Electra Havemeyer Webb was a pioneering collector of folk art at a time when most serious collectors overlooked it entirely.  Rutland author Valerie Biebuyck will be at the Flying Pig Bookstore on Thursday, July 15 at 7 p.m. for a talk about Electra and her passion for folk art, collecting, and the museum she created for her treasures. "Electra to the Rescue: Saving a Steamboat and the Story of Shelburne Museum" is Biebuyck's first book. At the Flying Pig, she will discuss and read passages from the book while showing slides of Webb's life and the objects she collected.

After the talk, Biebuyck will do a simple hands-on craft project that allows children in the audience to make their own piece of folk art.  Kids can bring in puzzle pieces which can be used to make a picture frame, and they can bring in a photo to put in the frame. Folk art tells us something about the society in which we live, and recycling to help the environment is big part of our culture now.  Much of Webb's work was an elaborate form of recycling.  She built Shelburne Museum's Horseshoe Barn out of salvaged beams and shingles from old barns, and she saved the steamboat Ticonderoga from the junkyard by turning it into an exhibit at the Museum.  Come hear about this fascinating woman, and turn your recycleables into a piece of folk art at the same time.