Advance Preview:
NETIM - THE NEW ENGLAND TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM
Contact: Ed Janeway, Publicity (802)295-7588 <Ed.Janeway@Valley.Net>
Members of the Press are invited to attend a briefing at the AMTRAK Station in White River Junction Friday Sept. 7 at 4:30 pm to mark the opening of the New England Transportation Institute and Museum (NETIM). The orientation session is being held on the eve of the 9th Annual Festival, the Glory Days of the Railroad which will be celebrated the next day. Special guest will be Brain Searles, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
NETIM’s VISION is to create a bi-state campus style museum and institute, and scenic excursion railway, dedicated to preserving and promoting the Upper Connecticut River Valley’s rich transportation history, to enhancing civic and community life, and to supporting the development of an efficient and sustainable transportation system for New England.
Its mission is to marshall the economic resources and community support that will preserve and enhance the unique and historically important railroad infrastructure of the region by transforming it to promote community revitalization in White River Junction and West Lebanon.
NETIM has three major components:
The Museum which will contain 28 exhibits illustrating more than 350 years of river and rail transportation history and perspective on its importance to the region’s future. Environmental issues concerning this history will be highlighted.
The Scenic Excursion Railway which will feature a demonstration ride during Glory Days in refurbished coach cars between White River Junction and the Montshire Museum in Norwich. It is hoped eventually that such a service could operate between White River Junction and Wells River, VT and later potentially further North in both Vermont and New Hampshire.
The Institute will complement the museum’s retrospective focus with an equally important perspective serving as a center to bring together experts on transportation policy and planning. It would help promote public awareness of issues through conferences, exhibits, collaborative research and workshops.
The Museum has received grant commitments totaling nearly $90,000 from area foundations to commence its operations.
Directors of the new museum: John Rogers of Lebanon, President; David Briggs, White River Junction, Vice President, Administration; Norman Miller, Norwich, Vice President, Museum, Joseph A. Massey, Norwich, Vice President, Excursion Train and Facilities, Thomas Adler, Norwich, Vice-President, Institute; Mark P. Johnson, Lebanon, Secretary; David Bott, Hanover, Treasurer; Frederick Bailey, Charlestown, NH; William Brigham, Randolph; VT, Byran Hathorn, Ely, VT; Macy Lawrence, Woodstock, VT, Leonard Cadwallader, Vital Communities, White River Junction.
Glory Days contacts Hartford Parks and Recreation www.hartford-vt.org. Tom Sabo tail@tds.net
FACT SHEET
THE NEW ENGLAND TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM
NETIM
- Our VISION is the creation of a bi-state campus style museum and institute dedicated to preserving and promoting the Upper Connecticut River Valley’s rich transportation history. We wish to celebrate and interpret this history and look forward to help resolve transportation issues of the future. We wish to create a learning center through museum and institute programs. The objective is the community revitalization of White River Junction and West Lebanon.
- Our MISSION is to marshal the economic resources and community support that will preserve and enhance the unique and historically important railroad infrastructure of the region and the community revitalization of White River Junction and West Lebanon.
Three major components:
- The Museum is located at the AMTRAK passenger terminal in downtown White River Junction. It will contain 28 exhibits highlighting the river and rail history with dioramas, illustrations, and railroad memorabilia.
- The Institute will be a center to bring together transportation policy and planning experts through conferences, collaborative research, and publications..
- The Scenic Excursion Railway is planned to run between White River Junction and Wells River, VT, eventually serving both sides of the Connecticutt River.
NETIM is a non-profit organization, the successor to the Vermont Railroad Museum established in 1980. It is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Just starting its operations, we are asking for public support:
-VOLUNTEERS to help staff exhibits and provide information.
- CONTRIBUTIONS of railroad and river memorabilia for the exhibits and learning exercises.
- FUNDS through gifts and memberships. All contributions are tax deductible.
Memberships dues are $25 annually, beginning Sept. 1. In exchange for the fee, members will receive 10% off in the Gift Shop, news updates on the Museum’s progress and invitations to openings, lectures and receptions.
For further information:
New England Transportation Museum
P.O. Box 515
White River Junction, VT 05051 (802) 291-9838
Contacts: Norman Miller, Project Director (802) 649-5296
Ed Janeway, Publicity (802) 295-7588
Mary Ellen Rigby, Gift Shop Manager
PRESS RELEASE for Calendar, Features, News
Contact for further Information: Ed Janeway 295-7588(Ed.Janeway@Valley.Net)
Norman Miller 649-5296
Art of the River...Art of the Rails, an exhibit of paintings and prints by 14 distinguished Upper Valley artists, will be on display Friday May 31 to Monday July 15 at the New England Transportation Museum, in the Amtrak Station and Vermont Welcome Center in White River Junction, VT. A reception open to the public begins at 4:30 p.m. Friday with a Gallery Talk by Professor Robert McGrath of Dartmouth College entitled “River, Rails, and Regional Art”
Hours of opening
for the exhibit and the museum 9:30-3:00,
Tuesdays; 9:30-12:30(Wed.-Saturdays).
The works illustrate the rich tradition of railroads, boats, bridges, and industrial landscapes in the development of the Upper Connecticutt River Valley. The Museum, which opened last September, displays memorabilia celebrating the history of the region as a major railroad center dating from 1850.
Featured works will include etchings by Brian Cohen, artistic director of the Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River and Art teacher at Putney School, and reproductions from the work of Paul Smaple, noted artist in residence at Dartmouth College during the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Norman Miller, Museum curator, and Sandra Hayward, Coordinator, have assembled an outstanding collection of work by them other outstanding area artists . such as Dale Stein of Windsor, Retired Distinguished Teaching Professor of Drawing and Design at the State University of New York, Rick Harden whose work has been displayed at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; and David Plowden, probably America’s pre-eminent living railroad photgrapher with 20 books to his credit.
Works represented include paintings by Charlie Hunter, painter and designer of Weathesfield, owner of Hunter Studio in Bellows Falls; Liam Sullivan, painter, printer, and teacher at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester; Jay Barrett, architect of Fairlee, who has an extensive collection of slides on railroading in the Upper Valley, and Russ Barber of Norwich whose combined interest in railroading and photography has taken him to China, Mongolia, and Cuba. His work including regional post card art will be arranged in a special gallery.
Six of the 40 works in the exhibit are on loan from the Hood Museum at Dartmouth,, other organizations and individuals in the Upper Valley.
Directions to the Museum: Follow signs off Interstates #89 and #91, Routes 5 and 4 to the Amtrak Station in Downtown White River Junction, VT.
Other exhibiting artists, all well known in their field, include Harry Dayton, Edwin Fulwider, Robert Weaver, Jerry Pfohl, Herb Rather, and John Semple.
