VOA常速英语2019--艺术家们通过创新来拯救他们的内布拉斯加小镇（在线收听）

Artists Get Innovative to Save Their Nebraska Town

This is The Most Unlikely Place in Lewellen, Nebraska.

这是内布拉斯加州卢埃林的“最不可能之地”。 

My husband Dennis, my brother-in-law, Rex Miller, and my sister-in-law, Jean Jensen.

我的丈夫丹尼斯，他哥哥雷克斯·米勒，还有我的嫂子简·詹森。 

We were all involved in a lot of, a couple of years of economic development meetings,

我们都参加了几年的经济发展会议， 

and after a while, we, kind of, thought we should just do it and start taking action and do less planning and make more direct changes.

过了一段时间，我们觉得我们应该这样做并开始采取行动，少做计划，多做更为直接的改变。 

We have six buildings all together here.

我们在这总共有六栋楼。 

Buildings were run down and some of them probably would have collapsed if we hadn’t fixed the roof.

房屋破落不堪，如果我们没有修理屋顶，其中一些可能已经倒塌了。 

The first building that we bought is the one which is now The Most Unlikely Place.

我们买的第一栋楼就是现在是“最不可能之地”的这个地方。 

We purchased the building when it was a hundred years old in 2008.

我们在2008年买下了这栋当时有百年历史的建筑。 

We cleaned it up, took out the ceiling, did some renovating.

我们把它清理干净，拆掉了天花板，整修了一下。 

The guys spent three months the first winter, just working on this place.

第一个冬天，光处理这个地方大家就花了三个月的时间。 

Started as a gallery because the artists needed a place to hang some art.

一开始是作为一个画廊，因为艺术家们需要一个地方来挂一些艺术品。 

Right.

是的。 

Our homes were full and our children’s homes were full and it’s time…

我们家里都满了，孩子们的家里也都满了，是时候了…… 

Our closets were full.

我们的壁橱都满了。 

Dennis is the pastel artist, Jean Jensen paints oils and watercolors, and Rex has all of the wood sculpture.

丹尼斯是粉彩画家，珍·詹森是画油画和水彩画，雷克斯所有的工作和木雕相关。 

Then we purchased a coffee machine in order to have, maybe, a little more business and learned how to make coffee drinks.

然后我们买了一台咖啡机，或许是为了多点儿生意吧，并且学习如何制作咖啡饮料。 

And then someone suggested that we might have a brunch, a Sunday brunch.

然后有人建议我们供应早午餐，周日的早午餐。 

Welcome.

欢迎光临。 

Hi, Jenny. Nice to see you!

嗨，珍妮。很高兴见到你！ 

Good to see you my dear.

很高兴见到你，亲爱的。 

And who did you bring?

你带了谁过来？ 

My sister, Jean and her husband, John.

我的妹妹珍和她的丈夫约翰。 

When we first opened, there were tables up by the windows.

我们刚开张的时候，窗户旁边有几张桌子。 

So, that’s quite a distance. So, I put my skates on in order to get down to the end of the room more efficiently.

所以那是相当长的一段距离。因此，我穿上溜冰鞋以便更高效地到达房间的尽头。 

Every table has a history and everything has been donated.

每一张桌子都有一段历史，所有的东西都是捐赠的。 

We’re happy to take whatever anyone wants to give us.

我们很乐意接受任何人想给予我们的任何东西。 

Many guests say this is the perfect name for this place because it’s unlikely that this place would be here in this little town.

许多客人称对这个地方来说这个名字完美极了，因为这个地方不太可能存在于这个小镇上。 

It doesn’t seem to make sense to them. They say, well, this should be in San Francisco or in Vail or somewhere else.

对他们来说这似乎说不通。他们说，这种地方应该存在于旧金山或者韦尔或者其他地方。 

We have all kinds of crafts from local artists. We have an area on the wall for a featured artist each month.

我们有来自当地艺术家的各种工艺品。 我们在墙上有一个区域，是每个月为特定的艺术家准备的。 

We have local authors. We have book signings and readings occasionally.

我们有本地的作家。我们偶尔会有签售会和读书会。 

She’ll sell our things there and so it brings the artists. I was an artist who was under the table.

她会在那里出售我们的作品，所以它吸引了艺术家。我私下里曾是一个艺术家。 

I didn’t know, I just did it. I gave it away as presents. I never thought I could ever sell my stuff.

我不知道，我只是那样做了。我把它作为礼物送人了。我从没想过我能卖掉我的东西。 

The next door building, which was the old Lewellen Hotel, became available.

隔壁曾经是卢埃林旅馆那栋楼也被使用了。 

It is now Rex’s woodworking shop.

现在是雷克斯的木工作坊。 

The upstairs part, my sister Jean now has her studio in.

楼上部分，我嫂子珍现在把她的画室搬进去了。 

I have really been eyeing it and liking the light and thinking it would be a good studio, but it was, kind of, a mess and needed some work.

我真的一直都在关注这个地方，我喜欢这里的光线而且觉得它会是一个很好的工作室，但是它有点乱，需要清理一下。

So, Rex helped and we, well, he did most of work, so we insulated it and you know cleaned a bunch of junk out of it and I’ve been painting since.

所以，雷克斯帮忙，我们……好吧，他做了大部分工作，所以我们把它隔离出来，你知道的，清理出了一堆垃圾，从那以后我一直在这画画。

And then, on down the fourth building on the corner, was an old filling station.

然后，在拐角处第四幢楼原来是一个加油站。 

It now has a gallery in it that we rented out to a local art club. So they, group of artists, have their gallery there.

现在里面有一个画廊，我们把它租给了当地的一个艺术俱乐部。所以他们这群艺术家在那里有了他们的画廊。

When we started actually doing it, we really didn’t have a vision. We didn’t have any goals. We didn’t really know what the building was going to be.

当我们真正开始做的时候，我们真的没有憧憬。我们没有任何目标。我们真的不知道这个建筑会变成什么样子。

We just started and, kind of, let it evolve into what it became over time.

我们只是开始做起来，让它随着时间的推移演变成现在的样子。 

And we want to create things that we can enjoy ourselves.

我们想要创造一些我们可以享受到的东西。 

Yeah.

是的。 

And our friends and community can enjoy.

我们的朋友和社区可以享受到。 

So, we have signage on the highway. We were able to fix up the fronts of the buildings and create some activity in town.

所以我们在高速公路上设置路标。我们修复好了这些建筑物的正面，并在镇上开展一些活动。 

So, it certainly does and it has drawn people into the town.

所以它确实吸引了很多人来这里。 

In the last five years we’ve gotten 49 people, 49 homes sold.

在过去的五年里，来了49个人，卖掉了49套房子。 

When people see that the town is alive, then they’re more likely to want to live there.

当人们看到这个小镇充满生气的时候，他们会更有可能想住在那里。 

We have pride in our town. This is our home. This is where we’ve all chosen to live.

我们为我们的小镇感到骄傲。这是我们的家。这是我们都选择居住的地方。 

And so, we will do everything we can to make it into where we want to live.

所以，我们会尽己所能使其融入我们想要居住的地方。