The Big Barn
Zena Howard is one of the award-winning architects who designed the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. In June 2018, Ms. Howard visited the Clemmons Family Farm to support the early creative placemaking visioning for the historic Big Barn.
The Big Barn is the future venue of African American and African diaspora visual and performing arts programs.
The Big Barn is the future venue of African American and African diaspora visual and performing arts programs.
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Above: Enjoy Zena Howard's highlights of her speech at the opening reception of the "Making History, Creating Place" design weekend at the Farm in Vermont (left) and her comments at the end of the weekend (right).
With support from ArtPlace America and the Vermont Agency for Commerce and Community Development/Division of Historic Preservation, the Clemmons Family Farm has begun the work to transform the beautiful 1700's Big Barn into a venue for African-American and African diaspora visual and performing arts. The work will take course over three phases to preserve its historic structural beauty, revitalize its agricultural uses, and recreate the space as a venue for African American and African diaspora visual arts and performing arts programs, educational enrichment, and community-building.
With support from ArtPlace America and the Vermont Agency for Commerce and Community Development/Division of Historic Preservation, the Clemmons Family Farm has begun the work to transform the beautiful 1700's Big Barn into a venue for African-American and African diaspora visual and performing arts. The work will take course over three phases to preserve its historic structural beauty, revitalize its agricultural uses, and recreate the space as a venue for African American and African diaspora visual arts and performing arts programs, educational enrichment, and community-building.
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Left: Nearly 30 of Vermont's talented artists and architects spent all day with Zena Howard in a "Making History, Creating Place" design charette to envision future creative uses of the "Big Barn" on the Clemmons Family Farm.
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Above: (Left) Barn Meditation is a short story-telling video about the Clemmons' childhood memories of stacking hay in the Big Barn in the 1960's. (Right) Making History, Creating Place: Preservation and Creative Placemaking at the Big Barn. in 2018.
Built into a hill, the two-level Big Barn at the Clemmons Family Farm was used for dairy cows, sheep, horses, poultry (lower level) and hay (upper level) from the time of its construction in the late 1700's and through the years up to the mid-1990's. It was also one of the Clemmons children's favorite places to play when they were growing up on the Farm in the 1960's.
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Above left: During her weekend at the Clemmons Family Farm, Zena Howard held a mentoring session with a group of middle school girls from the local community. Above right: The historic Big Barn at the Clemmons Family Barn has enthralled local residents and other visitors to the Farm since the early 1800's. The barn is a popular subject for landscape artists and photographers.
