Chas Smith and Nikita Salmon’s families have been in Vermont for eight generations, and throughout much of that time, they’ve been producing maple sap drinks as a hobby; three years ago these two cousins decided it was time to turn their family hobby into a family business.

Sap! Maple is now sold in over one thousand stores throughout New England, and as far south as New York City. “During the maple season, it’s common for people to drink maple sap straight from the maple trees,” says Salmon. “Chas and I decided to put a twist on this drink that our family — and so many Vermonters — know so well.”

Concentrating the sap slightly brings out more of the natural sweetness, while also increasing the nutrient profile of the products. Adding carbonation to the drink simply elevates the tasting experience even further.

“While it’s easy today to find seltzers that are low in sugar and calories, and sodas that have ‘better for you’ ingredients, none of these product have any tangible health benefits, and are in fact mostly negative for human health,” Smith says. Maple sap, however, is a superfood, thanks to its antioxidant and nutrient properties, which makes Sap! the first carbonated soft drink products that actually can make you healthier.

The Sap! team has been working with the University of Vermont, Cornell University, and other academic researchers to study maple sap, thanks to a Value-Added Producer Grant from the USDA. They expect more research to be released in the coming years linking maple sap to positively impacting human health.

Beyond the initial Maple Sap! soda and seltzer products, the company has recently expanded into birch tree products as well and are now offering a Birch Sap! sparkling water. “There’s an abundance of birch trees in Vermont. Some people say there are actually more birch trees than maple trees in the state,” says Salmon. “What we saw was an untapped potential to produce one of nature’s healthiest natural products.”

Overseeing the production process.

Despite plans to expand the availability of the product further to New York and the Mid-Atlantic in 2018, Sap! remains committed to sustainable production, pledging 1 percent of total revenue each year to organizations involved in the working forest and regenerative agriculture space. “The better we do, the better our sap producers do, the more trees stay productive, and consumers get healthier beverage options,” Salmon says.

Chas Smith and Nikita Salmon – Sap! Maple
Burlington, Vermont
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Top image: Sap! Maple. All photos courtesy by Homer Horowitz.

The post Untapped Potential appeared first on Take Magazine.

Wendy Woodson has an expansive portfolio that, at first glance, might seem without direction. She is a choreographer, writer, director, video artist, artistic director, and professor.

But Woodson’s expansive portfolio starts to make sense when you hear her advice for those looking to pursue a career in the arts: “Say yes to as many different kinds of projects and opportunities that come your way until you can’t keep saying yes because there’s too much on your plate,” says Woodson.

As Roger C. Holden Professor of Theater and Dance at Amherst College, Woodson knows firsthand that being an artist in academia is always a challenge. The arts are often misunderstood in a university setting, in terms of the deep research and process that they offer and require. So, it remains important to “persevere with your own creative impulses and visions in spite of the many hurdles that are part of being a practicing artist in today’s world,” Woodson says.

Image from recent choreography, Two by Two. Photo by Jim Coleman.

In addition to teaching, Woodson serves as artistic director of Wendy Woodson & Present Company Inc(luded), an organization she founded in 1980 to create and present original work in dance, theater, and video, in collaboration with other artists. Since then, Woodson has created more than 100 works for the stage, for site-specific locations, and for video exhibition. These works have been presented throughout the U.S., Europe, New Zealand, and Australia at venues that include the John. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian, and more.

Most recently, Woodson directed Sourcing the Stream at Amherst College, an immersive video, sound, and performance event that looked to the stream as a source for inspiration, solace, reflection, and reaction. For each performance, nine dancers experimented with different ways of spontaneously creating material. The performances were followed by a talk with the dancers and audience members, allowing for unexpected reactions and interactions to influence the evolution of the project.

APE performance of Sourcing the Stream. Photo by Eric Poggenpohl.

“I like to make connections between different ways of knowing or learning, and I believe that this is one of my strongest assets as a teacher and artist,” says Woodson. “I also rely on improvisation and collaboration to develop work. I like to respond to the moment, to think on my feet, and to work with the responses and input of collaborators.”

Relying on improvisation and collaboration to develop work, Woodson encourages a sense of performance that heightens an awareness of the body as a home, a container, and an active playing field that manifests ideas, values, and memories.

Wendy Woodson –choreographer, professor of theater and dance at Amherst College
Amherst, Massachusetts
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Top image: Picture of ‘Transitions’ Video installation at APE. Photo by Wendy Woodson.

The post Wendy Woodson : She Will Persevere appeared first on Take Magazine.

On January 11, 1991, Jean Appolon’s father was brutally murdered in Haiti. After spending months in hiding, he and his two younger brothers immigrated to Boston with their mother. Appolon has worked to be a voice for positive change for Haiti ever since, using dance as his medium to spread hope to those around him.

As the co-founder and artistic director of Jean Appolon Expressions (JAE), Appolon seeks to preserve Haitian folkloric culture, while striving to remain vital for Haitian youth, educational for both his students and audience, and inspiring for all. “Dance is something very important to me, because that is how I healed myself,” says Appolon.

On November 2nd, Appolon will premier a new performance commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during the “Migrations: Dance Performance.” His piece, Vwayaj meditates on the “lakou” and its loss in the Haitian imagination. Appolon worked with MacArthur Genius Fellow and award-winning Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat to collaborate on and create the narrative that will drive the production.

Through his choreography, Appolon ponders various questions: “Where can we find meaning?” and “Where is home?” A crucial point of the performance’s plot is Appolon’s own immigration story, and the stories of other Haitian immigrants living in Boston.

“To me growing up in Haiti, seeing the disturbing ways that they use poverty to keep us Haitians under control, is the worst thing you could do to a country and its people,” Appolon says. This is why in 2006, Appolon created a free annual Summer Dance Institute, Dance Haiti!, in Port-au-Prince for young, aspiring Haitian dancers who don’t have access to dance education.

Dance Haiti! is an intensive, daily after-school program, which also offers academic tutoring and health education. Expanding this summer program into a year-round one is a goal for Appolon, but unfortunately right now the financial support isn’t there.

In addition to his work with JAE, Appolon is lead teacher for the Citydance Program at the Boston Ballet, associate professor of modern dance at UMass Boston, and Afro Haitian dance teacher at the Dance Complex. “The most important lesson that I try to impress upon all of my students,” says Appolon, “is to always be fair, be true, and never give up.”

Jean Appolon–co-founder and artistic director of Jean Appolon Expressions
Boston, Massachusetts
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Top image: Jean Appolon Expressions. All photos courtesy of Jean Appolon

The post #TakeAction: Jean Appolon Uses Dance to Help Haiti appeared first on Take Magazine.

Meg Rogers was introduced to screen printing in college and after graduation began working at a well-known custom screen printer in Brooklyn. There she made contacts with streetwear labels, creating graphics for multiple brands and having her work appear all over the city and even on television channels like MTV.

After grinding through her twenties in The Big Apple, she decided she wanted a calmer lifestyle, something she’s since found in Keene, New Hampshire. Now she’s working full-time on her own projects while carrying lessons learned from her myriad of professional and personal experiences with her. “I spent a year and half at the amazing W.S. Badger Co. [makers of Badger Balm and other organic skincare products] and had the best more traditional work experience that I’ve ever had,” says Rogers. “I learned about B Corps and the importance of surrounding oneself with like-minded folks in order to create change in the world—and now this has been added to my practice … the art of helping, shall we say.”

Dreamspace Series, Shine on Sticker. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Currently Rogers is working on two major projects: Dreamspace, a series of abstract and surreal drawings and paintings; and a new bag and backpack line. Rogers plans to expand the line over the next two years into a fully functioning B Corp that creates healthy manufacturing jobs in the Latin Caribbean.

“I’m creating a fresh and relevant lifestyle brand that uses money as fuel to do good in the world, providing a healthy work environment, fair and equal wages, and generous benefits in areas that have traditionally be exploited by big foreign companies for cheap labor,” Rogers says. “I believe that a business’ role is to help improve its community, and what better place to start than within the community of its most important workers: the manufacturers.”

Much of the motivation to support the Latin Caribbean community comes from time Rogers spent studying at Altos de Chavon La Escuela de Diseño in La Romana, Dominican Republic—a school known across Latin America for its rigorous accelerated two-year design program, and an affiliate of Parsons School of Design. After graduating from Chavon, she transferred to Parsons to finish her bachelors degree in Illustration.

“I recently started traveling back to the Caribbean and remembered how lovely my soul feels when I’m there, so I plan to keep Keene as a home base and travel often (for work and pleasure) to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, spending extended periods of time in both places,” says Rogers.

Monadnock Food Coop mural. Photo courtesy of the artist.

While home in Keene, Rogers has been quite busy: falling in love (a muse, if you will), creating murals, and participating in new projects and events through Machina Arts and Friends of Public Art—two organizations that are pushing to expand the arts scene in Keene and the Monadnock Region.

Meg Rogers – Artist
Keene, New Hampshire
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Top image: Eye of Joy mural, downtown Keene, New Hampshire. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The post Finding Space to Dream appeared first on Take Magazine.

As a court interpreter, Gabriel Sosa is exposed to many narratives and situations he would not otherwise see. In graduate school at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, he decided to research and investigate these issues more incisively. Now, his career as a court interpreter and his career as an artist are intimately linked—both complementing and strengthening each other in powerful ways as he explores the importance of translation, testimony, memory, and social justice.

His latest exhibit, Please interrupt if you don’t understand, on display at A R E A Gallery in Cambridge through October 14th, confronts the use of language in the justice system, the overwhelming nature of the courtroom, and the fallibility of memory. Some of the exhibition’s larger drawings, for instance, use texts based on affidavits prepared by police officers in order to obtain search warrants.

“Due to the lengthy, often repetitive nature of these affidavits, I’ve often wondered how closely these texts are read in their entirety,” Sosa says. “I’m interested in the duality of that language; on the one hand, it’s essential because a warrant can’t be executed without that affidavit; on the other, if it’s glossed over, that language becomes disposable.”

Upon Further Questioning, 2017, charcoal and graphite on paper, 42 in. x 53 in.. Photo © Aníbal Martel

The exhibit also contains a series of drawings created with a typewriter and including fragments from court proceedings that Sosa has either observed or participated in. The drawings show how the typewriter epitomizes much about the justice system—it’s slow, mechanical, old-fashioned, and it only works in a certain way. It’s not malleable or flexible.

“I’m personally invested in this dialogue because I see up close how the justice system works, and in many cases, how it doesn’t work,” says Sosa. “Most people, especially in the art world, aren’t aware of how the court system works. I’m interested in creating awareness for the court system’s nuances, pitfalls, caveats, and opportunities for improvement.”

En dos ocasiones durante la primera quincena de abril, 2017, Graphite, oil, and chalk on paper, 30- x 44-© Aníbal Martel

In court, Sosa regularly hears multiple versions of the same event. For each  witness, their testimony becomes their truth, and as far as they’re concerned, the way they remember it is the way it happened. Sosa’s exhibition explores how memory transforms, and how despite the dilution of memories with the passage of time, people become more certain about the veracity of those memories.

“Words can lose meaning in different ways,” Sosa says. “These losses of significance become reflected in the drawings where texts become illegible—being layered, erased, and stacked one atop another. They become forgotten, tossed away, and recreated.”

While all of the documents Sosa uses in the exhibit are public, specific names have been eliminated as both a gesture of respect and as a subtle reminder that the situations, feelings, and experiences referred to in these works could happen to anyone, including ourselves.

Gabriel Sosa–artist
Somerville, Massachusetts
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Top image: Le queda un minuto (detail), 2017, Graphite on paper. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The post #TakeAction: Gabriel Sosa Wants You to Interrupt appeared first on Take Magazine.

In some cases, Erik Baier has become good friends with the people living in the communes; they share stories and food, they become invested in and supportive of his project. In other cases, they avoid him, making a wide path around him and his “picture making.”

“It’s their loss really, I’m a fairly interesting and funny guy,” says Baier, the photographer behind the lens of the COMMUNE series recently featured at the BigTown Gallery in Rochester, Vermont.

The photos, which to date have been captured in Vermont, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and as far west as Texas, depict the dwellings present in these exclusive communities. Some of the homes featured are made of wood, woven sticks, animal hides, adobe, tarps, paper crete, tires with rammed earth, cloth tents, vans and gutted school buses—the mediums vary widely.

From Erik Baier’s COMMUNE series. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Yet while the materials used to create these homes might differ from what is typical, Baier points out the many similarities between commune residents and the general population. “They are more or less like everyone else. Most prefer the comfort of their community and neighbors, but the outside world, not so much,” Baier says. “I suppose that’s one of the draws they have to live together.”

Due to this hesitance towards outsiders, it sometimes takes Baier months to open the doors to these communities. While some have internet presences, many more were referred by commune dwellers who had lived somewhere else previously. Luckily, Baier is very good at opening doors, and also at old-fashioned persuasive letter writing.

From Erik Baier’s COMMUNE series. Photo courtesy of the artist.

It makes sense that Baier would be drawn to capturing uncommon homes—he and his wife live in a 200-plus-year-old former school house in Rochester. “We both liked the idea of living in an unconventional structure,” says Baier. “Living in two school buildings that are mysteriously fastened together, plus a new painting studio/darkroom/office structure I added a few years ago, has made this unique, if not odd, building very purposeful.”

Baier, who was quite popular on the exhibition scene during the 1980s, started taking pictures at age ten and entered the school of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston at 19. After having been featured at galleries throughout the country and in a few publications, Baier dropped out of the scene and continued to mainly make work for himself, until recently. Now he’s considering making his COMMUNE series into a book.

While seeking to peek into the private lives of these commune members remains a goal for Baier, who is by no means done with the COMMUNE series, he also enjoys his privacy at home in Rochester. “I love knowing most of the townspeople by their first names. I love the quiet and being able to have a day with no human interaction, then the next day being fast forwarded in a car driving somewhere to meet strangers, who then let me make pictures of how and where they live.”

Erik Baier–Photographer
Rochester, Vermont
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Top image, from Erik Baier’s COMMUNE series. All photos courtesy of Erik Baier.

The post An Un-Commune Life appeared first on Take Magazine.

An art and design collective founded by Matt Muller, Levi Bedall, and Augie Lehrecke, Pneuhaus began creating pneumatic architectural installations in 2014. The idea came about through a collaboration with a group at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) who wanted to create an interdisciplinary, mobile gallery space for students to gather, display their work, and host events.

Fabric Prism No. 2, photo courtesy of Pneuhaus

“After making one and inflating it for the first time,” recalls Bedall, who, along with Lehrecke, was then an undergrad in furniture design at RISD, “we were so excited about the energy and engagement people brought to the space that we decided to focus on making more inflatables for our thesis.” The team soon discovered huge potential for innovation in the medium.

Pneumatic Masonry, photo courtesy of Pneuhaus

Recent works include Pneumatic Masonry, an ongoing exploration of semipermanent inflatable construction; Camera Obscura, a modern take on traditional pinhole image projection; and 40 Foot Dome, an empty void that can be used for video art, music, dance performances, and more. Because they’re packable, the inflatables can be transported and rented easily for a wide variety of events.

Looking to the future, Bedall says the collective plans to “continue pushing the boundaries of inflatable spaces,” and also hopes to expand the scale of objects made—with furniture and toys on one end and more permanent buildings on the other. “We are very fortunate to be in a position where our work kind of advertises itself,” he says.

Visitors inside the RGBubble experience color in a whole new light. | Photo courtesy of Pneuhaus

Pneuhaus–Collective
Providence, Rhode Island
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Top image: Fabric Prism No. 2, Pneuhaus. Photo courtesy of Pneuhaus

The post The Pneu Craze appeared first on Take Magazine.

All of Erin Woodbrey’s work stems from a curiosity, bewilderment, and deeply felt confusion about the world. Using a sort of image and material-based existential inquiry, she often finds herself asking, how did we get here?

Woodbrey’s most recent exhibit, Time Mothers—on display at the Gaa Gallery in Provincetown through October 8th, is no exception. “With Time Mothers I wanted to explore the significance of objects,” Woodbrey says. “I was looking at objects as time-based reliquaries, and documents of lived experience, held, worn, used, and re-purposed.”

The objects ranged from books, tables, projectors, images, chairs, eggs, and clothing, to art objects and public spaces. In Time Mothers, Woodbrey explores how we interact and learn from these objects in everyday life, both private and public, as well as the unseen and physical part that happens silently, through accumulation, interaction, and lived experience.

I’ll Be Your Mirror, 2017, color slides with slide projector on plywood stands, variable dimensions. Photo courtesy of the artist.

“There’s something profoundly esoteric about objects, especially things that have been around for awhile or have history. They sort of take on another life outside of their initial and intended purpose,” Woodbrey says. “I always wonder about where things came from and how they’re made.” In this way, the show is also an inquiry into the origin of objects and the act of creating, which begs the question: What drives the impulse to create?

Woodbrey asks these questions and many more through Time Mothers, the title of which is a sort of a poem in itself. It’s a call to action to think about our mothers more, think about the things that care for us, our well being, and betterment. “If we thought of all our mother figures more, maybe we would be less destructive, more supportive, and make better decisions, either in honor or protest of such a figure,” says Woodbrey.

God Mothers, 2017, plaster, paper, books, chair and plywood platform, variable dimensions. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The inspiration for Time Mothers came in part from a sculpture Woodbrey found in a park of a woman holding the head of a horse-like creature. The figure and the animal were created of stone and cast concrete but the woman’s head was missing and in its place was a piece of bronze rebar. “In the absence of that I thought she needed a name. So I called her Time Mother,” Woodbrey says. “The park is a very visible public space, in close proximity to a highway, a train, and a bikeway, but overall the space is a place on the way to another place. I see her as a silent overseer to all of this.” A large scale image of this sculpture serves as the focal piece for the exhibit, which also features a series of ceramic pieces, video stills, and sculptures created using everyday objects (objects that Woodbrey has learned from in the past).

Fragment (Weave), 2017, porcelain, 22 1/2 x 7 x 2 3/4 in. Photo courtesy of the artist.

“Spaces and things not only reveal and tell stories about our history, but they have the power to form our lived experience,” Woodbrey says. “Our interactions with objects and nature illuminate a certain causality of our thinking, accumulation of actions, and maybe even, if we choose to listen and look closely, what eventualities may exist ahead.”

Erin Woodbrey–artist
Provincetown, Massachusetts
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Top image: installation of Time Mothers. Photo courtesy of Erin Woodbrey.

The post The Time Mother appeared first on Take Magazine.

The idea for Mobile Incubator, Lucas Spivey’s winning submission for the Public Art Residency on the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza, came as he was traveling to different regions of the U.S. for consulting projects. “I manage the Services Invisible network of over 30 consultants, and I connect entrepreneurs with these folks to scale their business,” says Spivey.

At first glance, Spivey’s Mobile Incubator is a vintage camper turned mobile office. In reality, it has a lot of facets. “It’s a public artwork, podcast studio, consultation office, and selfie destination,” Spivey says. “The point is to get arts and business together in a fun way, in whatever place that makes sense.” The residency in Boston goes through October 21st.

The story of Mobile Incubator begins in The Dalles, Oregon, where Spivey purchased the 1957 camper, covered in bullet holes and filled with yellow jacket nests. “The only original pieces are the aluminum skin, the windows and trim, the steel chassis, and the license plate light,” says Spivey. “I purposely picked a tear-down because I didn’t want to ruin a perfectly good interior when I put in the office.”

The walls are a 1,000-piece mosaic of reclaimed wood that has been glued and nailed together, stained, poly-ed and waxed. Spivey also installed a 200-watt solar system on the roof, a full kitchen, satellite internet, and podcasting, printing, and teleconferencing equipment. He purposefully avoided putting in a bathroom or sleeping quarters to maintain the space’s “get it done” atmosphere.

With this public art residency the BCA sought interaction and engagement with the community, and Spivey’s incubator has delivered. “When I open up in the morning and put out the lawn flamingos, the dogs start coming to say hello, the old couple who had a camper comes by to swap stories, a developer across the street tells his story of a $11 million loss, the daycare center comes by for a dance party,” Spivey says. “It’s sort of a clubhouse now in the South End.”

But between the day-to-day interactions, the incubator is brewing big things in Boston. On November 1st, Spivey’s podcast Culture Hustlers will premiere, featuring successful entrepreneurs and leaders in regionally strong industries like comedy, fashion, history, food, and sports.

So far podcast guests include Erin Robertson, who just won Project Runway; stand-up and comedy writer Alingon Mitra; Josh Luke and Meredith Kasabian from Best Dressed Signs; Alice Saunders from ForestBound; and Emily Isenberg of Isenberg Projects, among others.

Spivey, who earned his undergraduate degree in art at the University of Washington-Seattle and his graduate degree in finance at Endicott College, feels strongly about the value of learning practical business advice rather than just theory or terminology. A rare BFA/MBA hybrid, Spivey wants the Mobile Incubator project to help encourage the exchange of information between creative and business-minded individuals. “A lot of people think arts and culture need to be protected and stewarded,” he says. “I say we arm it with business principles and let it take over the world.”

Have a question you want answered? Send questions to @mobileincubator on Twitter and they’ll #askahustler for you. Artists can also sign up for free consultation services at Mobile Incubator.

Lucas Spivey–artist and consultant, Mobile Incubator
Boston, Massachusetts
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All images by Melissa Blackall

The post Lucas Spivey: Mobile Incubator for the Arts appeared first on Take Magazine.

Before Wagatha’s, Neil Reilly was a commodities trader. More specifically, he spent 20 years yelling and screaming in the cotton futures trading pit.

Like many New England transplants, Reilly moved to Vermont in the late ’90s to escape the full-time chaos of the trading pits in favor of a better place to raise his family. In search of the right opportunity to partner with someone of similar values to build a company with integrity, humor, and friendship, Reilly met former business partner Norman Levitz, a chef and culinary educator.

Levitz recently stepped down, but the organic dog biscuit company they built together, Wagatha’s, is thriving 10 years later. Production has grown significantly from the initial product launch in 2007 of one toasted whole wheat biscuit sold in one Vermont pet store. Now Wagatha’s biscuits—in 11 flavors—can be found in stores, including Whole Foods, throughout Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

Wagatha’s production takes place in a 4,000-square-foot bakery in Manchester, Vermont, capable of producing 150,000+ biscuits daily. It’s here that Wagatha’s produces its array of versatile flavors, from pumpkin pie to Tuscan pizza to nutty banana. “We are always toying with new flavor profiles,” says Reilly. “For instance, recently we have been discussing the idea of a coconut flavored biscuit; I happen to love coconut and it’s very good for dogs.”

The biscuits are made with only the highest quality organic ingredients. Reilly has his own on-site taste tester—his 9-year-old Cavachon named Maggie. “She comes to work at Wagatha’s and helps us test new biscuit flavors,” Reilly says. “It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!”

Wagatha’s currently has 10 employees, many of whom have been with the company since its inception. It’s also a family business. “My wife, Erin, who is a singer and songwriter by trade, works at Wagatha’s a few days a week and has even written an incredible story, Wagatha’s Tale, that we hope to incorporate into the brand going forward,” Reilly says. His son, James, also does marketing events for the company, and his daughter, Carly, has been helping out with social media and the website.

Neil Reilly – Owner, Wagatha’s
Manchester, Vermont
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The post A Tale of Two Tails appeared first on Take Magazine.