A Feel for Art

On a recent morning I visited the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I attend their Peer Assisted Learning and Support (PALS) group in South Burlington a couple of times per year to talk about our Art at Hand tours and encourage their participants to visit Shelburne Museum. I always bring a hands-on art project based on the Museum's collections.

This most recent craft was inspired by the Stencil House. I have been been studying Stencil in preparation for our new gallery talk, Exploring Colonial Revival: Prentis and Stencil Houses, which debuts when the Museum opens to the public on May 12th. Wall stencils, painted by itinerant artists who traveled from town to town and worked on commission, were popular decorative features in American homes from approximately 1815 to 1840. Much of the painting in the Stencil House parlor is original, having been stenciled in the 1830s and cleaned in an extensive 1999-2000 conservation project.

Stencil House Parlor, Photograph by J. David Bohl

Stencil House Fireplace, Photograph by J. David Bohl

After introducing the house and describing in detail the stenciling above the fireplace in the parlor (see above), I oriented the PALS group to their art materials. Chalk pastels, which feel dry and powdery, are easy to blend. Oil pastels are waxy, like crayons. The pastel paper we drew on had some texture to hold the pigment. I also brought a variety of stencils in different shapes; animal, vegetable, mineral, we had it all.

Most of the folks who attend the PALS group have age-related vision impairments, such as macular degeneration or cataracts. They are not totally blind, and for the most part they do have a sense of light and color. Even so, the creative process is challenging. One participant, Jerry, said that though he'd never tried drawing, "recently I've been trying a lot of new things I've never done." Historically, people who are blind or visually impaired have felt alienated by the art world. We at Shelburne Museum are excited to play a small part in turning those perceptions around.

Click here to learn more about our tours for special audiences or to register for Art at Hand.

Conversations: Art, Nature, Sprit

At Shelburne Museum we are fortunate to be part of a local community that embraces the arts. Head north on Route 7 and down Harbor Road and you'll find Shelburne Farms, a 1,400-acre working farm and National Historic Landmark. Go south and take a right on Bostwick and you'll find a small drive that leads you to All Souls Interfaith Gathering. Five years ago, we partnered with these Shelburne organizations to offer an annual series of "Conversations" that explore the fascinating ways in which art, nature, and spirit interact. Hosted by Fran Stoddard, this year's series explores how we might awaken to transformation through artmaking, engaging with the natural world, and undertaking spiritual practice.

Fran Stoddard asks Sam Guarnaccia and Cami Davis about "Emergent Universe Oratorio"

The initial conversation, which will be rebroadcast on RETN (Comcast and Burlington Telecom channel 16) March 21st at 8 p.m., featured composer Sam Guarnaccia and painter Cami Davis. They are in the midst of a collaborative art project that will debut at Shelburne Farms this September. The "Emergent Universe Oratorio" traces the development of our universe over the course of 13 billion years. It begins with the spoken word and unfolds into an operatic performance featuring a 100-voice choir and chamber orchestra. Davis's art, displayed in the space, will provide a dynamic visual component to the experience. 

When Stoddard asked Davis where she finds inspiration, she replied that conceptualizing the universe is like standing on a mountain. It's larger than you, and yet you internalize its presence, a feeling, a power. Her challenge is to translate that onto the canvas. Guarnaccia added, playfully, that their piece attempts to capture the "intimate ultimacy and the ultimate intimacy" of the natural world. As I watched them grapple with these big ideas, I began to think of the incredible landscapes in Shelburne Museum's collection (Andrew Wyeth's Soaring, to name just one), and consider how those artists confronted their physical environment.

Conversations with others in our community have the potential to open our minds and expand our thoughts. We hope to see you this month as we awake to transformation through art, education, and spiritual practice. Here are the dates for upcoming presentations in the series:

• March 13: Ecology of Learning, Leadership and Change. Naturalist Matt Kolan shares ecological principles, rhythms and cycles of nature and how these offer clues to guide human patterns including systems thinking, problem-solving, and educational design. He is joined by Margaret Burke offering insights from her work with young people at Shelburne Farms and recent research on the transformative impact of nature-based programs on adolescents. 4 p.m.

• March 20: Awakening the Power of Spiritual Practice. Sustainability is linked to healing of poverty, injustice and environmental degradation. Rev. Mary Abele of All Souls Interfaith Gathering and Pastor Nancy Wright of Ascension Lutheran Church share insights on the potential of spirituality to raise consciousness and motivate action.

Both programs are free and are at All Souls Interfaith Gathering (pictured above) in Shelburne.
 
For information please contact Kim McCray, adult programs coordinator, at 802-985-3346 x3368 or kmccray@shelburnemuseum.org

LEAP! this summer

Though there's still an undeniable chill in the air around the Museum, we in Education are hard at work planning our 2013 LEAP! (Learn + Play) summer camps. For seven very special weeks this July and August we invite campers ages five to thirteen to discover enchanted creatures, cook on an open hearth, join the circus, sail the high seas, and indulge their creative minds. 

One of our offerings is AHOY! A Week at Sea, a nautical-themed camp for six-to-eight year-olds that we ran for the first time last year. I wrote the curriculum for AHOY!, and experienced one of my all-time favorite museum moments on "Steamship Day," when we learned about the Ticonderoga and put ourselves in sailors' shoes.

Intern Callie and Lex practice their figure eight knots.

We're fortunate to have a knowledgeable Museum staff, including several true maritime experts. Peter Tomasi, our Ticonderoga carpenter, leads a group of dedicated volunteers who work on the boat year-round. One of them is Lex Nason, who has volunteered in the Ti workshop for eighteen years and over 8,000 hours. He and Peter generously offered to spend the morning teaching our campers the nautical knots they know and use.

A book of knots.

Each camper had their own three-foot length of rope. We began with basic overhand knots and worked our way up to figure-eights, which hold better and are also easier to untie when needed. Before long, our campers tied their water bottles together using their new skills and created a pulley system for hoisting them onto the tables!

Peter demonstrates a knot he uses on the Ticonderoga.

All hands on deck! Our water bottles get a boost.

We try to build activities into camps for staff to share their expertise with an eager young audience. On another afternoon during our "Week at Sea" campers questioned Shelburne Museum's Director of Buildings Chip Stulen, who happens to be trained in boat building, about ship design. Then campers built their own models complete with smokestacks, flags, figureheads, and rudders. My colleague Paige spoke with the kids about her years traveling the world on a cruise ship and told the Native American story of Natsilane and the killer whale, a fascinating piece of nautical folklore. 

I always look forward to planning these fun, creative, and interactive camp activities--they brighten the short winter days.

A sailor's life!

Camp registration is now open--click here to learn more about our offerings and download a registration form. We hope to see you this summer!

Shelburne Museum Does NEMA

Recently Burlington hosted the 94th annual New England Museum Association (NEMA) conference. Staff from Shelburne Museum participated in several sessions on a wide range of topics from new building construction to LED lighting.

Paige and I co-chaired a panel discussion called, "Open Doors, Open Minds: Serving Special Audiences on a Budget," in which we spoke about Art at Hand, our tours for visitors who are blind or visually impaired, and Mornings at the Museum for people with Alzheimer's. We also worked with Paula Rais, Director of Community Engagement at the Children's Museum of New Hampshire. She runs Exploring Our Way, an acclaimed program for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Paige and I are both "Emerging Museum Professionals" or EMPs; we haven't been in the field very long, and neither of us had been to a professional conference before. Chairing a session was a true honor, and we had been preparing for it for almost nine months!


It began back in February with a call for proposals. This year's conference theme was "Pushing the Envelope: Innovation and the Future of Museums." We knew the special audiences we serve are quite unique; many institutions are just beginning to explore their potential. We also recognized that some of the museums well known for their array of accessible programming, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, have a designated "access coordinator" and corporate sponsors who facilitate and fund their tours. We wanted to show smaller institutions with more limited resources that they can offer meaningful programming to audiences with special needs.

Mornings at the Museum

Art at Hand

Throughout the spring and summer we coordinated with Paula, outlining our session and elucidating some general principles we've all learned. They included:

• Assembling a team of advisors who are experts in the audience you are engaging
• Soliciting feedback at every point in the process
• Seeing special tours and programs as stepping stones to individual museum visits; anticipating and encouraging participants to return on their own.

When the day of our presentation finally came, we were thrilled to share our experiences with forty fellow museum professionals looking to start their own access programs. We fielded questions on everything from wheelchair guidelines to staff training. I found it empowering to share both the highlights and the challenges of these programs, and came out with new energy and excitement about our special tours--which was well worth the time spent. Thank you, NEMA 2012!

Staff Brings Science Fiction to Haunted Happenings

Haunted Happenings, 2011

This year, Haunted Happenings is boldly going where no theme has gone before:  science fiction! The Museum staff is working hard to bring their favorite science fiction characters and stories to life for the event this Sunday.  Renee Compagna, the Museum’s Family Programs Coordinator, admits that this year is a dream come true.  “I’ve always wanted to have a Star Wars’ themed event at the Museum,” she says.  “Having a sci-fi themed event and incorporating Star Wars compliments the temporary exhibition Time Machines: Robots, Rockets and Steampunk.”



Poster for 1954 Disney Adaption of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The Office of Registrar plans to bring visitors a unique science fiction experience that ties into the exhibit with their ode to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  "It's sci-fi, written by Jules Verne, and it's very steampunk.  Plus it was such a campy movie," explains Barbara Rathburn, the Museum's Registrar.  Right now, they're working on a sunken shipwreck with a blast on the side that will sit on the Stagecoach lawn in front of a painted backdrop of the Nautilus -- Captain Nemo's high-tech submarine that secretly explores various underwater worlds.  Look for Barbara as she lurks around in her homemade squid costume. 

The science fiction take on Haunted Haunted is filling the Museum departments with enthusiasm and energy.  “Staff are really excited about this year’s theme since it is an area that, as a Museum of Art and Design, that we do not generally get to explore,” Renee says.   I went off to investigate what other departments are planning for the 3,000 visitors expected to join us on Haunted Happenings.

“I need to find some slime – like blood, only green,” Account Clerk Denise Morrell suddenly remembers as she describes to me the Administrative Department’s plan to transform Owl Cottage into a Roswell site.  It won't take long for you to discover the U.F.O (unidentified flying object) that has mysteriously crashed into the children’s activity center.  I won’t give away what the department has up their sleeve for inside the cottage.  Let’s just say that Denise admits her department “doesn't mind doing a little scary.” 

In 2011, the Administration Department recreated Batman's
bat cave in the bottom floor of the Round Barn

Have you ever thought about what kind of music would be played at a Star Trek dance party?  I asked Katie Titterton, Membership Manager, to tell me what music the Development Department believes the Enterprise crew boogies to while cruising in warp drive.  “Mid to late 20^th century music—really loud,” she deliberated.  You can find the Development Team enjoying throwing a Star Trek dance party on the Dutton House lawn.  Titterton will dance along with visitors as a generic crew member of the Star Trek Enterprise, but she’s pleased to announce that Shelburne Museum’s Director of Development, Sam Ankerson, will take charge as the famous Captain James T. Kirk. 

Development stuck with the party theme this year after throwing a fun 'pizza' bash
as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during 2011's Haunted Happenings.

Sara Woodbury and candy, 2011

Enough science fiction, what about the candy? If you recall my Preparing for Haunted Happenings post from a year ago, Curatorial Fellow Sara Woodbury allowed the Education department to stash all 40,000 pieces of candy into her office.  The torch has now been passed to Adult Programs Coordinator, Kim McCray.  Why the office change?  "Because I'm sweet," Kim retorts.  But, she's not bitter about the mounds of boxes taking up an entire wall of her office.  "It's kind of exciting," she confesses. "The boxes constantly remind me that Haunted Happenings is coming up and since this will be my first one I'm really looking forward to it."

Kim McCray and candy, 2012

Haunted Happening is 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 28.  Admission is $5.  Children age 2 and under and members are free. 

i-loview, Accessible Technology!

This season Shelburne Museum received a generous gift from the Vermont-based accessible technology company, Ai Squared -- two i-loview handheld video magnifiers for  visually impaired museum visitors. Equipped with sophisticated cameras, the devices allow users to see an image up to 32 times its original size.

Intern Nina uses an i-loview magnifier on an Art at Hand tour of the Ticonderoga

We have put the magnifiers to good use in our Art at Hand program for the visually impaired. We've used them, for example, to see the tiny anchor pattern that dots the dining room carpet on the steamboat Ticonderoga. Later this month we will employ them at the General Store for up-close look at objects behind the counter or high up on the shelves. The i-loview magnifiers have been indispensable on these special tours.
Now, the devices are even more accessible to our visitors. Through closing day on October 28th they are available to check out at the Information Desk just behind the Museum Store!

Anne displays the i-loview magnifiers now available for visitors to check out at the Information Desk

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Rebecca White, Marketing Project Manager at Ai Squared, who wrote her own article about Art at Hand on their "Zoomed In" blog. She explains that while the company's flagship product, ZoomText magnification and reading software, has been on the market for over twenty years, the i-loview is an innovative development in accessible hardware. "We do everything we can to stay on top of technology," she says. "The i-loview helps our customers on the go--whether they're at the grocery store or an art museum." The device, White emphasizes, allows people who are visually impaired to "stay connected to the world and maintain their sense of independence."

White expresses a passionate belief that cultural institutions should be accessible to the tight-knit community of visually impaired Vermonters whom Ai Squared knows well. The company moved to the southern part of the state 1992 and, as she describes, its corporate culture just "feels Vermont." Then she pauses, realizing that, "maybe that only makes sense to Vermonters!" Certainly we at Shelburne Museum take pride in our deep regional connections and are glad to establish a partnership with such an esteemed local business. Ai Squared makes it a point to give back to the state they call home, and we thank them heartily for their generosity.

Update: If you'd like to learn more about Art at Hand, check out this article published in the Burlington Free Press on Sunday, October 21st.

New Faces in Education

If you've been following Shelburne Museum on Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, or Youtube, you know that this is an exciting time here as the Museum builds a Center for Art and Education that will transform the Museum from seasonal to year round operation. With each steel beam that goes up, fresh possibilities arise.

We're very excited to bring on board two new faces who contribute to the positive energy and forward momentum that the promise of a year-round Shelburne Museum brings. Meet Daphne and Kim! Both began jobs in the Education Department this month.

Daphne Zencey, Academic Programs Coordinator

Daphne Zencey is the Museum's new Academic Programs Coordinator. She comes to us by way of the University of Vermont and Syracuse University, where she earned her master's degree in art history. She is also a veteran of the United States Coast Guard. This spring Daphne worked as an educator for Passport to Learning, our series of interactive workshops for grades K through 8. Her favorite session was "Shop 'til You Drop" at the General Store. She loved giving students a shopping list, items to barter, and a limited amount of play money and watching the "spontaneity and hubbub" that ensued. Daphne is looking forward to seeing school-aged kids on the grounds this fall, especially the littlest ones on their very first visit to the Museum who can't help but "gawk at everything around them."

A self-described "19th-century nut" who remembers the excitement of visiting the Metropolitan Museum as a child, Daphne adores European painting and completed her master's thesis on the Pre-Raphaelites. She also has a soft spot for decorative arts such as those at the Variety Unit, especially the unique collection of sailor-carved scrimshaw. An artist herself, Daphne likes to work with pastels and charcoal. "I dabble," she explains. We know her passion for art and hands-on experience will make an impact as she takes on the Academic Programs Coordinator position!

Kim McCray, Adult Programs Coordinator

Kim McCray is Adult Programs Coordinator. She has significant experience in the museum world with positions at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum and the Nantucket Historical Association under her belt. She is currently working on a doctorate in museum education at Lesley University, having completed her undergraduate degree at St. Michael's College and her master's at Georgetown University. Her interest in museums goes back much farther. A lifelong Vermonter, she recalls a visit to the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury at age five to see dinosaur fossils as well as childhood trips to Shelburne Museum. 

As a young girl, Kim's favorite piece in the Museum's collection was Tinkle, a folk art painting of a proud-looking white cat completed in 1883 by an unknown American artist that visitors can view today in Stagecoach Inn. It still stands out to her, she explains, because Tinkle was important enough to his owner for him or her to commission a portrait. Kim's interest in American Folk Art spans many mediums, from paintings to whirligigs, but she is always inspired by stories of the unique individuals who crafted the pieces. A novice quilter, Kim also enjoys creating herself. She is excited to become part of the Shelburne Museum community and have the opportunity to put lifelong passion and academic theory into practice as our Adult Programs Coordinator.

Welcome, Daphne and Kim!

Looking Beyond Sight

The following is a guest post written by Shelburne Museum member Shirley Katz. She and her husband, George, attended an Art at Hand tour for museum visitors who are blind or visually impaired. Here's what she had to say about their experience: 

The Lions Club sponsored a day at Shelburne Museum for the blind and visually impaired. It was a described, hands-on tour of two of the exhibits: The steamboat Ticonderoga and the Lighthouse.

 

 

The Ti is very impressive, now "docked" in a grassy basin on the museum grounds.

Museum guides provided replicas (or near-replicas) for everyone to get a feel for the boat. 

 

Then we boarded the Ti to hear an excellent visual description. The Ti was restored to appear as it may have looked in 1923. The cherry wood paneling and adornments are truly beautiful. As a sighted person, I appreciated this even more as we were invited to feel the detailing.

We even got a feel for what it may have been like to take the controls.

Back to the area just in front of the dining room, we learned more about this magnificent vessel. 

The floor here looks like a puzzle. The guides had a sample piece of what the flooring is really like.

Our guide also pointed out that the carpeting in the dining room looks like it is made up of tiny anchors--very appropriate! Can you see them?

 

The museum now has two magnifiers for visually impaired people to check out while on a tour. They were generously donated by Ai Squared, and this was the first day they were used. Here Geo is looking at the ceiling while also seeing it up close in the magnifier. 

 

We walked back for a tour of the Lighthouse before taking the shuttle back to the main entrance.   

Thank you, Shirley! We are offering three additional Art at Hand tours this season. For more information or to register, visit http://shelburnemuseum.org/learn/adults/activities-and-tours/tours-for-special-audiences/.