Shelburne Museum Announces Opening Day May 18

Lilac and Gardening Sunday kicks off a stellar season

 SHELBURNE, Vt. (April, 17, 2008) Shelburne Museum opens its gate to a spectacular new season on Sunday, May 18. The season launches with Lilac and Gardening Sunday, an eagerly anticipated annual event that draws lilac lovers and gardening enthusiasts from across the region.

“There’s nothing like starting the season with a colorful and fragrant celebration,” said Stephan Jost, museum director. “We have a wonderful range of nine new exhibitions from a major show featuring Impressionist Mary Cassatt to Warren Kimble’s America , the local Vermont folk artist’s first museum retrospective.”

On Lilac and Gardening Sunday, the Museum offers walking tours of its incredible collection of over 400 lilacs in 90 varieties. Visitors also enjoy presentations by local gardening experts and workshops about how to plant and care for lilacs and other plants. The first 200 visitors receive free lilac seedlings courtesy of Horsford Gardens & Nursery of Charlotte. 

Exhibits for 2008 include Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family, opening on June 21, with over 60 works by the great American Impressionist. Opening on May 18, Warren Kimble’s America features the most important works from the country’s best known contemporary folk artist. The colorful contemporary quilts on display in the exhibit Quilts in Bloom will dazzle visitors.  Not-to-be-missed contemporary design exhibits include Design Rewind: The Origins of Innovation which traces the lineage of contemporary consumer products back to their design roots and Growing Green – a new twist on enhancing our environment by incorporating plants in contemporary interiors.  

Admission for Vermont residents is half price, every day.

About Shelburne Museum: Located in Vermont's scenic Lake Champlain Valley, Shelburne Museum is one of the nation'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.

Open May 18 through Oct. 26, 2008. U.S. Route 7 in Shelburne, 7 miles south of Burlington, Vermont.

Below is a complete listing of new exhibits for the 2008 season: 

Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family – paintings, prints, pastels, drawings and letters by the great American Impressionist that explore themes of family and friendship. June 21 through Oct. 26

Warren Kimble’s America – the most important works from the country’s best known contemporary folk artist. On exhibit in the Round Barn, May 18 through Oct. 26.

Art in the Round: Shelburne Museum’s Dentzel Carousel – the art and craft of the museum’s prized and rare 1902 carousel including canvas panels, wooden rounding boards and hand carved carousel figures -- all in original paint. On exhibit in the Round Barn, May 18 through Oct. 26.

Design Rewind: The Origins of Innovation – traces the lineage of contemporary consumer products back to their 18^th and 19^th century design roots. The exhibition juxtaposes works from the Museum’s extensive decorative arts collection with contemporary pieces by Jason Miller, Tord Boontje, Herman Miller, Hella Jongerius and others.  On exhibit in Vermont House, May 18 through Oct. 26.

Benchmarks in Outdoor Furniture  Design – an interactive exhibit that invites visitors to relax and enjoy the museum’s grounds and gardens while appreciating  the work of some of the most innovative outdoor furniture designers including Frank Gehry, Magis, and Richard Schultz.  On the museum grounds, May 18 through Oct. 26.

Longoland: It May Be Contagious – the second installment of Shelburne Museum’s Emerging Designer Series.  Brooklyn plush artist Joshua Longo transforms Adam Kalkin’s shipping container house into an imaginative environment inhabited by quirky and cuddly plush animals and furniture inspired by Longo’s playful and off-kilter take on the ordinary. On view in Kalkin House, May 18 through Oct. 26.

Purse-onality: Handbags with Attitude – innovative materials, unusual shapes, recycled materials for an artistic take on an everyday accessory.  On exhibit in the Round Barn, May 18 through Oct. 26.

Growing Green – a new twist on enhancing our environment by incorporating plants in contemporary design. The exhibit also examines the intersection between nature and technology. For example, plants grown in the air using technology borrowed from astronauts.  On exhibit in Kalkin House, May 18 through Oct. 26.

Quilts in Bloom: A Bouquet of Textile Art –[Back to Press Releases Main]