Episode 32: Robert DuGrenier
Rachel Kobus 0:09
Welcome to Redbird Buzz. I'm Rachel Kobus from alumni engagement. 1979 Master of Fine Arts graduate Robert DuGrenier has been a glass artist, sculptor and designer since the 1970s, and his work has touched both traditional and experimental arenas of the glass world. He has created high end installations for Museum and architectural projects around the world as well. He began in New York City by working on the redesign of the flame for the Statue of Liberty and was commissioned to create and produce the 1/12 scale model from which the French artist sculpted the new flame. His projects include original glass chandeliers and displays for well known hotels, jewelry stores, private homes and gardens. For those that love award shows Roberts work is seen in the award itself as the creator of the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, MTV Movie Awards and ESPY awards to name a few. He enjoys the challenge of creating glass works for novel interactions with the natural world of plants and animals too.
And we're here with the ever so talented world renowned glass artists, sculptor, visionary, Robert DuGrenier. So Robert, what's the word Redbird? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2 1:20
I'm Robert DuGrenier I graduated from ASU and while 1979 That was a long time ago. And I'm currently living in Vermont on a farm and I have my glassblowing studio up and running.
Rachel Kobus 1:35
Yes, and we love it. And we're going to talk so much about what it means to be a glass artists, all the details that go into pieces. And I think a lot of things that we see every day that get overlooked that artists do and so I hope we can talk more about that. And I've looked at Robert's work and I can't wait to learn more because I'm very excited. So you know, first off, I always like to kick it off with Illinois State obviously itself, but you got your master's from ISU prior to come in you were trained as a glassblower and Goldsmith in Philadelphia and in London. And then you came here to continue your artistic journeys. So what drew you here and what did you take away as you learned sculpting?
Speaker 2 2:19
So what drew me there, nothing--it wasn't on my radar. It wasn't on my bucket list. And the reason I ended up there, I guess was a little bit of fate, which was a good thing. I I did my undergraduate degree at Hornsey College of Art in London and was having my final thesis show at Tattersall Castle and this guy came through the show and loved the work and he was the head of the glass department at ISU--what he was doing in London how he found this exhibit, I have no idea. And he said come to ISU and do your MFA. And so it was a little bit of a toss up. I had a position at the Royal College of Art in London. I had been in London for three years and was getting very comfortable. And I figured that if I went to graduate school in England, I would probably still be there now. And I knew I wanted to come back to the US and so sight unseen I've ventured to Northern Illinois to continue my artistic artistic journey at ISU.
Rachel Kobus 3:30
Yes. And so what drew you I guess to the sculpting program once you got there? And what did you take away? As you know, I think right after you earned your master's is when you opened your own studio. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 3:43
Yep. Yep. So I'm really what drew me there was Joel Phillip Meyers, who was the the glass department very well known. Yeah. An amazing reputation. I didn't see the facility but thought that because it was a State University, and I think Illinois has 1% funding for the arts, that it would be an amazing, amazing facility. When I got there, it wasn't. It was it was the golf shack that they that they kept the golf carts in wasn't being used anymore. So they took it over and created it made it as a glass studio. So it was out on the golf course. And those blustery winds the first winter blowing through the studio cracked most of the pieces that you had on your pipe. And it was it was a fun experience. But I think that what what I found really most attractive what I took away from there. There there, you know, there were my my advisors for my MFA MFA thesis were amazing artists, well traveled well known. And we really connected and so they really helped me with my personal development, and really, you know, finding my own, my own place in the glass world, in the sculpture world, so it was, it was nothing else to do there. So I worked
Rachel Kobus 5:15
Blew glass and made amazing pieces. And you know, and it's great to hear that. And I know you cringe when you're like, Oh, 1979, but our students even now are still in a smaller space, we're hoping to renovate and make it bigger, but they're still creating these magnificent piece of work. So we love hearing, I mean, over a 30 year perspective and a difference and just hear the same thing. So it's amazing to hear, but you know, obviously, you earned your skills continued your journey and opened your studio in Vermont, correct?
Speaker 2 5:48
Well, when I when I finally got my degree at ISU, the plan had been to move to New York City and become famous.
Rachel Kobus 5:59
why not, you know, why not try it,
Speaker 2 6:01
we all have our plans. And so that journey, yeah, I moved to New York City in 1979-80. And there was an organization there called the urban glass, or is called actually then New York experimental glass workshop. And it was fantastic. Because it was a place for, you know, recent graduates artists in the community not to have to afford their own studio, because the Glass Studios is a huge bill to pay everyday with the electricity and the gas. And so you could go in and rent time, and, and continue that whole creative process. And so that fortunate, fortunately, was there. And, and that really allowed me to continue, you know, my journey through glass not having to get another job somewhere. And, you know, showing in a gallery in New York at that time, how a gallery and successful shows and so it just kind of launched, you know, a place to continue the work, again, surrounded by some incredibly talented people who were, you know, now big influences in the, in the art world. So that was that was, yeah, that was a that was a huge journey. And you know, ISU didn't really prepare me for the, for the crazy city city. Over here, yeah, with the energy connections that I had made, I had met a few visiting artists that had come through ISU that I got, and we contacted with, and that was that that was awesome. Yeah, and it just things just sort of blossomed from there.
Rachel Kobus 7:44
Right. And you talk about, it's just funny when you say like, Oh, these these well known artists? Well, I think you're up there with these well known artists and all the pieces that you do, because you have a specific element. You know, I know, before we started recording, we talked about nature, I think is what really drives your pieces and your work. So how does an artist especially a glassblowing, artist, and a sculptor, really find that element or that personality that you've been putting into this work for so many years.
Speaker 2 8:17
So a lot of the work that I did when I was at ISU obviously blown work, but the sculptural work I did, really had to do with perception and understanding a particular moment in time and space, with, you know, with your own brain and, and I was able to meet some incredible people at ISU, who were working sort of in that light field. And Robert Irwin, who was pretty famous, California artist, he was there for a couple of weeks. And I had worked with him on this short little film that I haven't seen again, but we had created all all these sort of light glass pieces that would refract light. And through movement and color and change. We created, you know, this amazing little short film, and that, that kind of spurred me on into, you know, the world of sort of understanding light and when light dissolves and becomes an object or becomes an illusion. And my thesis was really about the borders of when something is two dimensional, three dimensional. And so that was that that was that was pretty intriguing and heading into, you know, heading into New York City, trying to continue the site installation pieces, which I had started out there and had you know, some shows that museums and galleries and realize that it's really hard to sell a site specific piece. Oh, I'm and so I kind of sort of borrowed some of those those things and brought them into a more objectified collection of work. And doing that nature, nature sort of happened to pop it's head up. And I started creating these works of art that that involve nature. I had bought a farm up in Vermont and would go up to Vermont on weekends. And I had honeybees and I would introduce these glass sculptural objects into the hives. And the bees meticulously created impossible solutions of honeycombs covering a complex surface perfectly. And so these objects that I had 60,000 Bees work covering my glass sculptures with with honey. And these amazing honeycombs sort of became sculptures. So again, that was taking a moment. Time was an element of my work. So the artists would do something and then and then somehow nature would take over.
Rachel Kobus 11:06
Yeah, that's a cool example. Yeah, I
Speaker 2 11:09
had an exhibition at the gallery in the basement of the Guggenheim downtown. And I had brought in 100 whips there. Miniature apple trees that were dormant, and I had planted them in soil in the gallery, and adorned the trees with glass and wood objects. And so as the exhibit went on for a month and a half, the trees actually flowered and leafed out, and again, started growing and growing around and in and through the glass objects that were on the tree. After that show, that orchard planted, the group of trees got planted up at the farm, and to this day, I am still adding and subtracting sculptures that have grown over time. So ending up with these wood and glass objects that are that are pretty, pretty fantastic. And yeah, so that was just just some of the nature things and it's just really through observing. Yeah, I was down in Abaco. One year in like 1995, and we're out swimming and came back. And there was a hermit crab crawling across my blanket, and it looked kind of odd. And I picked it up, and it was actually living in the broken neck of a coke bottle. And I was like, oh my god, I can make a better shell or a better home for hermit crab than a broken neck of a coke bottle. I had, I had hermit crabs as a kid growing up and making. And so I get back to the studio and I started trying to figure out how to make a spiral helix in glass that didn't collapse that had the right proportions that had the right weight. And after about six months, I I felt wow, I think I have accomplished something that a hermit crab would live in. So I got hermit crabs again and had fun doing that. And the hermit crabs wouldn't move in. And it's like, oh my god, what would this is crazy? Why won't they move in. And so I cut open a real shell and realize that the spiral was going it was a left handed spiral. And 97% of hermit crabs have a right handed spiral. So I re taught myself how to make that spiral in a way. And yeah, you had to go backwards. Yeah. And boom, sure enough, they moved right in. And so it was sort of an aha moment. Again, sort of that capturing a moment in time, and sort of that intersection of art and science. And I had a an exhibit in New York, at the gallery that I showed that specifically dealt with artists who had an element of time within their work, whether they would paint with various metallic oxides on canvases and put it out in the rain. And then the rain would rust and change the colors of the painting. And when it got to a point where the artists like that they they brought it back in and finished it basically. And so what I realized was here we go to the beach, we collect all these beautiful shells that that you know were exoskeletons of mollusks that that lived in the hermit crab has a soft abdomen, and they need to they they need to protect that else. He'll be just devoured by seagulls and other creatures. And so they always found hermit crab shells that were lying. I mean, mollusk shells that were lying around. And and I figured, you know, here Yeah, we collect them all. So they don't have anything to live in but our trash and here was a broken Coke bottle that one needs to protext himself, so he wasn't dinner. And that was just kind of shocking. And it's like, wow, this is a really interesting sort of educational part, if it's part environment part, you know, sort of politics and it would be great as sort of an educational thing. So I had an exhibit, I filled the gallery filled with sand, I had about 150, hermit crabs, in shells and glass shells, and you're in the environment with them like I was on the beach. And people were like just kind of blown away. And they and everyone, I didn't realize it was a big hermit, crab pet market. And everyone wanted to start buying my class shells. So. So I continued, continued making them and I did a video that went viral of one of the glass shells sort of dancing to music that that friend of mine had done. And like 5 million views, put that on the map. And galleries and aquariums all over the world said, oh, we need to do these educational touch tanks. So I have, you know, as far away from Okinawa, to England to I just got to acquire aquarium in Madrid, that that that's going to carry them. So it's sort of something that broaden the sense of art and into science, and has allowed certain scientists actually, because the glass you can see through, you can actually record through, it's allowed to the advancement of the science of the hermit crab. And that's, that's something I've been working with a couple scientists for over 10 years now. One is up at Dartmouth, and he's studying how hermit crabs communicate. And he thinks that they're more sophisticated than primates. And so, but the problem is, you can't record through a calcified shell. But you can digitally record through glass. Yeah. And so he has now been playing around with my crabs and his little lab for over 10 years and has come up with 30 sounds that the crab makes and he knows what they are. So like, if there's a plethora of food, they'll call, they'll make the sound and all the other hermit crabs in the air will come out and join in the feast. If if one hermit crab is has molted, and is going to change into another shell, his shell is going to become available. And if he found a bigger shell, there's another sound that he makes, and they make kind of a conga line and everyone changes at one time. So it's it's just been like, who knew
Rachel Kobus 17:12
Didn't know I was gonna be getting a science and ecology and ecosystem lesson right now. This is so fascinating. I must have been open the whole time for when they can't see it, because I just didn't know. Wow, how have you so
Speaker 2 17:30
so nature, nature has really, really played a big part. I was in New York City when the old hermit crab, you know, things started and and, you know, continued. And I think what was interesting being in New York City, the people you meet and things that happen. And again, sort of that whole faith thing. One day, I was renovating a loft, a loft building that I had hoped to live in for a friend of mine. And he this friend, you know, wanted, it was kind of a job, I guess. He had said, Hey, do you want to be the construction manager on this building? And I had done some installations with him on some of the loft buildings. He had renovated, I did a big glass house for Debbie Harry. And it's more of sort of the 3d 2d installations with light. And when I said Sure I'll work on the building. And so the doorbell rang rang one day, and it was this French guy who said, he said, Is this a joke? And say, Excuse me, is this a joke? He goes, DuGrenier. Yay. He said, That's That's French for from the loft. And I said, No, that's my name. And he said, Oh, he said, I love this building. I want to live here. And I said, Sure. So I bust him up. I said, you know, there's one space that's available. It was sort of a, a couple artists got together and we're doing the renovations. And so he purchased the second floor. And he was a French architect who's actually just passed about a month ago. And I had worked with over over my 40 year career in the city, and he was he was in charge of the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. And so that was an early project that he sort of got me involved and what was what was interesting was the glass on the flame of the Statue of Liberty had leaked so much that the armature was rusting and her arm is going to fall off. Oh my gosh. So what had happened was when it had come over as a as a sculpture, it was solid copper polished, and just the corrosion from being in the ocean with it with a salt patina to it to a green color or dark. Carpet color. And Bartoli, the sculptor had sailed over and sailed up the Hudson River and first saw it. He was like, wow, he said, and he said, I think that I should have gold leafed it and he had written that in a notebook that he had, that I came across, in Alsace at the museum, the Bartolotta Museum, and took that back to the committee and said, Hey, because they wanted me to do a glass piece that wouldn't leak. And I said, you know, why don't we go back to the original copper version, and then gold leaf it. So it will be beautifully bright in the day and at night, there's, you can light it with external lights. And they thought that was amazing. So during like 1906, when they got electricity on the island, they cut his copper, copper represent work with portholes put a torch in it. And so sort of a beacon for the harbor like a lighthouse. But it was pretty weak. And then in 1917, they got a lot more electricity. So they actually stripped all the copper off, left the steel armature that Eiffel had done, he had not designed the interior of that same same guy that did the Eiffel Tower, and they stained glass. But by the 50s, it was leaking like a sieve. And so during the whole restoration process in the early 80s, you know, they wanted, they wanted to do something. And so they commissioned me to to do hand carve the 1/12 scale model of the flame based on old photographs from Bartoli's studio. And so the French then came over and wanted to participate in it. And so they created a little affiliate on the bottom of the island, and did all the represent copper work. And they took my 112 scale model that I had hand carved, blew that up. And that's the existing flame today. Gold leafed.
Rachel Kobus 21:57
So let's repeat, you are basically the designer of the newest flame of the Statue of Liberty. Yep. So when anyone goes by the Statue of Liberty, please know that Robert, ISU alum, is the beacon of light designer. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 22:15
So that was a fun project. And that kind of the into, you know, some some media and some different things that happened. And it was interesting, because that was the beginning. I mean, MTV had just started in like 1981 1982. And there was some press on on, on that. And on me and the creative director of MTV called up, they had designed already the Moon Man Awards, the VMA awards, and they were looking to do a new award. And, and I think, you know, the I think what why they wanted me was, you know, the flame had become, you know, the symbol of freedom and light, like the Moon Man on the Moon, one step, you know, mankind. So, but I convinced them away from that. But they but they had me design an award for them. It was called the breakthrough music video award for new artists and, and that started a whole long collaboration with MTV and all of its associated networks. Yeah. And then, and you sort of became the award guy and having the background and metal and goldsmithing. And really all materials really, you know, really allowed me to do pretty much anything sculptural. So in 1990, they came to me, Nick Nickelodeon, and said, you know, we have we want to do this Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award. We'd love you to work on it. Do you have any ideas and it's not off the top of my head, but you know, I need some materials to investigate and really figure out because I was a little too old for Nickelodeon at that point, like growing up with it. And so they sent me like their logo sheets and that that was something that both MTV and Nickelodeon just had these iconic images that that they just put out there so of all these iconic images I chose a few icons that I thought would really represent who Nickelodeon was but with a little twist and there was a blimp on one of them and they had us that blimp you know graphically and visually and so I I decided to you know, hand sculpt the blimp but on the inside of the blimp I had to bring some glass into it somehow. I did a glass to light a scope. So as you look through the blimp it's it brings the outside world in and so the whole thought process was kids are voting on their favorite actors and musicians and sports people and I wanted the blimp to be sort of fun and playful. And so the whole idea was sort of the kids view of the world. And so you know, when when somebody winter gets to look through his, his tinnitus, the whole world comes through there and interacts and gives us beautiful, beautiful Kaleidoscope color. So that you know, so that that kind of led to many awards, including the movie awards and VH1 honors and I just yeah, it's
Rachel Kobus 25:28
my 90s Kids heart right now I can't believe this so and you even sculpt it, you know, I again, I dove in and looked at all your work, but on the kids choice words, just because I think a lot of our listeners are really gonna relate to that. And MTV. You even designed the slime that goes I mean, so detailed on something that we just don't think about, right, here's an award that gets handed out. We don't I think a lot of times sit back and think someone designed this and took the time to put the kaleidoscope and etch the slime to paint it. Like the details that you have to think about for something just like this.
Speaker 2 26:02
Yeah, and that's fascinating, because really the both of the MTV Movie Awards, the ESPYs the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award, they've become a corporate icon so I watch a bus go by in New York City and there goes my blimp
Speaker 3 26:16
-- that's that's me that's 3040 years later
Speaker 2 26:21
really crazy yeah, it's just it's kind of blows blows my mind
Rachel Kobus 26:26
yes well and you know you jumped into like the smaller pieces but I also want to take a step back I wish you know we were doing some video we could show visually some of these larger commissions that you have done they're just they're magnificent the the design the detail the color, if you go to Robert's website The first thing you see is this glorious I mean all I can explain like rising from the ashes Phoenix chandelier that's in I believe a hotel in Turkey. Yeah, but you've you've done that. You've done the Ritz Paris, you've done. Harry Winston Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, and something that I do love Tiffany and Company. I saw that and I was like, you've done the flagship store on Fifth Avenue For God's sake, like the crystal lettering is is you Robert and that's just can you just talk about how do you get these bigger Commissions?
Speaker 2 27:23
what's interesting that back to that whole fate thing, the French architect, my doorbell, he was an he's the architect that I've worked with really almost exclusively Wow, career. And so he became known as it really well known architect and, you know, everything from Bill Gates, his house, the chandelier I did in Bill Gates his house, to you know, the Ritz hotel in Paris, they they wanted a nine storey elevator shaft for innovation, and they wanted it all on glass. So they came to me to, to figure it out and design it. And so that that's been an incredible collaboration. And, you know, the the big bigger projects, you know, causes a lot of stress. Because budget, there's always time. My facility in Vermont is not a huge facility. But what's wonderful in the glass world is I can go back to New York City urban glass, and I can rent rent their facility. Yeah, so rent, rent, rent, urban glass facility to do some of these larger projects. And if there's a special color glass or special commission, like for the Dorchester Hotel in London, some of the spears that we did, we renovated or Terry redesigned the bar and created these sort of stalagmites all around the bar, that were this beautiful red gold color, just really exquisite. And I couldn't produce that glass at my studio. And there was a factory in the Czech Republic that I had done some other work with and went over there and and created the work with them. So I showed what I wanted, how it was made. And then the incredible glass workers there actually produced the items for us and and then each one was packed individually created and shipped to England. And then we have to go over and most of the installations that I do and install so it usually takes two or three weeks to install the pieces and yeah, so it's a it's an elaborate process usually takes you know, some of the chandeliers we did for Tiffany and companies. Those are about 42 days each. We did one in stores in Beverly Hills and Osaka, Japan and Nagoya, Japan. And then that Yeah, those were like 3200 pieces. And those took us oh my god, that was a long time to put those together. Yeah, five or six weeks in Japan are at the place, because you can't ship anything. Ask, okay, hold if they can just lift up, just Japan required it to be earthquake proof. So we had to build a superstructure that if an earthquake came, each one of the pieces of glass could wiggle independently. So they didn't smash into each other, and crash. And it's gone through three or four earthquakes here. So
Rachel Kobus 30:26
you're bringing in engineering into art, we've done engineers total, it's an environment like all this stuff you don't think about, like, again, it's just it's not the details of the design, or the what you see, it's the details of how the design has to be put together. It's so fascinating. I just can't
Speaker 2 30:42
remember light. Yeah, yeah, the light is going to be emitted. And, you know, early on in the 80s some of the largest chandeliers and pieces that I did, you know, that was not an incandescent light. And then the, some of the latest pieces that we have are all LEDs, which, which gives you like, amazing opportunities, a recent commission that that exhibition that I was granted was for the Southern Vermont Art Center, the Wilson Museum, they wanted to chandelier for their main lobby. And, and I knew I wanted to have it somehow interactive. Again, that element of time. So the chandelier would always look different depending on when you went and actually went into the, to the piece. And that was that was the the new telescope was being launched. And getting the name of it now, not the Hubble but the and some incredible images were coming back to us that were just like, This blew my mind. And it reminded me of glass. And so I designed the chandelier creating 220 individual planets, all unique handblown. And then behind each one of the planets, there was an LED light. And that led light, there's a computer in the center of the chandelier, you'd be able to control from from an app on your phone. So you could turn on certain certain certain, you know, plan and I, I started to fantasize in name planets and this whole sort of world out there. And as I was making one of the pieces, glass, when it's hot, has a lot of different colors than then then it cools down. It's like, wow, I want to capture a unique moment of time in each one of these planets that I'm making to be sort of the fingerprint of what it looked like when it was hot. Yeah, wow, I captured I captured that on film. So we had a, we had a photo studio set up in the, in the glass shop as we're blowing them. And when I liked it, we'd take a picture of it. And then after I started viewing some of those images on a digital screen, I realized because the light emitting from the from from the LED screen of the of the computer or the the monitor, it made it look luscious. And like glass, I'd never seen sort of a photograph of glass looks so beautiful. Yeah, it was light. And that's glasses light. Yeah. And so you know that the whole NFT world non fungible tokens was sort of happening? Yes. think, wow, wouldn't that be fascinating to make an NFT of each one of these unique planets, offer them for sale to the public bought an NFT of that particular planet in the chandelier, they would get control of that light that planet. And so from an app on their phone anywhere in the world, they can go play with it, and it's going to change the, the lighting of the particular chandelier at any moment. And so again, it brought in something, you know, this digital world to, you know, the digital universe to the metal, but it was something that just kind of fascinated me in a way that again, that moment of time, sort of as that theme coming through my work
Rachel Kobus 34:10
yeah. And now that time is controlled by so many other people just on this one piece of work then that's
Speaker 2 34:16
and it's engaged people, you know, as engaged the public gets engaged in this and made people interested in in in this whole new, you know, digital world that's, that's coming about, and it's kind of fascinating, I think, one of the reasons really, I I started studying NF Ts and the whole digital world was that if that NFT got sold automatically, I would get a commission. Back in my my digital wallet. Yeah, it's like for the first time in world the world that you know resale of art. The artists are is able to capture something. Yeah. And so that was like, this is really important. I need to somehow incorporate this into my into my work. Yeah. And so that's, that's, you know, that was one of the real draws that brought me into the whole NFT world. Yes. Well, that'd be an object, you know, important still being an object. Oh, yeah.
Rachel Kobus 35:21
Yes. Yeah, no. And, and so this kind of leads me into you know, you you dabble in commission of large work, you you work with small awards, you work with NF T's. But you also work in your community, too. And I didn't want to leave this out. Because I think, you know, we talk a lot with our Redbirds about their professional career, but you've taken your profession, and you know, you you make it available to all so you I know, you go to farmers markets and local areas, and you make your art available. But you also are part of this unique group that has expanded your community onto a different level of creation. And that's creating this nonprofit called West River community. And can you explain a little bit about this kind of creation in your life now?
Speaker 2 36:06
Yeah, so you know, moving to Vermont. We, you know, our town is about 200 people West Townsend and the only time we ever got to see each other really was going to the local post office down at the bottom of the hill. And the guy that had owned the building, wanted to sell it, it had been closed. Before he bought it for about 10 years. So it was really a little drive through community that there wasn't a downtown. You know, there's a church, there was this, what was the West Townsend Country Store, which was a general store, built in 1848. And the guy that owned it was a ski tuner for the Nordic Olympic team. And he would travel a lot in the winter, when the Olympics happened, and wherever Denver or whatever he would go out. And a small corner of the building had always been the local post office for hundreds years, more than 100 years. And he just, you know, the the money that the Postal Service gave, you know, to have their offices there. couldn't, you know, couldn't heat the the, the pay to heat the building. So he was going to, he was going to close it and kick out the post office. And so and so he was going to kick out the post office, and a bunch of us in the community said, Oh, we can't lose our post office. It's like, the only thing it's like the only way we get off the hill and see people. It's pretty rural, you know, I have a farm up the hill, and an old farm that was from 1775. And when we moved up to Vermont full time, and in 97 it was it was important for us to start to grow our own food and really, you know, really, really sort of embrace this urban, I mean, the the farming life. And so a bunch of us got together and asked the owner, if we took over, you know, his payments and taxes and insurance, could we keep the building open the post office air, and we'd do sort of it'd be like a little community center to have potlucks and music every Friday night. And he agreed. And so for two years, we did that. And then he wasn't coming back. And it was definitely wanting to sell the building. So we tried to raise enough money, which wasn't able in the community, but we worked with Preservation Trust of Vermont. And an angel investor that was that they had known was interested in really rebuilding community and community centers. And so they purchased the building with the understanding that would form an official nonprofit. And if we did that, they would lease it back to us for $5 a month. So give us a 20 year lease. And so we're halfway through that 20 year lease. And since we had the the lease, we decided to like sort of step up the game. So we had opened a thrift shop on the third floor to really help help the local community have access to good warm clothes. We opened a donation based Cafe, which is one of the only donation cafes in the state. Yeah. And then in 2012, you know, we're sort of analyzing, you know, it's great to bring the community together for potlucks every Friday night and music. You know what else makes people gather? And so the whole the whole thought was fire. And since I'm a passionate fire person blowing glass making maple syrup on my farm, it's like let's build a woodfired cob oven out in the backyard. Oh my God and do a community pizza every Friday. Oh
Rachel Kobus 39:49
my gosh. Oh amazing.
Speaker 2 39:51
We got to work a ton of people showed up we dug clay out of the stream behind my sugar shack and created this beautiful cob oven. Each and every Friday night since 2012. Now we've been cooking, cooking pizza and sort of as our fundraiser to keep the doors open but live music and bringing the community together. And then there was a Townsend farmers market in the in the sort of associated village down the road that had been there five years that I had been selling our farm produce in. And the organizers on it, of it wanted somebody in the community to take it over and no one was interested. So I said, Well, if we move it five miles up the road, West River community project, we would take it over on Fridays and, and do it. So we did and so the mission of the nonprofit was really to help support local agriculture, community development sort of economics and we got a grant from the USDA to outfit the basement as a USDA processing facility, again, to try to incubate small farm businesses, agricultural businesses, grow their businesses, and we've had five very successful businesses. We we had one which was a breadmaker, every Friday morning should come at 3:30 in the morning, the fire in the bread oven in the in the woodfired oven, curb read till noon time, and then and then would restock it for pizza at Friday night. And she got very successful and had enough to build her own wood fired oven up the hill now is supplying restaurants and grocery stores around the community. Another one was a kimchi manufacturer grew cabbage and do kimchi projects. She used it we had a soda maker that came and ate us at the incubated kitchen. So that's really spawned Yes, sort of the passion of of agriculture in the community. But I've had to be, you know, really pretty. I'm still behind it. I still cook pizza every Friday night. And cook probably 30,000 pizzas,
Rachel Kobus 42:06
oh my gosh, wow. I
Speaker 2 42:08
mean, in two hours, we can get through two hundred pizzas, I bet. And she sent rebuilt, rebuilt the pizza oven. And we did a new pizza pavilion where we did a workshop for women, and underserved to come together and learn post and beam construction. So we did a six day workshop and we had 14women come and hand cut this beautiful post and beam frame with hand tools. And then we did a community raising. And now that pavilion is over the pizza oven. So it's brought together the community in a way that we all really enjoy living here. And we know our neighbors, we know the tourists that come through we know the second homeowners it's really become sort of this amazing hub. But it's taken a lot of energy to keep the ball rolling, keep keep focus. And it's it's been an important sort of part of my sort of development. I had read a book sacred economy by Charles Eisenstein. And it was all about the gifting society. I realized after I read that book, you know, if you do things for neighbors and other people, it comes back tenfold. And so that was something that that the time and energy that I kept the nonprofit running and squeaking by and now it seems to have legs of its own and I hopefully can step down as president sometime in the future. And and let it continue to continue to run but it's really important now, knowing your neighbors. Yeah. Somebody had said to me, I think it was Bill McKibben said that Vermont had one of the lowest incidence of COVID deaths in the country. He tried to figure out why. And he did this pretty wide survey and realized that 67% of Vermonters know their neighbors really well. average amount who know their neighbors and the rest of the country is down at around 20% Yeah. And and it's that respect for the neighbor and you know it's the community in Vermont that is so special and I'm so glad that sort of we landed here and have been able to grow our business and you know, do amazing things.
Rachel Kobus 44:40
You're doing yes amazing things and you know, I thank you for that lesson. I think it is true to give back you get something in tenfold and I was going to say just listening to all these agricultural business came through all the community you help it is a form of art in its sense to everyone gets to try their own passions, they get to create they get to build they get to You know, massage out what it is they want to do. So really, you're taking your artistic journey and I think pass it on as someone that's improving your community too. So I'm glad we segmented and connected that together with everything else you do too. I mean, no big deal everything else that's going on probably with you. But how amazing is that? And, you know, I wanted to end on. Robert, there's a reason that you are, you know, one of our I think it's 2018 You were inducted into the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame. And I know, you know, we may not get to speak and see you as often. But to have someone like you as part of the Redbird family. I mean, it's truly inspirational. And again, I remind everyone when looking at designs looking at are looking at things I think we take for granted, it's someone with your career and your passion behind a lot of that too. So I appreciate the time we've gotten to have together and thank you for all this. I didn't again, science, engineering, environment, community life coaching, I mean, you do it all and art too-- bring in a little bit of art. So thank you again, thank you,
Speaker 2 46:06
thank you. It's been great chatting and hopefully we can follow up again in the near future and hopefully, I'll come out again to ISU once the new art center that is underway.
Unknown Speaker 46:21
Very exciting. So that little golf cart glass shot won't be there anymore.
Speaker 3 46:25
You can do amazing things. But think how much more we're gonna get to do think think how much more we'll get to when I come back? Yes. Great.
Rachel Kobus 46:33
Thank you. Thank you
That was the extraordinary artist and Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts alum Robert DuGrenier. Tune in next time for more stories from beyond quad.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai