Art Hop Sensations
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Burlington, Vermont, is a city that loves the arts and appreciates the contributions of the city's many arts-oriented businesses. Nowhere is that more evident in the ongoing renaissance of the city's South End, home to Conant Custom Brass.
As a board member and chair of the South End Arts & Business Association (SEABA) for more than 12 years, Stephen Conant was instrumental in establishing the group's signature event, the annual South End Art Hop. It's a wildly popular event that brings art and entertainment and thousands of people to the streets each September.
Every year, Steve and the folks at Conant Metal and Light open their doors to the throngs and create fabulous works of art for the event's outdoor-sculpture component. These have included a 250-pound stainless-steel ring, 200 feet of useless trusses made of white cardboard shipping tubes, a clothesline from which metal undergarments were hung to dry, and a flaming loading-dock ornament framed by a 30-foot aluminum hoop adorned with "CAUTION" tape tassels. We have fun!
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When a Vermont maritime museum decided in 2000 to reproduce an 1862-era canal sailing
schooner, it gave volunteers the opportunity to pitch in and help — and it gave Conant
Metal and Light the opportunity to demonstrate once again its talents in historical lighting
reproduction. The result is the 88-foot Lois McClure Schooner (named after the project’s main
benefactor), whose hold features brass lanterns fabricated by Conant Metal and Light. The
low-voltage lanterns are brand new, but you’d never know it by looking at them: the
distressed finish gives the appearance of fixtures that have aged gracefully to the rhythms
of the sea. The lanterns are one of the many features that lend historical authenticity to
this project, which marked the first canal schooner to be built in over a century. |
Burlington, Vermont 05401 USA 
