Clare Dolan is a Nurse/Puppeteer and the Founder and Chief Operating Philosopher of the Museum of Everyday Life in Glover, Vermont. Her early interest in object collection and experience as a touring puppeteer with the Bread and Puppet Theater informs the mission of the Museum to explore, analyze and celebrate banal but beloved objects we touch every day. Dolan’s work appropriates the visual vocabulary of the Museum (drawers, cabinets, vitrines, frames, titles and labels, pedestals, wall text, etc.) and the performative vocabulary of museums (guided tours, docents, security guards, educational lectures, surveys, promotional posters, maps and cordons and barriers). These familiar devices are re-assembled into installations and performances that challenge the notions of culture and upend understanding of the mundane and the extraordinary.
During the residency, Dolan planned to develop the next chapter of Museum of Everyday Life drawing inspiration from St. Petersburg’s cultural institutions and the grassroots cultural productions. She worked with several small museums with particular visions and subject matter charting the display strategies of the exhibitions and observing visitors as they interact. She also sought out collectors and performative installation artists working in similar arenas.
