FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SHELBURNE MUSEUM SELECTS ADJAYE ASSOCIATES

ACCLAIMED FIRM TO DESIGN PERRY CENTER FOR NATIVE AMERICAN ART

SHELBURNE, Vt. (May 8, 2023)—Shelburne Museum has selected Adjaye Associates, an internationally acclaimed architecture studio to design the museum’s new Perry Center for Native American Art, a sustainable building with integrated landscape created in collaboration with Indigenous voices whose cultures and people are represented in the works to be stewarded in the space.

Adjaye Associates has studios in Accra, London and New York with work spanning the globe.  The studio’s most well-known commission to date, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington, DC and was named “Cultural Event of the Year” by The New York Times.

“Shelburne Museum is honored to be partnering with David Adjaye and his team to create a welcoming space where Tribal members and scholars can study and engage with Indigenous art and all visitors—the local community, schoolchildren and tourists—can experience the museum. David and his colleagues are in absolute alignment with the museum’s goal to serve as a culturally competent steward of a nationally important collection,” said Thomas Denenberg, John Wilmerding Director and CEO of Shelburne Museum.  

The Perry Center for Native American Art at Shelburne Museum is planned to be a 9,750-square-foot, highly sustainable pavilion. Crucially, the $12.6 million Perry Center will be designed from the ground up in partnership with Indigenous voices to support the culturally appropriate interpretation and care of Indigenous material culture.

“Our team is inspired by the potential of the Perry Center to not only enhance Shelburne Museum as a destination for education, but also to amplify and empower the Indigenous communities represented by the collection and to reconceptualize the role of a 21st century museum facility,” Adjaye said. “As the design architect for the new Perry Center, Adjaye Associates intends to cultivate opportunities for transformation, storytelling and cross-cultural dialogue, ensuring the Perry Center contributes to the unique eclecticism and mission of Shelburne Museum.”

In addition to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, selected completed works include: the new George Street Plaza & Community Building with Indigenous artwork in Sydney’s Central Business District; the Abrahamic Family House, an interfaith complex in Abu Dhabi, UAE; 130 William, a high-rise residential tower in New York’s Financial District; 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the new Public Member Spaces for the labor union’s headquarters in Manhattan; the Winter Park Library & Events Center, a knowledge and cultural campus in Florida; Ruby City, a contemporary art center in San Antonio, Texas; Sugar Hill Mixed-Use Development and Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling in Harlem, New York; the Aïshti Foundation Arts and Shopping Complex in Beirut Lebanon; two LEED Gold neighborhood libraries in Washington DC; the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver in Colorado; the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway; and the Idea Stores—two pioneering community libraries in London’s Tower Hamlets.  

In 2017, Adjaye was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was included in TIME’S 100 Most Influential People List. Adjaye is also a recipient of the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal, considered one of the highest honors in British architecture for significant contributions to the field internationally. In 2022, Adjaye was appointed to the Order of Merit, selected by Her Majesty the Queen, in recognition of distinguished service in his field. He is also the recipient of the World Economic Forum’s 27th Annual Crystal Award, which recognizes his “leadership in serving communities, cities and the environment.”

Today the portfolio continues to evolve with major cultural and civic projects that include The Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE; District Hospitals in multiple locations across Ghana; the Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA) in Benin City, Nigeria; the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg, South Africa; a new home for The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; a new facility for the Princeton University Art Museum; new headquarters for the International Financial Corporation (IFC) in Dakar, Senegal, anticipated to be net zero; the National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra; the 241-acre Marine Drive Accra master plan project in Accra, Ghana; and the Cuyahoga Riverfront Master Plan in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information visit https://www.adjaye.com/.

About Shelburne Museum: Shelburne Museum is the largest art and history museum in northern New England and Vermont’s foremost public resource for programming in the arts and humanities. Incorporated in 1947, the museum comprises 39 buildings and 22 gardens on a 45-acre campus. The museum stewards a collection of over 100,000 objects in unique and unparalleled installations of American art and material culture. Programming includes exhibitions and educational programs designed to creatively engage a broad spectrum of audiences and spark conversation and contemplation about the human condition.

Shelburne Museum attracts a multigenerational audience from the region with significant visitation from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Quebec. The museum holds a special responsibility for serving the Vermont community. Approximately 8,000 students from 100 Vermont schools visit annually, comprising 10 percent of the state’s student population.

Shelburne Museum’s trailblazing founder Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888–1960) repeatedly called for expanding scholarly and popular understanding of American material life as one of the principal collectors who defined the field in the decades that bracketed World War II. A critical example of this impulse is Webb’s deep interest in, and engagement with, Indigenous art and culture, an aspect of Shelburne Museum’s program incompletely realized in her lifetime and of singular importance to the institution today.

High resolution images available upon request.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Leslie Wright
Director of Advancement
Shelburne Museum
lwright@shelburnemuseum.org
802-985-0880

Kristen Levesque
Kristen Levesque Public Relations
kristen@kristenlevesquepr.com
207-329-3090 

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