May 21 - September 30

In her recent book Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, Nicole Fleetwood observes, “Prison art is part of the long history of captive people envisioning freedom—creating art, imagining worlds, and finding ways to resist and survive.” Our summer exhibition Finding Hope Within features works of art that have emerged through the carceral system in Vermont alongside historical artifacts from the collection of the Henry Sheldon Museum.

This exhibition posits art-making as a transformative, healing, and cathartic practice that can transform one’s relationship to community, to the environment, and to the self. The act of creation creates a spark of hope for the future. 

May 21 - October 31

Across centuries and cultures, material objects are profound expressions of identity, memory, and belief. Adornment, whether through intricate craftsmanship, symbolic decoration, or functional design, elevates objects beyond utilitarian purposes and transforms them into reflections of personal stories and societal values. 

Organized by students of Professor Erin Sassin’s course at Middlebury College, this exhibition is the result of meticulous research and thoughtful curation. Students assembled a diverse collection of objects ranging from 1616 to 2006 to explore how adornment both shapes and reflects the human experience. The exhibition considers the ways in which objects both enduring and fleeting help capture personal and cultural histories

May 21 - January 3

In cooperation with the VT State 250th Commemoration of the start of the American Revolution, the VT Sampler Initiative is producing a statewide driving tour, to view schoolgirl needlework samplers, from the post-Revolutionary War period.

These pieces of 19th century needlework were an essential part of girls’ education during the Revolutionary and federal period of our history. This is how girls learned to read, write, and spell their own names. Families often framed them and hung them on a parlor wall, to announce to visitors that they valued education enough to pay for their daughters to become educated citizens – and marriageable young women, to any aspiring suitors.