SHELBURNE, Vermont (May 14, 2025)—Shelburne Museum is hosting an exhibition of artwork created by students at Hinesburg Community School, the culmination of an innovative program with the Olivia & Leslie Foundation that teaches Kindergarten and First Grade students critical thinking and cognitive skills while developing their social and emotional core.
The exhibition, which is on view May 16 through May 18 at Shelburne Museum, showcases works created earlier this spring by the students in the Olivia and Leslie Art + Math Program, a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM)-based program. Artwork from Shelburne Museum’s collection figured prominently in the curriculum that integrates mathematical concepts such as spatial relationships, geometry, and symmetry into a carefully designed arts program that enables young children to build creative confidence.
The after-school program was developed by Maker Prep, a Princeton, New Jersey, based firm devoted to supporting computer science and arts education, in consultation with the Olivia & Leslie Foundation and Shelburne Museum. The Burke Foundation of Princeton is a fiscal sponsor.
“Hosting Hinesburg student artwork is a delight. Now in its second year, we look forward to sharing the creativity of the young artists who participated in this groundbreaking and innovative program,” said Thomas Denenberg, the John Wilmerding director of Shelburne Museum. “We applaud the Olivia & Leslie Foundation for its work nurturing creativity and connecting science, technology, art, and math, a concept that aligns so closely with the museum’s educational mission.”
The driving force behind the initiative is Shelburne Museum Trustee Chris Kuenne, founder of the Olivia & Leslie Foundation and an entrepreneur with deep roots to Vermont. Kuenne founded the global marketing firm Rosetta, which was the largest privately held digital marketing company before it was sold to Publicis Groupe. Kuenne is now Chairman & CEO of Rosemark.
“Sharing the gift that Olivia and Leslie imparted to all fortunate enough to know them—the transformative power of art to inspire, educate, and awaken the deepest recesses of our shared humanity, is at the root of what the Foundation aims to achieve,” said Kuenne. “We do this through building early childhood arts educational programs that spark the imaginations of young children, providing them with a safe place for artistic exploration and self-expression. We believe this exploration can be further enhanced when parents celebrate their children’s creations.”
About the Olivia & Leslie Foundation:
The Olivia & Leslie Foundation was founded by Chris Kuenne and his sons, Peter, William, and Matthew, to memorialize his daughter and their sister, Olivia, who died in 1997 in an accident at the age of five, and his late wife and their mother, Leslie, who died of ovarian cancer in 2019. The Foundation is committed to creating and funding proven STEAM initiatives that ignite the imagination of young children, provide a safe space for creative expression and problem solving, and to teach critical thinking and cognitive skills.
About Shelburne Museum:
Founded in 1947 by trailblazing folk art collector Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888–1960), Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, is the largest art and history museum in northern New England and Vermont’s foremost public resource for visual art and material culture. The Museum’s 45-acre campus is comprised of 39 buildings including the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education and Webb Gallery featuring important American paintings by Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Grandma Moses, John Singleton Copley and many more. For more information, please visit shelburnemuseum.org
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Leslie Wright, Director of Marketing and Communications
lwright@shelburnemuseum.org, 802-985-0880
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