exhibit – Birds of Vermont Museum

January 2, 2025January 25, 2025

Call to Artists: Birds and Myth

Birds and Myth: meanings, metaphors, & guides

We seek to understand the world. Birds are some of our teachers, not only through our senses and observations, but also through our stories about them. These stories can be factual accounts, broader myths, or something in between. A myth might be a traditional legend, a widely-held-but-false belief, or a representation (or misrepresentation) of something true. A myth can offer insight into who we are, individually or collectively. A myth can offer us ways to behave and ideals to live by. What understanding of birds and humans have you gained through myths you have heard, told, or invented?

The Birds of Vermont Museum’s 2025 art show is centered on these ideas. We invite art submissions that bring birds and their meanings into art to retell an old story, weave several together, represent your beliefs, and/or create a myth for the future.
Continue reading “Call to Artists: Birds and Myth”

Power of Perspective: 2024 art exhibit continues in October

A dense flock of snow geese flies in front of forested hills that border a lake. Some are landing on blue water. The many (hundreds?) geese are white; the hills are blues, purples, magentas, and browns. The lake water is light blue shading toward dark blue where it is closer to the viewer. The sky behind the hill is light blue, and more geese fly there also. Snow Geese on Lake Champlain. Photography by Diane DeBella. Copyright © 2024 and used with permission.

The 2024 art show, The Power of Perspective: shifting points of view opened May 1 and runs through October 31.

Visit, and find your own new idea, question, or experience. Our call to artists for this year’s art show asked,

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? …How might a change in perspective alter people’s understanding of the lives and needs of the birds who share our world?

Discover how artists, poets, sculptors, photographers and others have answered. The full list of creators is in our blog post, Power of Perspective.

Past Exhibits

2023: Spark! fueling a love of birds
2022: Fine Feathers: at play with structure and function
2021: Expanding Voices: perspectives on birding
2020: Borders: illusions that constrain us
2019: Pollinate This!
2018: Common Grounds
2017: B1rding by the Numb3rs
2016: In Layers: the art of the egg
2015: Birds of a Fiber
2014: Perilous Passages

Power of Perspective: 2024 art exhibit continues in September

The 2024 art show, The Power of Perspective: shifting points of view opened May 1 and runs through October 31.

Visit, and find your own new idea, question, or experience. Our call to artists for this year’s art show asked,

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? …How might a change in perspective alter people’s understanding of the lives and needs of the birds who share our world?

Discover how artists, poets, sculptors, photographers and others have answered. The full list of creators is in our blog post, Power of Perspective.

Past Exhibits

July 1, 2024June 30, 2024

The Power of Perspective | 2024 community art show

A hawk is silhouetted against a pale sky, seen from beneath flowers. Title: Hunter. Fabric, embroidery by Sarah Ashe. Copyright © 2024 and used with permission. #PowerOfPerspective

The Power of Perspective: shifting points of view

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”

Power of Perspective: 2024 art exhibit continues in August

Rectangular pieces of a puzzle possibly showing a gray and blue bird are disarranged on a silver tray. Only part of the tray and some of the pieces can be seen. Build-a-Bird: Blue Jay. Photograph of a puzzle created by Richard Crocker. Copyright © 2024 and used with permission.

The 2024 art show, The Power of Perspective: shifting points of view opened May 1 and runs through October 31.

Visit, and find your own new idea, question, or experience. Our call to artists for this year’s art show asked,

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? …How might a change in perspective alter people’s understanding of the lives and needs of the birds who share our world?

Discover how artists, poets, sculptors, photographers and others have answered. The full list of creators is in our blog post, Power of Perspective.

Image: Portion of “Build-a-Bird: Blue Jay” by Richard Crocker. Shown with permission.

Past Exhibits

Power of Perspective: 2024 art exhibit continues in July

A sunflower is reflected in a drop of water. The sunflower itself can be seen, blurred, behind the drop. An excerpt of of a photograph by Elizabeth Spinney. Copyright © 2024 and used with permission. #PowerOfPerspective

The 2024 art show, The Power of Perspective: shifting points of view opened May 1 and runs through October 31.

Visit, and find your own new idea, question, or experience. Our call to artists for this year’s art show asked,

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? …How might a change in perspective alter people’s understanding of the lives and needs of the birds who share our world?

Discover how artists, poets, and sculptors have answered.

Discover how artists, poets, and sculptors have answered. The full list of artists is in our blog post, Power of Perspective.

Past Exhibits

Power of Perspective: 2024 art exhibit continues in June

Aerial photograph showing a fallow winter fields. Tiny specks are ducks, seen from above. Title: Fallow Field with Ducks. Aerial photography by John Hadden. Copyright © 2024 and used with permission.

The 2024 art show, The Power of Perspective: shifting points of view opened May 1 and runs through October 31.

Visit, and find your own new idea, question, or experience. Our call to artists for this year’s art show asked,

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? …How might a change in perspective alter people’s understanding of the lives and needs of the birds who share our world?

Discover how artists, poets, sculptors, photographers and others have answered. The full list of creators is in our blog post, Power of Perspective.

Past Exhibits

December 5, 2023

Call to Artists: Power of Perspective

The Power of Perspective: a shifting point of view

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”

July 8, 2023October 13, 2024

Spark! fueling a love of birds | 2023 community art show

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”

January 5, 2023January 8, 2023

Call to Artists: Spark!

Spark! fueling a love of birds

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!”