John P. Marquand

If ever an eclectic small business represented a Venn diagram of interests in the life of its proprietor, it might look something like the Wheelwrite Imaginarium. This bookshop/coffee/arthouse is the brainchild of Tim Rhys, a writer, publisher, and filmmaker who spent his career mostly on the west coast but came home to New England full-time with his wife, Jessica, and their two boys in 2021 to be close to their extended family, friends, and the small Vermont town where she grew up. The Imaginarium aspires to be a new cultural hub for the Northshire region, which already boasts such nationally renowned organizations as the Southern Vermont Arts Center, the Museum of the Creative Process, the Dorset Playhouse, and the Northshire Bookstore. Along with an eclectic selection of "pre-read," vintage, rare and collectible books, graphic novels, and artwork, the Imaginarium will be a literary learning center with regular author readings, writing workshops, and book club events. The space will also host regular movie screenings and filmmaking classes for all ages, as well as an ongoing singer-songwriter series. Located in one of the region's only surviving 18th Century wheelwright/blacksmith industrial buildings, the Imaginarium will be a cozy, welcoming meeting place that will provide the best locally roasted organic, fair trade coffee and fine loose leaf teas. Tim is a journalist by trade and is the founder of MovieMaker, the international magazine and education company for independent filmmakers that he founded in the early 1990s. He is also a poet, coffee and tea lover, and book collector, and has produced dozens of independent shorts and feature films during his long career as an entertainment journalist and publisher. He has served as a juror or panelist on too many national and international film festivals to count, and for many years he served on the board of the historic Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon, often named one of the top independent film screening venues in the country. Jessica Rhys is an artist and longtime early childhood educator who specializes in teaching children about gardening, agriculture, and the natural world. Tim and Jessica and their menagerie of boys, dogs, cats, and livestock live in a colonial saltbox farmhouse which has been in Tim?s family for almost 250 years. Tim grew up in Maine and Connecticut, and spent his career in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, and Portland. These days in Vermont he is grateful for many things, not the least of which are that he lives within walking distance of the Imaginarium and that he knows many people in the community who assure him they will be frequent visitors. He reports that Jessica is grateful for the advent of the bookshop because a portion of his large collection of printed matter has now been liberated from their home. You're welcome to check it out whenever you find yourself with a little browsing time in the beautiful Green Mountains of southern Vermont.

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