April 2023

Bennington Museum Monthly

Bennington Museum re-opens on Saturday, April 1st with a slate of new exhibitions including the annual Student Art Show, A History of Bennington, and Nebizun: Water is Life.

For the past three months, the galleries at Bennington Museum have been closed to the public as the curators, the maintenance team, and volunteers worked tirelessly to re-install, clean, and organize our collections. On Saturday, April 1st at 10am, the Museum is thrilled to be opening its doors once more and will be offering half-off of regular admission which will include special talks and events throughout the afternoon.

Read on for more details!

Upcoming Events

Saturday, 4/1

1pm - 2pm

Regional History Room Opening

Included with admission:

Discover the resources hidden in the RHR and meet the volunteers who are bringing them to light.

Saturday, 4/1

2pm - 3pm

Curatorial Talk

Included with admission:

Curator Vera Longtoe Sheehan will present Nebizun: Water is Life, an exhibit which explores the Abenaki relationship to water. 

Sunday, 4/16

2pm - 3pm

A Loose Confederation of Villages: A Historical View of Vermont Democracy

A free in-person program presented by the Bennington Historical Society. Sponsored by Williams Financial.

Thursday, 4/27

1:30pm - 2:30pm

Museum ABCs:

Animals Everywhere!

A free in-person program for pre-schoolers and their families. Sponsored by Stewart's Shops, and the Bank of Bennington.

Saturday, 4/29

1pm - 4pm

Antiques Appraisal Fair

$10 per item (up to 5 items)

Bring your personal treasures for evaluation by professional appraisers Charles Flint, Lorraine German, and Maria and Patricia Siskind.

Applications are due!

Concerts in the Courtyard

Musicians who are interested in playing the Museum's outdoor Friday night summer concert series should fill out an online application by April 1st, 2023.

Curatorial Internship Program

The Curatorial Internship will provide paid summer learning opportunities for Southern Vermont Supervisory Union (SVSU- includes MAUHS and Arlington HS) and Southwest Tech (SWT) students. It is supported by a growing internship endowment fund (read more here).

The selected student primarily reports to the Collections Manager, but will also gain experience in the Marketing, Education, and Visitors Services aspects of Museum management. The position will run for approximately two months during the summer, with the intern reporting for around 26 hours of work each week and earning standard Vermont minimum wage.

We are thrilled to have this opportunity as it will help Museum staff during a very busy time of year, and create a valuable career pathway in the non-profit sector for the young people in our community. We look forward to working with the SVSU and SWT teams in the coming year to identify prospective candidates and build a long term pipeline for cultural engagement.

If you are a junior or a senior at MAUHS or Arlington HS or enrolled in SWT and interested in this exciting and challenging summer position with Bennington Museum, you may apply through April 15, 2023 by following the link found in the job description.

NBOSS Artists

North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show expands artist application pool!

The North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show invites artists of all disciplines to apply for the upcoming exhibition, with the application period closing on April 15th, 2023.

NBOSS is proud to partner with the Vermont Arts Exchange and the Bennington Museum to bring this year's exhibition to life. "The North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show is a valuable addition to the cultural offerings of the Bennington area," said Jamie Franklin, Curator at Bennington Museum.

“As a North Bennington resident and artist, I feel fortunate to live here and share our Main Street with such a creative presence. Without NBOSS, we’d still have a cute, little village but it would certainly lack the vibrancy, creativity and fun that NBOSS brings each year to everyone. As director of VAE, I feel a deep commitment to make sure that this not only continues but strengthens and grows,” said Matthew Perry, Executive Director, VAE.

The exhibition will be on view to the public beginning in July and concluding on Saturday, November 11, 2023. With the addition of new businesses in North Bennington, visitors are encouraged to spend their day enjoying the hospitality and beauty of the village while viewing the outdoor sculptures.

NBOSS is sponsored in part by the Fund for North Bennington, Paran Recreations, Bennington College, Vermont Arts Exchange, and Bennington Museum, and is currently seeking additional partners for the upcoming show. For more information about the show, artist applications, or sponsorship opportunities, please visit nbossvt.com.

Summer 2023 Teachers’ Institute Course: Museums as Resources

August 4 through August 11

Curriculum Standards, including the Common Core Learning Standards and C3 Framework, emphasize the importance of inquiry and the use of primary source documents for developing skills such as critical thinking, citing evidence, considering multiple perspectives, and engaging in discussion. Museums have been using these techniques for many years and are excellent resources for important primary and secondary documents, images, and the art and objects that help us engage students in every kind of learning. Through this course, educators will gain a deeper understanding of the resources available at museums, how to access them, and how to use them in their lessons.

The 6-day course is open to all Early Childhood and K-12 educators. Earn Professional Development Credit (45 hours) or 3 Castleton University graduate level credits with Final Project.

Museum is awarded Stewart's Holiday Match funds

The 2022-2023 Stewart's Holiday Match program raised over $2 million for local children’s organizations and programming. From Thanksgiving Day through Christmas Day, Stewart’s customers impressively donated over $1 million to the program. Each individual donation is matched penny for penny by Stewart’s Shops. Bennington Museum is pleased to be the beneficiary of some of this funding which will help to support the Museum ABCs pre-school literacy programming this year.

If you have a child in pre-school, make sure to check out the website and plan a visit. It is never too early to light that literary spark!