where natural history meets art
Gale Lawrence, respected and loved author, teacher, naturalist, gardener, walker, and detailed observer of nature, passed away on August 22, 2024. Continue reading “About Gale Lawrence, who helped create the Birds of Vermont Museum”
Last Saturday, the Green Mountain Woodcarvers held their annual show at the Museum. The news from WCAX came out to check it out. Enjoy this brief video of the show! Continue reading “Green Mountain Woodcarvers’ Annual Show 2024”
We hope you and yours are safe from the recent flooding due to Hurricane Beryl. For those who have experienced loss, our hearts go out to you. Our Treehouse, Bird Blind, and benches in the “garden” offer places to rest and find respite.
The museum and its grounds are resilient. The good news is that the museum building, the entrance bridge, culvert area, and step-pools in the tributary to Sherman Hollow Brook are undamaged and intact. The Treehouse, picnic areas, pond, Story trail, and the Bird Blind all are fine. Come and walk or sit whenever you need to.
This is not the first time we’ve had to deal with flood damage. We thank everyone who was part of the Bridges to Birds reconstruction in 2013-2015 for their amazing generosity and superb work: volunteers, donors, John Scott Excavating, Dean Grover Engineering, Timber and Stone LLC, and Anne Dannenberg. They created the entrance bridge, the rain garden, the step-pools in the tributary to Sherman Hollow Creek, and the pollinator plantings that protect the slopes. All of that handled the heavy flows of water as intended, demonstrating how a resilient design can cope with a changing climate.
Other parts of our property were not so fortunate. Continue reading “Flooding, thanks to Hurricane Beryl”
The Birds of Vermont Museum has been hosting themed community art shows since 2014. Each winter, the staff develops a bird-related theme for the exhibit and invites submissions in varied media: visual arts, the written word, sculpture and more.
Our 2024 art show, The Power of Perspective: shifting points of view, poses and answers questions of how our bodies, ideas, and assumptions might alter or affect what we perceive, think about, imagine, and understand about birds.
Continue reading “The Power of Perspective | 2024 community art show”
Guest post from the Green Mountain Wood Carvers. Cross-posted from their July / August Newsletter
The Birds of Vermont Museum hosted the Green Mountain Wood Carvers’ May Carve-In. Once again, the day stated out a very nice spring day. Erin had the room all set up for us as the 9 carvers began to arrive. It was very good to see some of our newer members join us for a day of carving. Continue reading “May Carve-In Report”
We started 2023 by inviting artists to share the Spark! moment that inspired them to include birds in their art. This prompt shaped an amazing art show full of spark birds, moments, and stories. The Birds of Vermont Museum itself is often the spark that inspires a first or a deeper connection with birds and the natural world.
We finished 2023 with a metaphorical spark, when we unexpectedly had to change out much of the Museum lighting. Continue reading “From Sparks to Lights: 2023 Annual Appeal”
How do we focus our creative “vision”? Consider the scope of an eagle’s eye—the narrow view of a gleaning warbler—the shadowed sight of a loon underwater. We may see birds above us from the ground, or below us from a plane. We may use a camera lens to record from afar, or a magnifier and lamps to perceive what is normally unknown. How does time influence your perspective? What if we “zoom out” from one bird to a species, to an ecosystem, to a planet? What if we “zoom in” to one bird to its wing, to a feather, to a gene?
How does your art reveal a point of view?
Continue reading “Call to Artists: Power of Perspective”
The Birds of Vermont Museum has been hosting themed community art shows since 2014. Each winter, the staff develops a bird-related theme for the exhibit and posts a Call to Artists, inviting submissions in varied media. Our 2023 art show, Spark!, brings together well over 60 artists, photographers, and poets of all ages. Most artists are from Vermont. Continue reading “Spark! fueling a love of birds | 2023 community art show”
Many birders—and artists—have a “spark” moment that fueled a lifelong love of birds and birding and took them in unexpected directions. What’s your spark story? How did you start combining birds, birding, art, and science in your art? Does it show in your work? Continue reading “Call to Artists: Spark!”
Did you know that children make up about a third of the Museum’s visitors each year? They visit with parents, grandparents, camps, schools, and on special outings with friends. Their energy and enthusiasm are exciting and uplifting: some already have a favorite bird they want to see, others are excited to recognize birds they already know, and most are surprised the birds are not real—but really made of wood!
Donors and their gifts make sure that the museum reaches children. Continue reading “A museum for all ages: 2022 Annual Appeal”