Throughout the Museum’s history the staff has produced a wide array of critically acclaimed exhibitions both with works from the permanent collection and with objects borrowed from other institutions.
In addition, we have hosted a number of nationally and internationally recognized exhibits curated by organizations that specialize in traveling shows. Some of our more recent exhibitions are archived here. Please browse the links to the left to view our past exhibitions by year
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This exhibition explores the artistry and social meanings of Chinese gold objects produced between the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) and Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), as well as the more recent story of how they entered American museum collections. The ancient artifacts are accompanied by innovative digital features that bring to life recent excavations, traditional goldsmithing techniques, and the diverse peoples who owned and used them.
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This collection of Fabergé objects offers a window into a vanished world of opulence and grandeur. They once belonged to Nancy Wynkoop, a direct descendant of the Romanov family. Gifted to Middlebury College in 1994, they demonstrate both the grandiose claims of the Romanov autocracy and a personal expression of whimsy and elegance.
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This miniature painting from the former Rajput court of Kota once belonged to a ragamala (“garland of musical modes”) album, whose paintings each depict a particular theme and its accompanying mood. Ragas are musical compositions attuned to specific seasons and times of day, and they are grouped into complex families of male ragas and female raginis.
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This richly illuminated late-medieval prayer bookcalled the Rokeghem Hours, is named for the family for whom is was originally made, the van Rokeghem, who owned lands outside of Bruges, in present-day Belgium. It was created for one of the members of that family—likely for one of the women—by a group of Bruges illuminators called the “Masters of Raphael de Mercatellis.”
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The thousand-year-old Japanese classic The Tale of Genji is acclaimed as the world’s first novel, and in it female author Murasaki Shikibu perceptively explores the minds of young men and women caught in the political and romantic intrigues of the imperial court.
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The Bauhaus (1919–1933) was an experimental school, a modern laboratory for artistic innovation. This exhibition considers not only the Bauhaus’ far reaching influence on the practice and teaching of art, design and architecture, but also its enormous social and political impacts.
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Chinese-born artist Hong Chun Zhang began making waves with her “hairy” style in 2002. The long black locks that pervade her artworks bind her to her past in China, even as her depictions of the natural world evoke her new home. In this series, hair becomes a channel for Zhang’s exploration of her personal identity.
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The activists who took on the cause of woman suffrage in the early years of the 20th Century came from all walks of life and all corners of the country. This exhibit of vintage photographs, banners, and memorabilia coincides with the 100th anniversary of the campaign to ratify the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920.
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This fall the Museum will launch MuseumLab, an experiment in interdisciplinary learning which will turn our Overbook Gallery into a “teaching laboratory,” displaying a diverse array of works selected for courses taught by professors from across Middlebury’s academic curriculum.
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To mark the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, the Museum’s summer interns have curated an exhibition exploring the relationship between wonder and science in depictions of the moon. Artemis to Armstrong unites objects from three Middlebury collections: Museum, Archives, and Science Library.
