For Immediate Release: August 21, 2018
Contact: Susan Strano, Marketing Director
sstrano@benningtonmuseum.org
802-447-1571 ext. 204
Image: Mark A. Greenberg
“Woody Guthrie: Dustbowl Balladeer” a presentation by Mark A. Greenberg
Bennington Museum is pleased to present Woody Guthrie: Dustbowl Balladeer, a presentation by Mark A. Greenberg. This program is part of the Music at the Museum series now in its third year. Held on Saturday, September 8 at 2:00 pm in the Ada Paresky Education Center and Paul Paresky Court of the Bennington Museum, this concert is free and open to the public thanks to the support of Alison Nowak and Robert Cane. Reservations are not required for this performance, and it is accessible to those with disabilities. This is a Vermont Humanities Council program hosted by Bennington Museum. (Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the NEH or VHC.)
In his music and his writing, Woody Guthrie chronicled the devastation of the 1930s dust storms and the Great Depression, championing the dispossessed as well as economic and social injustice. Many of his songs such as “This Land is Your Land” have become American classics, and he has influenced subsequent songwriters, among them Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. This presentation by Greenberg explores Guthrie’s always-rambling life and legacy through readings from his prolific prose writings, recorded and live examples of his music, and slides of Guthrie’s own art and photographs documenting his complex life and times.
Mark Greenberg is an educator, writer, musician, producer, and proprietor of Upstreet Productions, specializing in radio, video, and audio projects involving traditional folk music and oral history. He has been involved with folk and traditional music since the 1960s. Greenberg taught American Studies and Humanities at Goddard College from 1991-2003 and courses in American vernacular music at the University of Vermont from 2006-2015, including the travel-study course Chasing the Blues. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago.
Greenberg has produced audio documentaries for National Public Radio, and his work has received a Grammy Nomination (Doc Watson Sings Songs for Little Pickers), NAIRD Award, awards from Parents’ Choice and the American Library Association, and a Peabody Award Nomination (Spotlight: Radio Visits with Vermont Artists). His musical groups have included The Lake Country String Band, Coco & the Lonesome Road Band, Licks & Notions, Bob Yellin & the Joint Chiefs of Bluegrass, and Dave Van Ronk’s Kazoo-o-phonic Jug Band. He currently plays with the duos Good Old Wagon and Anything Goes.
About the Museum
Bennington Museum, located at 75 Main Street (Route 9) in Bennington, has the largest public collection of Grandma Moses paintings in the world as well as the largest collection of 19th-century Bennington pottery. On view at through November 4 is Crash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermont. On a nice day, you can further explore the museum grounds with a walk through the Hadwen Woods on the George Aiken Wildflower Trail. The Museum is open daily through October 30. Regular admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and students over 18. Admission is never charged for younger students or to visit the museum shop. Visit the museum’s website www.benningtonmuseum.org or call 802-447-1571 for more information.
Bennington Museum is a member of ArtCountry, a consortium of notable art and performance destinations in the scenic northern Berkshires of Massachusetts and southern Green Mountains of Vermont, including The Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art , Williamstown Theatre Festival (20 minutes away); and MASS MoCA (25minutes away). Visit ArtCountry.org for more information on these five great cultural centers.