a road, lined by lilting telephone poles, recedes into the distance amid fields of wheat with mountains in the far distance

Exhibitions

The Museum produces six to eight temporary exhibitions each year, in addition to its display of works from the permanent collection.

Temporary exhibits are often curated by Museum staff using works from the collection. Other exhibits are borrowed from other museum collections or from institutions that specialize in traveling shows. Exhibitions are carefully chosen to support both the curriculum of the College and the needs of the Museum’s education programs. See below for current and upcoming exhibits.

Permanent Collection Galleries

This installation of Middlebury’s art collection invites visitors to join a conversation sparked by objects created throughout time and around the globe. Arranged thematically to highlight similarities as well as differences across cultures, the reinstalled galleries represent steps in the ongoing journey toward a more inclusive and accessible presentation of the many stories art can tell.

Historically, museums in the United States have prioritized art made by White men. As a result, the important contributions of many artists have been absorbed, marginalized, overlooked, or ignored—especially those of women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) artists. While the present display features more diverse personal and artistic identities than ever before (with the highest increase among Black, women, and LGBTQIA+ artists), much work lies ahead.

Upcoming Exhibitions

  • players dressed primarily in yellow wear large full-head lion masks and prowl on stage

    Bread and Puppet Theater

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    As long ago as 1991 the Christian A. Johnson Memorial Gallery, the predecessor to the Middlebury College Museum of Art, celebrated Bread and Puppet Theater, as part of its Vermont Bicentennial exhibition, Celebrating Vermont: Myths and Realities. Twenty-three years later, we’re once again celebrating Bread and Puppet with this exhibit of photographs by Garrett McClean (Middlebury College, Class of 1999), a professional photographer who traveled with the company for more than three months in the summer of 2022.

  • a man stands in the sand in front of a leaning temple in Sri Lanka

    Hunter Barnes: A World Away

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    A World Away—based on Barnes’ book of black and white photographs taken in the Eastern Province among the Tamil people, and accompanied by his personal handwritten diary entries—offers a rare glimpse into a largely visually undocumented period in Sri Lankan history.

  • a smoky image including the wavy line of a pulse across the field of view

    An Invitation to Awe

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    This exhibit addresses questions about where and how awe is most readily experienced. 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.