children in China are tasked with dyeing, sewing, folding, and packaging clothing. The term “fast fashion” is no metaphor. Clothing produced by child labor is assembled at a rapid rate, and shipped out even faster. 

Child labor in the garment industry predominantly occurs overseas – though customers in the U.S and Europe certainly benefit from it. But one cannot write child labor off as an entirely overseas issue. While the US certainly likes to consider itself a beacon of freedom and equality, darker truths lurk underneath. A New York Times expose recently documented migrant children from Latin America as young as twelve illegally working in factories across the country, from Cheerios to Ford to Whole Foods to J. Crew. Even more migrant children were found to be working in unsanitary conditions as cleaners in slaughterhouses in rural areas. 

The culmination of my research is an interactive map, created with ArcGIS StoryMaps, that explores child labor in the garment sector around the world. I hope it can be used as a tool for education by providing museumgoers of all ages with an accessible yet comprehensive overview of child labor. 

Ava Fusco interned at the Mill Museum during the summer of 2023. Ava recently graduated from UVM with a BA in anthropology, geography and a minor in writing. This summer, Ava is starting a Forest Foundation Fellowship at the International Institute of New England

A Tribute to Brad Larson, Founder of Story Habitat

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Brad Larson, the founder of Story Habitat, passed away on November 2nd, 2023 at his home in Sharon, Massachusetts. The Heritage Winooski Mill Museum was lucky to work with Brad over the past year and a half. With funding we received from the Vermont Arts Council, Brad installed a customized Story Kiosk workstation in our gallery in September 2022, with the option for folks to record stories from their own phone or computer. After our workstation was installed in Winooski, Brad regularly reached out to me with ideas to help boost community participation in the Story Kiosk project. He really wanted to see our project flourish and genuinely got excited about every story we received. I am grateful for the time I got to know Brad and for his contribution in strengthening our community.

Brad Larson, bottom right, with fellow museum professionals at Industrial History New England meet-up, Springfield, MA, November 2022

Brad was a kind person, highly respected and very much loved in the museum field. Before starting his own company, Brad worked at the Boston Children’s Museum for a decade as a technology developer. He was a passionate advocate for storytelling, noting how stories could inspire empathy and understanding. Brad generously recorded his own Immigration Story for our kiosk, which I have shared below.

As a tribute to Brad, I invite you to use the link below to share your own immigration or mill story. I know Brad would be touched.

-Miriam Block
Executive Director, Heritage Winooski Mill Museum

Brad Larson shares his family Immigration Story for the Mill Museum’s Story Kiosk project.

Internship Reflection

by Shannon Kaiser

This summer I have been interning at the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum. I’m studying art history and history at UVM and will enter my senior year this fall. Admittedly, I did not know much about the Mill Museum or the history of Winooski before starting this internship. This position initially caught my eye because I am very interested in museum work and local history. In the description of the internship, I read that knowing how to knit or at least being willing to learn how to knit was a plus for potential applicants. I thought, well okay, that’s not really what I’m interested in, and I’ve never tried knitting or any kind of textile arts, but I’ll see how it goes.

Shannon (right) teaching museum visitors how to spool knit at French heritage Day.

      As it turns out, learning how to knit has been one of my favorite parts of this internship. I first learned how to knit using a spool (known as French knitting or spool knitting) for Winooski’s French Heritage Day event. For the French Heritage celebration, I spent the day with yarn and a crochet hook in hand, showing visitors of all ages how to use a spool to knit. The visitors who tried spool knitting ranged from young children trying it for the first time to seniors who were delighted to try it again after not having seen that style of knitting for years! I was touched by listening to adults describe how they had learned how to knit on a spool as children and had forgotten about this craft until now. The response to French knitting amazed me because, for older people, it reminded them of their childhood, and for children, it reminded them of making Rainbow Loom bracelets. Many visitors found the craft fascinating and expressed that they had never heard of it before, much less tried it. I replied, “I hadn’t either until just recently!”

spool knitting Instructions Shannon Developed

        Not only did I learn how to French knit, but I then learned how to knit the standard way with two needles with the assistance of the Stitch Together program. The Stitch Together program is a knitting group that meets at AALV (The Association of Africans Living in Vermont) in collaboration with the Winooski Mill Museum. This was another organization I had no knowledge of before starting my internship. Previously, I had only known knitting as a task that continually frustrated my grandmother. I recall her knitting a few rows, and then groaning as she would rip them out and asking why there wasn’t something more interesting to do. Perhaps my grandmother, who was from Lowell, Massachusetts, an area famously entrenched in the history of mechanized cloth production, had simply had enough of textiles by the time she reached old age. However, I imagine she would have really enjoyed the friendship and camaraderie that the Stitch Together program fosters.

Learning to knit has been so enjoyable for me because of the connections I have been able to gain with community members both during French Heritage Day and at AALV. And perhaps, to a small extent, this is a taste of the sense of togetherness and socialization that drew so many young women to leave their homes and work at the textile mills in Winooski and Burlington centuries ago.

Heritage Winooski Mill Museum Celebrates 25 Years

In 1997, St. Michael’s College faculty, Winooski Historical Society members, Winooski educators, and others began to explore and share the industrial and cultural histories of Winooski Falls, with a focus on the textile mills. Heritage Winooski quickly grew into a successful series of programs and a work-in-progress exhibit at the Champlain Mill. 

Andre Senecal, an early museum curator, designed the Heritage Winooski logo to show the Winooski skyline over time. From left to right, the skyline includes a St. Francis Xavier spire, the cement factory smokestack, the American Woolen Mill Building No. 4 (now the Champlain Mill), the old fire station tower (now next to the fire station on Main Street), and the St. Louis Convent tower (no longer in existence).

In 1998, the museum opened to the public in space on the lower level of the Champlain Mill provided by mill owner Ray Pecor. Exhibits and programs expanded as Winooski community members and mill worker families shared objects, photographs and stories. Programs were developed to support K-12 teachers, including Clickity Clack, Wool, Work and Waterpower, a curriculum guide prepared by Jeffrey Badillo, Teresa Hawes and Cathy Richards. In 2000, museum director Laura Krawitt edited The Mills at Winooski Falls: Winooski and Burlington, Vermont, a collection of essays and oral histories about Winooski mill workers and operations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Heritage Winooski was a project of St. Michael’s College until 2009. The Mill Museum, now organized as a non-profit organization and located on the main level of the Champlain Mill, continues to tell stories of Winooski’s industrial and cultural past, often weaving them into more contemporary histories and issues. Under the leadership of Miriam Block, who joined the museum as director in 2016, and with support from generous donors and community organizations, the museum collaborates with local groups around labor movements, activism, and social justice. 

2018 event Poster for concert of labor songs performed by Ric Palieri. The Museum sponsored the concert in support of Vermont Reads book Bread and Roses , Too by Katherine Patterson.

In recent years, we have refreshed permanent exhibits and installed temporary exhibits that draw many new visitors to the museum. The museum continues to involve community members in creating exhibits and presenting programs. For Mill To Mall: Historic Space Reimagined (2022), viewers contributed their memories of shopping and dining in the Champlain Mill. In 2023, we participated in the Welcome Blanket project, inspiring community members to knit, crochet and quilt blankets for New Americans that were displayed in the museum. Our innovative Story Kiosk is a permanent digital display that evolves as people add their stories at the museum or online through the Story Kiosk Virtual Portal. 

In celebration of our 25th Anniversary, a new display highlighting the history of the museum is now on view in our gallery. The community is invited to record their memories about the Mill Museum with our Story Kiosk at the museum or on-line. Stories about mill connections and immigration also welcome! Anyone who records a story by 8/31/23 will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card for Waterworks Restaurant!

Join us at the Mill Museum on Sunday September 3rd from 10am - 2pm for our 25th Anniversary Celebration! We'll showcase community stories and announce the gift card winner at the event.

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Article contributed by Margaret Tamulonis, HWMM Vice Chair and Prudence Doherty, HWMM Board Chair,

Stitch Together Program Begins!

Last night we began Stitch Together, a new chapter of our collaboration with AALV’s Women's Cafe support group. The Mill Museum organized a field trip to Must Love Yarn for the participants to pick out yarn for our next knitting project, which the women decided will be another group project! A huge thanks to Jennifer Arbuckle and Arianna Soloway at Must Love Yarn for hosting us!

The women’s group had previously knit and crocheted two blankets to be included in our Welcome Blanket project earlier this year. The women loved knitting together so much, they asked for the Mill Museum’s support to continue! For this next project, the women will be knitting sample strips to try different knit techniques. The strips will be stitched together to make more community blankets.

Stitch Together will meet twice a month at AALV to offer Refugee women from East Africa an outlet to learn new knitting skills, socialize, make new community connections, and heal from past trauma.

Stitch Together is made possible with support from the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, Northfield Savings, Vermont Federal Credit Union, and individual donors.

If you would like to support Stitch Together, financial contributions welcome!

95th Anniversary of the Flood of 1927

Today marks the 95th anniversary of the Flood of 1927.

The flood started on November 2nd and lasted till the late hours of November 4th with an estimated 84 deaths with 55 in the Winooski Basin alone. This catastrophe cost the state around 35 million dollars to fix infrastructure, housing and and displacement.

The American Woolen Company’s plant suffered a damage of 1 million dollars. The water washed straight through the first floor of the plant. Efforts were made in vain to save the bridge between Burlington and Winooski. To replace the bridge between Burlington and Winooski, the government erected a pontoon bridge, and eventually rebuilt the bridge which we still use today.

Watch clips of the flood in Winooski in this vintage film.
Can you pick out the Woolen Mill, the Champlain Mill, and the old Grist Mill?

Grant awarded to Mill Museum to support Local Refugee Group participating in Welcome Blanket Initiative

Workshop participant at AALV, sharing her crochet skills.

The Heritage Winooski Mill Museum recently received $3,000 from the Vermont Community Foundation’s Spark! Connecting Community Grant to support a series of textile workshops for local Refugee women so they can partake as makers in Welcome Blanket, a grassroots project that’s core purpose is to welcome refugees to America.

Welcome Blanket is a nation-wide project that invites the public to actively welcome New Americans through craftivism. Participants are invited to create handmade blankets that are displayed at a local museum to amplify the message, and then gifted to New Americans as a symbol of welcome.

Grant funds will support the Women’s Café empowerment program at AALV, a Refugee Resettlement organization in Burlington. Participants in the weekly Women’s Café are War Survivors from Congo, who are trying to move beyond trauma, to heal and find their voice, as they face life transitions of living as African immigrants in a safer environment.

The Mill Museum staff have already met with a group of twenty women from the Women’s Café several times to discuss the project. The women have expressed sincere interest in participating in Welcome Blanket and are excited about the workshops. AALV Case Manager Irene Webster, who prefers to be called KeruBo, runs the Women’s Café. KeruBo says the workshops “will be a wonderful, communal, unifying and healing activity.“ Museum Director Miram Block adds “the workshops will give the women the opportunity to learn new skills, and give them a meaningful way to connect to the greater community”.

Some crochet examples from workshop participant.

The workshops will begin in late Sept. and run through Nov. and will focus on teaching skills in knitting, crochet, and felting. Some participants already have excellent crochet skills and will be encouraged to help each other so they can work on the project outside of the workshops. The tools and materials such as crochet hooks and yarn will be supplied. Participants will be able to keep the tools and extra materials to continue crafting beyond the project.

Two seasoned crafters will lead the workshops: Elin Melchior, who is the Study Abroad Coordinator at Champlain College, will teach the knitting and felting sessions. Crochet sessions will be taught by Emily Gauthier, who works and teaches classes at Must Love Yarn in Shelburne. A Swahili translator will be present at each workshop. The Women’s Café group will also be invited to visit the museum, where they can see their completed work displayed in the Welcome Blanket exhibition and have an opportunity to share their immigration stories. 

The Welcome Blanket exhibition will open at the Mill Museum in Dec. 2022. Everyone is invited to participate. People are encouraged to start making blankets and submit them to the museum by Nov. 23rd. Contributors are also invited to write personal messages about their own family immigration story and words of welcome. The blankets and messages will be on display at the museum through Feb. 2023 before distributing them to the local Refugee population. The museum will partner with AALV to distribute the blankets.

Crochet examples from workshop participant.

In addition to the grant funding, the textile workshops are supported by material donations from the following local Community Partners: YarnVT, A Quilter’s Garden, Grand Isle Art Works, Green Mountain Yarn & Fiber, Hermit Thrush Fiber Co, Karen Freeman/SeamWorks.

Update (9/27/22) We are pleased to announce additional grant funding of $1,500 from Vermont Mutual Insurance Giving Fund to support the Women’s Café Textile Workshops! We are truly grateful!

Meet our new summer intern!

Say hello to our summer intern, Joshua!
Joshua is a rising Senior at Winooski High School. Joshua and his family moved to Winooski from Zambia in 2020. He is using his time at the Mill Museum to learn about local history and various ways that a small museum can support and enrich the local community. Today, he learned about waterpower while helping out with a riverfront walking tour. In the next few weeks, we'll take field trips to the Fleming Museum, Middlebury Museum of Art, and the Henry Sheldon Museum to compare different types of museums. Joshua will use his summer experiential learning internship as research for his senior capstone project.