St. Johnsbury Area Culture
The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium sits proudly on Main 
Street in St. Johnsbury, bronze lions guarding the steps to the entrance. Its magnificent Lambert Packard-designed building is on the list of the National Historic Register, and the museum is now applying to be a National Historic Landmark. We in St. Johnsbury already think of it as one of the town’s key landmarks, and know that whether it is your first visit or your 100th, there is always something new to discover at the Fairbanks.
We had the pleasure recently to talk with Anna Rubin, Director of External Relations at the Fairbanks Museum. She let us in on what’s happening at the museum for the upcoming summer season, and a little bit of “scoop” about future plans for the museum’s expansion.
DiscoverStJ: What’s new at the Fairbanks that visitors and local residents would enjoy seeing?
Rubin: Coming up right away is our birding program with our
resident expert, Charlie Browne (also Executive Director of the museum). This one is on “Warbler Watching,” and consists of two days at the museum (May 7 and 14) and two days in the field (May 10 and 17). These programs fill up really quickly because we limit the size of the group so we can go in the field without making too much noise. I’ve learned so much about birds from Charlie over the years – the whole landscape comes alive when you watch for birds.
DSJ: Any special events for the summer?
Rubin: Our “Fridays at Fairbanks” family programs take place 
throughout the summer, during July and August, and are free with admission to the museum. Our museum educators take turns running workshops for children up to about age 8, with their parents, and they cover all kinds of topics kids find fascinating: animal sounds, bubbles, rainbows, butterflies, and many more. These Friday morning family events have become very popular because they are so much fun!
DSJ: How about something for the star-gazers?
Rubin: Mark Breen will host a “star party” August 11, to coincide with the Perseid meteor showers. Vermont Public Radio will broadcast the event live, if you can’t be there, but we encourage everyone who loves astronomy to come on out and enjoy a great summer evening of watching the stars. If the weather’s bad, there will be a rain date. We haven’t finalized the location just yet, but we’ll choose a place where the viewing will be clear and an unlimited number of people can attend.
DSJ: Do you have any new exhibits planned inside the museum for this summer?
Rubin: We have two. One is currently on exhibit and will be in the museum until next March. It’s on Vermont inventors from the 1700s to the present day. The exhibit shows the ingenious ways Vermonters have dealt with difficult circumstances and created a solution to their problem. For instance, Orvis of the outdoor sports store fame was a Vermonter who invented a way to keep fishing line dry so it wouldn’t rot. And we have a huge Fairbanks scale on exhibit. It’s large enough to hold a wagon, and people can get on it.
The other exhibit is just for the summer. A Vermont artist, Brian Cohen, created an alphabet book with his beautiful etchings of birds on each page, along with a rhyming couplet written by Cohen’s wife, Holiday Eames. The exhibit, which was at the Brattleboro Museum in 2007, shows the original printed and hand-colored version of each image in the book. This exhibit is just beautiful – you really have to see it to appreciate how lovely each etching is.
DSJ: Okay, Anna, what’s the inside story about the Fairbanks Museum’s plans for expansion?
Rubin: Well, I can tell you this much: we are looking at a lot of 
exciting options for the museum. We are planning a new structure to be built that will house the planetarium, the weather center, and a classroom. That will be built on our current site, in the back. We want the new building to be energy efficient and LEED-certified for its “green” status. Another thing we really want for the museum is to be able to house everything in our collection on site. Right now some of our items are stored in a less-than-optimal environment, and we need to have all of our precious items in climate-controlled areas. So that is a real priority for the new structure. Right now, we’re at the “readiness and feasibility” phase – we know what we want, and we have to figure out what we can actually do. We’ll keep everyone posted when we have more specific plans. For now, it’s an exciting prospect that we know will bring the museum up to modern standards so people can continue to enjoy the Fairbanks Museum into the future.
St. Johnsbury Cultural Life
The cultural life of St. Johnsbury has been greatly influenced by the generosity of the Fairbanks family. The Fairbanks family founded both the Fairbanks Museum and the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, a National Historic Landmark. The Athenaeum houses a valuable art collection and the Fairbanks Museum has a planetarium as well as a plethora of historical collections, including outstanding dioramas.
Artists and writers flock to St. Johnsbury, lured by the tranquility and beautiful vistas in the town and surrounding areas. Among the artists located in St. Johnsbury is Stephen Huneck, founder of Dog Mountain, which contains the world's only Dog Chapel. Local writers include Reeve Lindbergh and Nathaniel Tripp. We have compiled a directory of local writers and artists, as well as links to their work.
Poetry is thriving in the Saint Johnsbury, which houses the unique poetry collection of Beth Kanell. Beth is a writer who also mentors many other poets. You can read about her thoughts on poetry and other subjects on her Kingdom Books blog.
Local Writers Directory
Local Artists Directory