In 1948, one year after founding Shelburne Museum, Electra Havemeyer Webb wrote, “I want [Shelburne Museum] to be an educational project, varied and alive, that will instill in those who visit a deeper understanding and appreciation in heritage.” Commissioned to celebrate the Museum’s 75th anniversary, Nancy Winship Milliken: Varied and Alive, is a site-specific outdoor sculpture exhibition that embodies the Museum’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability while also engaging in global and local ecological conversations, from climate change to Lake Champlain’s watershed history. Installed within a pollinator meadow planted for this exhibition, Winship Milliken’s four monumental post-and-beam structures feature different natural materials intrinsic to the land, all of which explore themes related to sustainability: horsehair, wool, beeswax, and driftwood. Activated by the wind and sun, each sculpture uniquely moves, changes, and adapts to the environment, inspiring community conversations surrounding our roles within and relationships to nature.
Museum Grounds
