Events

We sponsor a handful of events each semester related to our collections and temporary exhibitions.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Bread and Puppet Theater perform a scene from their Apocalypse Defiance Circus in Saxophone, NC, 2022 — Garrett MacLean (American, b. 1977), *Bread and Puppet Theater perform a scene from their Apocalypse Defiance Circus in Saxophone, NC*, 2022.

Moderated Discussion: Apocalypse Road Show

Tuesday, July 23, 2024 | 5:00–6:30 PM
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Johnson Gallery

Director Richard Saunders will moderate a conversation between Garrett MacLean ’99 and John Bell ’73 as they discuss the special exhibition Apocalypse Road Show: On Tour with the Bread and Puppet Theater. Garrett MacLean is a professional photographer who traveled with Bread and Puppet Theater for more than three months during the fall of 2022. John Bell is a puppeteer and former member of the company.

The discussion will run from 5pm—5:45pm in the upper gallery, and the reception will follow from 5:45pm—6:30pm in the lower reception area of the museum.

This event is free and open to the public, but attendance is limited to twenty guests and reservations are required. Please reserve your spot here: https://forms.gle/JqtnSYySgXrL2byg9.

video still from Aorta of an Archivist, by Dario Robleto — Dario Robleto (American, born 1972), *The Aorta of an Archivist [video still]*, 2021, UHD video, 5.1 surround sound installation. Running time: 53:00. Loan from the artist.

Opening Reception: An Invitation to Awe

Friday, September 13, 2024 | 5:30–7:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center Lower Lobby, Dance Theater, and Museum galleries

After several years in the works, the Museum is excited to present An Invitation to Awe, curated by Professor of the History of Art and Architecture Katy Smith-Abbott in collaboration with her students and colleagues. In this exhibition, older paintings and prints are displayed in conversation with contemporary objects, scientific equipment, and interactive work that compels the viewer to think of how awe is experienced through senses other than sight and to expand their own understanding of where awe lives now. Professor Smith-Abbott will give a talk about the making of the exhibition at 5:30pm, followed by hors d’oeuvres and drinks (cash bar) at 6pm.

photomicrograph of tears, by Rose-Lynn Fisher — Rose-Lynn Fisher (American, born 1955), *In the end it didn’t matter #65*, 2015 / printed 2024, photomicrograph made with Zeiss light field microscope (c 1960s) and QImaging digital microscopy camera, archival pigment print on Kozo paper, 4 1/2 x 6 inches. Collection of Middlebury College Museum of Art. Purchase with funds provided by the Foster Family Art Acquisition Fund, 2024. © Copyright Rose-Lynn Fisher.

Museum Lecture + Lunch Series: Artist Rose-Lynn Fisher

Friday, November 1, 2024 | 12:30—2:00 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 125 and Lower Lobby

Join us for a talk by Rose-Lynn Fisher, an artist featured in the exhibition An Invitation to Awe, who uses microscope, camera, and mixed media to explore the realms within realms we inhabit, in work that evokes a continuum of interconnections and wonder. Afterward, stay for conversation over a light lunch in the MAC Lower Lobby. Cosponsored by the Department of History of Art and Architecture.

This event is free and open to all, but $5 donations are welcome.

a painting of Otter Creek in Middlebury, Vermont, by Frederic Edwin Church — Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900), *Otter Creek, Middlebury, Vermont*, 1854, oil on canvas, 16 1/8 × 29 inches. Collection of Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont. Gift of Louis Bacon, Class of 1979, 2002.028.

Guest Curator Talk: Kenneth J. Myers

Thursday, November 14, 2024 | 4:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 125

The Museum invites you to a lecture by Kenneth J. Myers, Byron and Dorothy Gerson Curator of American Art at the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA). Since joining DIA in 2005, Myers has served as Head of the American Art Department, and led the team that planned the widely praised reinstallation of the museum’s esteemed collection of American art. He also organized the major traveling exhibition, Frederic Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage (2017). Myers came to the DIA from the Smithsonian Institution, where he was curator of American art at the Freer Gallery of Art. At the Freer, he organized numerous exhibitions focusing on the work of James McNeill Whistler.

oil on canvas study for The Hours, by Edwin Austin Abbey — Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852–1911), *Study for The Hours [detail]*, House of Representatives Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg, c. 1909–1910, oil on canvas, Diam.: 150 inches. Yale University Art Gallery, Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Collection, 1937.1716.

Museum Lecture + Lunch Series: Curator Jodi Rodgers

Friday, December 5, 2024 | 12:30—2:00 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 125 and Lower Lobby

During this lecture, Josephine Rodgers, Curator of Collections and Director of Engagement at the Middlebury College Museum of Art, will discuss the exhibit The Dance of Life: Figure and Imagination in American Art, 1876–1917 on view at the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibition explores the American Renaissance, a pivotal yet neglected period in American history, that inspired an ambitious generation of American artists to develop a movement in mural painting that captivated a divided nation. Rodgers’s lecture will address the creative and cultural context for Edwin Austin Abbey’s mural practice, from the laboring body in an age of expanding industrialization to the relationship between the natural environment, art, and technology. After the talk, stay for conversation over a light lunch in the MAC Lower Lobby.