Expanding Voices: perspectives on birding | 2021 community art show

Watercolor painting (excerpt): shows a white woman in a yellow shirt looking upward through binoculars. The point-of-view is from above, so only her head and arms are clear.

Our 2021 art show, Expanding Voices, explores and reflects the past year. Visual arts, poetry, 3D, and prose pieces capture the variety of solitudes, connections, race issues, changes and changelessness, new skills, and understandings we  experienced in 2020.

Forty artists, photographers, writers,  and poets had their work selected for this year’s show. They range from under 10 to over 80 and speak from their varied experiences of birding, the pandemic, faith, and social issues.

Visitors are invited to explore the visual and written art at their own pace, to be inspired, to ask questions, and to browse through the book of artists’ statements.

Show runs through October • Included with Museum admission

Many of the originals are for sale, and several artists have prints, cards, and other items available in our gift shop.

About the theme “Expanding Voices: perspectives on birding”

Continue reading “Expanding Voices: perspectives on birding | 2021 community art show”

Borders: illusions that constrain us | 2020 community art show

Flyer for art show -Borders: illusions that constrain us- showing planet earth from space on a black background. Show of art, photography, poetry open June- October 2020.

Borders: illusions than constrain us is our 2020 art show, where we invite creators and viewers to ask (and even answer) “What do borders mean for birds and which of these are constructs of our imagination?”

Thirty-six artists, photographers, and poets had their work selected for this year’s show. Creators include beginners and established professionals of all ages. Visitors are invited to explore the visual and written art at their own pace, to be inspired, to ask questions, and to browse through the book of artists’ statements.

Show is open through October • Included with Museum admission

Some originals are for sale, and some artists have prints, cards, and other items for sale in our gift shop as well.

About the theme “Borders: illusions that constrain us”

Continue reading “Borders: illusions that constrain us | 2020 community art show”

Open for 2020, finally

A note from our Director

child gazes into forest over railing of our walk-in treehouseAs you likely know, the Museum had to remain closed due to Covid-19. This was the first spring in 32 years where we didn’t open our doors on May 1. This was the first time since we started Early Birder Morning Walks (more than a decade ago!) that we couldn’t gather for to walk and watch spring migration together.

We have missed you! Although we were saddened to hear of people who were ill or lost their lives; we also are hugely grateful that, by all of us working together, we kept the numbers lower than they could have been. As the number of Vermont cases continues to be encouragingly small, the state is allowing some businesses to open (with restrictions in place).

We are happy to tell you that the Museum opened on Wednesday, June 3! Continue reading “Open for 2020, finally”

Pollinate This! 2019 community art show

Thumbnails of art accepted for Pollinate This show

Pollinate This! is our art show asking and sometimes answering “How can art explore, examine, and express pollination—metaphorically and otherwise?”

Thirty-four artists and photographers had their work selected for this year’s show. Creators range in age from child to senior, with experience from just starting to established professional. The works are displayed in thematically-linked groupings, and visitors are invited to explore at their own pace, to be inspired, to engage with the images, and to browse through the book of artists’ statements.

Show is open from May 1 to October 31, 2019 • Included with Museum admission

About the theme “Pollinate This!”

Continue reading “Pollinate This! 2019 community art show”

Common Grounds: 2018 community art show

Amy Alfieri's -A Hat Is No Home- block print. Copyright © 2018 and used by permission

Common Grounds is our art show in recognition of 100 years of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and its conservation consequences. Experience over 40 bird-focused artworks connecting the themes of commonality, conservation, migration, and coordination among peoples, species, places, and time.

Show is open from May 1 to October 31, 2018 • Included with Museum admission

About the theme “Common Grounds”

Continue reading “Common Grounds: 2018 community art show”

Call to Artists: Common Grounds

 Common Grounds

A Call to Artists from the Birds of Vermont Museum
in recognition of 100 years of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and its conservation consequences

Birds link us.  We need the same things: food, water, air, places to live. We humans have sometimes used laws to protect those needs we have in common. In 1918, the US Congress put into place the Migratory Bird Treaty Act—one of the first laws setting limits on what we could and could not do specifically with respect to migratory birds. Since then, we’ve asked new questions, discovered new ramifications, and come to new understandings about what the work of conservation entails. In order for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to be successful, people have to work together across geographic, political, socioeconomic, and ecological boundaries. We need to find—or create—common ground. What does that look like? Continue reading “Call to Artists: Common Grounds”

Art Review: ‘Birding by the Numbers,’ Birds of Vermont Museum

Most art shows can be viewed without particular attention to their settings, but ‘Birding by the Numbers’ is inseparable from its locale. The Birds of Vermont Museum in Huntington organized the community art exhibit to celebrate its 30th anniversary. …Numbers are the key to ornithology… The artists’ responses to this intersection of ideas range from literal to literary.

Source: Art Review: ‘Birding by the Numbers,’ Birds of Vermont Museum

Read further: the original Call to Artists

Call to Artists: Birding By the Numbers

Birding by the Numbers

A Call to Artists from the Birds of Vermont Museum in celebration of our 30th Anniversary

We at the Museum like to say we are “where natural history meets art.” But flip through the files of time while birding in the last 30 years… what would ornithology be without math? What new facts and figures about feathered phenomena do you most appreciate? Join us as we play with birds and numbers!

We seek bird-focused art that incorporates a feeling for number with artistic expression. We are open to any media. Let your art—from imaginary to irrational, with birds silly and significant—populate our creative space!

Here is a tiny fraction of funky factoids to tickle your fancy and perhaps illustrate what we mean: Continue reading “Call to Artists: Birding By the Numbers”