By Bob Audette, Vermont Country Magazine.
BRATTLEBORO — Mini mania is hitting downtown Brattleboro in a big way with more than 60 storefront windows filled with Lilliputian displays of doll houses, steam trains, terrariums, and more.
“In addition to being a mushroom forager,” said Melany Kahn, at last Thursday’s Brattleboro Select Board meeting, “I am a miniature enthusiast.”
Kahn, who lives in West Chesterfield but grew up on a farm in West Brattleboro, said her idea for the 2025 Miniature Festival might be a “hare-brained idea,” but she thinks it will be hugely popular.
“And one might ask, ‘Why would we bother to do such a thing?” she said. “At the core of it … it is economic development.”
She said stores, nonprofits, galleries, restaurants and schools have all signed on to the idea and will be involved in presenting “our wonderful, beautiful Main Street, which has the most magnificent windows in any town in Vermont,” with small and tiny scenes unique to each participant.
The event is being sponsored by the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, which last year hosted a pop-up holiday market in the space formerly occupied by Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, and Vermont Public Radio.
“We’ve been doing a holiday window contest the last couple of years,” said Kate Trzaskos, executive director of DBA, at the board meeting. “This really ups that tradition. … It provides something novel and unique and nostalgic.”
She said Brattleboro businesses have “overwhelmingly jumped on the mini train and are being very creative in how they’re interpreting this concept [to make] it true and authentic to their unique stores.”
Trzaskos said the core mission of DBA is to invite people to come downtown “and fall in love with it.”
With more than 100 participants signing up for the event, she believes the festival is a unique way to do that.
The festival is scheduled for the entire month of December, with events throughout the month that include performances by Sandglass Theater, and a Mad Hatter Tea Party at the Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center.
“This is a gift you’re giving to the town of Brattleboro,” said Elizabeth McLoughlin, chairwoman of the Select Board, who said the idea has “very much occupied my household,” especially her daughter, Mary, who builds spirit houses at the HatchSpace, a community woodworking shop on High Street.
Kahn said one display will be close to her heart, in memory of Annie Richards, a board member of DBA who died last year at the age of 45. Richards, described as “an extremely engaged resident of Windham County,” was also a member of the Diversion Board of Youth Services and of the multi-disciplinary Team for Windham County Safe Place, and a corporator of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. For many years, she ran AWR Associates, LLC on Walnut Street in Brattleboro, where she created an oasis for children to engage, connect and heal through the power of play along with her unique caregiver-child bonding proclivities.
“Annie used miniatures to teach children how to navigate the court system in Brattleboro,” said Kahn.
That miniature scene will be on display with carolers assembled by her mom, Elizabeth Richards. Sam’s will also be home a Lego display, said Kahn.
“It’s going to tell the story of Brattleboro and what we’re about,” she said. ”We can be artistic. We can be whimsical. We can be family-friendly and we can also have struggles and challenges, and we can be both things, and we can lean into both just as heavily. One side doesn’t have to outweigh the other. We’re all those things.”
Board member Peter “Fish” Case said the idea reminded him of a magical time in his life, growing up in New York and seeing the miniatures at Bloomingdale’s
“I think you’re really onto something here,” he said.
Kahn is the daughter of the late Emily Mason and Wolf Kahn, artists who moved to Brattleboro in 1968. She is married to Bo Foard, owner of Foard Panel and co-owner, with Gretchen Whitmer, of Hardy Foard Catering, and co-owner, with Dave Manning, of the Royal Diner in West Brattleboro, where Chad Farnum can often be found cooking up barbecue meals.
