Shelburne Museum

THE SIGHTS, THE SOUNDS AND THE SIDESHOWS OF THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

SHELBURNE, Vermont (April 26, 2010) The four-legged girl, the dog-faced boy and the two-headed nightingale are just a few of the colorful characters who come to life at Shelburne Museum’s new exhibit Circus Day in America.

Circus Day in America is a captivating and lively look at the art and experience of the circus during its heyday from 1870-1950. Using art, artifacts, photographs and film, the exhibit evokes the sights and sounds of the circus coming to town.

The exhibit explores the development of advertising and the art of exaggeration with posters of freaks, sideshows and outlandish animals from the museum’s collection of over 500 rare posters. Other exhibit features include performers’ costumes, a smelling station with signature scents of the circus and an installation of contemporary sideshow banners that measures 40-feet long by 17-feet high.

“Circus Day in America recreates the experience of what was the largest form of entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” said Associate Curator Kory Rogers, who organized the exhibit. “The exhibit is a window on the colorful cast of performers who traveled the country by rail entertaining entire communities. For many of them, circus life was bittersweet. Performers took great risks and sometimes paid the ultimate price. Sideshow freaks endured the public scrutiny of onlookers.”

Also on display are two extraordinary miniature carved circuses – The Arnold Circus, which recreates a circus train with nearly 4,000 pieces stretching over 500 feet and the hand carved Kirk Bros. Circus with three rings and 3,500 figures.

Circus Day in America opens May 16 and runs through October 24. A companion catalog to the exhibit will be available in the Museum Store and online at www.shelburnemuseum.org.

Below is a list of several new exhibits at the museum this season.
The museum is open daily from May 16 through October 24.

Ansel Adams and Edward Burtynksky: Constructed Landscapes – A new exhibit of over 60 works by Ansel Adams, the legendary photographer of pristine American wilderness, and Edward Burtynsky, whose contemporary photographs illuminate human impact on the natural world. June 19- October 24

Alzheimer’s: Forgetting Piece by Piece is a powerful tribute to victims of Alzheimer’s expressed through textile art. The exhibit features 52 quilts, many of them made by quilters who have lost a loved one to the disease. May 16-October 24

Jay Hall Connaway: A Restless Nature is a retrospective of an exceptional 20th century New England landscape painter whose work bridges the gap between the American realists of the 19th century and the modernists of the 20th century. May 16-October 24

All Fired Up: Six Ceramic Artists from Vermont showcases unique artist-designed installations displaying a diversity of work and providing a window into contemporary ceramics. May 16-October 24

Embellishments: The Art of the Crazy Quilt exhibits fine and whimsical examples from the museum’s renowned collection. May 16-October 24

About Shelburne Museum:
Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont is one of North America’s finest, most diverse and unconventional museums of art, design and Americana. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in a remarkable setting of 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds. The museum’s collection includes works by the great Impressionists Claude Monet, Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas as well as a prized collection of folk art including trade signs, weathervanes and quilts.

Image Captions:

1. Toni-Lee Sangastiano, Husky Harry sideshow banner, 2010, acrylic on canvas. 5’w x 7’h Collection of Shelburne Museum. This colorful sideshow banner is part of a 40’w x 17’h installation that features 13 banners.

2. Strobridge Litho. Co., Human Flies, 1882, chromolithograph. Collection of Shelburne Museum.