Museum of Art

1968 was a year of upheaval and transformation—a year in which national and international events spawned intense vocal expression and protest. This exhibit, through the lens of art, music, and literature, looks back 50 years to consider the issues that transformed American society. Free

This annual signature event of the Museum Friends is the occasion for the group to determine what addition it will make to the museum collection. With lively and informative presentations by Student Friends, the decisions are never easy—but they’re always good! Members only, RSVP required. Membership information: 802-443-2309 or museum.middlebury.edu.

Wolfgang Buttress—an award winning artist who works with public and private space, and creator of The Hive at Kew Gardens, London, an aluminum honeycomb-like structure that reacts in real time to the vibrations of a nearby bee hive—will talk about how art can explore, express, and inform our relationship with the ‘natural’ world.

Sponsored by the Middlebury College Museum of Art and the Franklin Environmental Center.

Jamey Stillings has been photographing the earth for several decades with a particular interest in projects related to conservation and sources of renewable energy. Among his documentary projects are a study of the Hoover Dam (published in 2011) and the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert. His photographs are included in the Library of Congress and many other public as well as private collections.

The Museum will be open to lecture attendees until 6:30.

Sponsored by the Johnson Visual Arts Residency.

Dr. Sharon Hecker, art historian, curator, and leading scholar of Medardo Rosso (1858-1928), author of A Moment’s Monument: Medardo Rosso and the International Origins of Modern Sculpture. Dr. Hecker considers the artist’s work, his unusual casting techniques and exhibition strategies, as well as his influence on modern and contemporary artists.

Sponsored by Middlebury College Museum of Art, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Department of Italian

With reference to images in the exhibition Land and Lens, Schumann Distinguished Scholar Bill McKibben discusses recent ways of seeing provided by today’s satellites and scientific instruments. With our enhanced ability to visualize the earth in all its glory and pain, McKibben speculates on ways we might learn to protect it. Presented in conjunction with the Museum exhibit Land and Lens. Free

Internationally-admired photographer David Maisel presents a talk in conjunction with the exhibition Land and Lens: Photographers Envision the Environment. Known for his books and exhibitions, Maisel has focused on aerial and x-ray photographs of environmentally-impacted sites since the 1980s. Sponsored by the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Johnson Enrichment Fund, and the Middlebury College Museum of Art. Free

In the 1870s, James Whistler and his sometime rival Walter Greaves developed the visual genre of the nocturne. Borrowing its name from Chopin’s piano sketches, it aims to capture the moody stillness of the night, explained in this presentation by Professor Pieter Broucke as part of the Fridays at the Museum series. Free

Professors Shalom Goldman (Religion) and Pieter Broucke (History of Art and Architecture) and Director and Curator Rebekah Irwin (Special Collections & Archives) present the College’s richness of resources pertaining to Ancient Egyptian culture. Part of the Fridays at the Museum series. Free

Edmund de Waal, ceramic artist and award-winning author of the best-selling memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes [2010], talks about recent projects in Vienna, Berlin and Los Angeles, how family stories interweave with his artistic practice, why collecting matters, and why white is a difficult color. De Waal’s work is currently on view in the exhibition A Story of Art: Gifts from the Collection of Charles S. Moffett ’67 and Lucinda Herrick; his lecture is in honor of his late friend Charles Moffett ’67.