"Along the River's Way;..." is a first time collaboration between Mad River Valley Arts, Mad River Valley TV and researcher/journalist Tracy Brannstrom. We seek to share resources and purposefully design a storytelling program for elder artists in the Mad River Valley and throughout Vermont.

This project benefits everyone over time through a documentary portrait on elder creative practice. The first 12 stories will be set in audio and video, and inspired by long-form oral history interviewing to then be seen as a final exhibition for the public, art viewing community. We will then use that as a building block for setting up an online site that showcases this human-centered approach to community. Older adult artists are not a generic group – they are a growing and diverse demographic. In truth we are all aging and therefore there is no us and them.

Our approach is one of empathy and curiosity towards elder creatives who still have much in reserve of untapped potential. Videos and audio recordings will range from 10-30 minutes in length, unedited, and achievable by all three of us, with the goal that each piece will be available for public access tv, viewable via personal outputs and ultimately archivable.