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Contribute to Sheldon Community Garden Improvements
You’ve been inside the Sheldon–but have you been outside?
We are reimagining the Museum Garden, nestled in the heart of downtown Middlebury. Our goal, with your support, is to create an outdoor recreation and performance space to host both Museum programming and community-driven events and initiatives. Outdoor public spaces provide essential oases for community gathering, education, and recreation. The above renderings were created in collaboration with landscape architect Keith Wagner to envision the potential for our Museum Garden as a dynamic site for dialogue, art-making, and meaningful community engagement.
What are the Museum’s goals for the proposed garden renovation?
Greater accessibility: The Henry Sheldon Museum is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the community can enjoy this community garden. As it currently stands, the surface of the lower portion of the garden is uneven and difficult to navigate. The existing graveled pathways must be adjusted and better integrated into the garden space.
Improved integration: The Sheldon’s garden stands at the center of several structures built at very different times. The historic barn was constructed in the 1890s, the Stewart-Swift Research Center in 1972, and the Fletcher Community History Center in 1992. A reimagined garden space will better link, and unify, these three structures into a single, integrated Museum campus.
Visitor-friendly features: An improved, better integrated garden space will include new, improved seating arrangements for visitors, and more extensive safety measures installed toward the back of the garden.