where natural history meets art
This has been a year of listening, learning, and redefining our definition of normal. Many more people have turned to birds, nature, and art, as they cope with their worries, take advantage of being home, and pursue comfortable physical distancing. Luckily for us, birds, nature, and art are what we do. Continue reading “Birds over borders: 2020 Annual Appeal”
One of our favorite things to do is work with volunteers on special projects—regularly in the building and outside in the gardens, as well as special volunteer work parties before our “open season”. This year, unfortunately, the novel coronavirus interrupted this! But now we are open, so…
We would love to have volunteers in and around the Museum! This is completely up to you and what you find comfortable. As always, we have lots of projects and need your help!
Indoors, volunteers greet visitors, tend the gift shop, organize materials, record data, and help us clean.
Outside, there are opportunities for trail maintenance, collecting natural history data, sanding and painting, and weeding. We have a few projects that can be done off-site. We could also use the help of a carpenter. It is pretty easy to maintain social distancing and get fresh air while you do these!
If you are interested in volunteering this year, please call us at 802-434-2167. We look forward to hearing from you!
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.
Continue reading “Borders: illusions that constrain us | 2020 community art show”
Built of an upcycled Wood Duck nesting box, the Birds of Vermont Museum’s Little Free Library (LFL) is now up and open to the public. It is easy to get to: on a shed wall near the entrance path to the Museum. In keeping with a nesting motif (that is, slightly hidden), and wishing to keep some of the weather off, volunteer Erny P., 85, attached our LFL under the shed’s eaves. Erny also did the remodeling of the box, adding a door and a shelf for smaller books. The clear window gives a sneak peek at what’s inside.
![Borders: illusions that constrain us [a call to artists]](https://birdsofvermont.org/wpsite2017/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/paintbrushes-banner.jpg)
A Call to Artists from the Birds of Vermont Museum
What borders do birds encounter? Our maps do not typically reflect the territories they perceive, the ranges they travel, or the barriers they comes across. How do birds’ boundaries connect to human borders? To those of other species? Edges of things—physically, spatially, temporally— raise questions, not least of which is “Is it really there?”
We ponder this, wondering, how do and will these encounters and connections alter us, birds, and the borders themselves?
We seek works that share visions of birds, borders, and boundaries, now and into the future, for our 2020 art exhibit, Borders.
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
A Call to Artists from the Birds of Vermont Museum
We wander in gardens, foster habitats, explore ecosystems. Life buzzes, entwines, fosters, interacts—one species to another and another and another. Birds and insects and plants thrive together. Can we pause, notice? Can we let the outside in, become as intimately connected to the world around as a pollinated plant is to its pollinators?
We seek artworks that explore, examine, and express pollination—metaphorical and otherwise—for our 2019 art exhibit, Pollinate This!
For the last six years, the Birds of Vermont Museum has engaged with local artists to present an annual bird-centered community art exhibit. The works are mindfully created; the artists’ visions and voices tell their stories through a variety of expressive media. The 2018 show Common Grounds focused on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) of 1918, now in its 100th year. Despite challenges, the MBTA has brought hope, promise, and conservation success to global citizenry, naturalists, and conservationists, and birds. The show became a small-scale reflection of a global purpose.
Great things require creative community backing: physically, financially, and collaboratively. We work together to imagine, investigate, communicate, and protect birds. Artists, educators, legislators, and conservationists unite in their concern and support for the welfare of migratory birds and all wildlife everywhere.
This collaborative effort created and now maintains the Birds of Vermont Museum, an institution with presence in the scientific, cultural arts, and educational communities. Many people, including you, have never wavered in their belief in the Birds of Vermont Museum and our mission. The Museum relies on this generosity for special programs, day-to-day operations, educational activities, and the care and keeping of Museum lands. We hope you will continue to support us by making a year-end donation today.
As an extra thank you, all donors who give at least $200, received by December 31, 2018, will receive a selection of note cards created by artists who contributed to the Common Grounds show.
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