The days were dark as the Stock Market Crash of 1929 took its toll on the country in the early 1930s. It has often been said that the Depression didn’t have much impact in Vermont. “Depression, what Depression?” was the quip. Vermont had always been a hard-scrabble place and the Depression just forced farmers and shop-keepers into a local barter-based economy. But the state of Vermont was not spared. Many of those in the towns, as well as those living by the land, saw their lives crumble before them. However, 1934-1944 was also a time of immense creativity and innovation in the Green Mountain State.

This summer, two exhibitions celebrate the work created by artists whose cartoons, covers, and art have filled pages of The New Yorker since the mid-1920s. These wonderful installations are at two different venues, Bennington Museum and Southern Vermont College’s Laumeister Art Center. Special Combined Ticket for Art Lover's: Bennington Museum and the Southern Vermont College Laumeister Art Center have teamed up and are offering a combined ticket through October 8. Available for purchase at both locations, the Art Lovers’ Adult Ticket is $16, and the Senior Ticket is $11, a savings of approximately 20% on your admission to both venues.

On Sunday, July 15, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm join Berkshire County author Elizabeth Kolbert and Vermont artist Edward Koren as they explore her book The Sixth Extinction and its impact on Koren's work in creating curious skeletal creatures in a landscape of ruined Gothic and Classical architecture. The presentation will take place in the Ada Paresky Education Center of the Bennington Museum. On view in the Works on Paper Gallery is Thinking About Extinction and Other Droll Things: Recent Prints and Drawings by Edward Koren. Exhibition on view to September 9. This presentation is free and includes admission to Works on Paper Gallery, but not admission to the other galleries.

Bennington Museum is pleased to present Old Vermont Sheet Music: A Parlor Song Performance featuring Linda Radtke, mezzo-soprano and Arthur Zorn on keyboards. This concert is part of the Music at the Museum series now in its third year. Held on Saturday, June 9 at 2:00 pm in the Ada Paresky Education Center and Paul Paresky Court of the Bennington Museum, this concert is free and open to the public thanks to the support of Alison Nowak and Robert Cane. Reservations are not required. Admission to the galleries is not included, but is always free for Museum members.

On Saturday, May 12 from 10 am to 5 pm admission to the Bennington Museum is free for all visitors. Among the activities planned for you is a visit by the Vermont Arts Exchange Art Bus from noon to 4:00 pm where you can become creative with arts and crafts. Stepping into the Museum, art and history are all around, and “creative collisions” can be found around almost every corner. Join us at 3:00 pm to welcome Vermont artist Edward Koren as he opens his exhibition Thinking about Extinction and Other Droll Things: Recent Prints and Drawings by Edward Koren on view through September 9.

Oliver Sacks, M.D. (1933-2015) was a physician, best-selling author, and a professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine. He has been referred to as the “poet laureate of medicine” by the New York Times. In his film, “Rage for Order,” Sacks meets and tells the story of Jessica Park – an artist who lives with autism. It explores his encounter with her which offers profound insights into the nature of autism, a condition characterized by the abnormal social interactions with an inability to communicate easily.

Back by popular demand, it’s Bennington Museum’s one-night-only, living exhibition of tattoo body art: Tattoo 3. Join us on Saturday, April 28 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm to see some of the area’s best tattoo art and meet some of the artists who create it. Talk with artists from Body Blend Studio, Shaftsbury and Raz-A-Tat Tattoo, Bennington. Traveling in from New York is Lucky Sinz Tattoo Parlour, Troy, NY and all the way from the eastern side of Vermont, Strange Brew Tattoo and Ink Dog, both from Brattleboro. See their work and discuss with them their art. Your chance to get a one-on-one about your next tattoo.

Collectors are as diverse as the objects they collect. While some people began collecting when they were very young, others took an interest in a particular collection upon retirement. There are so many reasons for collecting and they range from vocational interest to associations with objects that evoke memories of a particular person, place, or event. Oftentimes, it is the sheer interest of the objects themselves and the various “stories” they have to tell, that provide a glimpse into the life and personality of the collector while also telling us about the time, place, and even the people who made the objects.

Bennington Museum is pleased to begin the 2018 Music at the Museum concert series with Music through the Centuries for Flute and Harp, an engaging program performed by flutist Sue Ann Kahn and harpist Susan Jolles. Included in the concert is Sonata in Bb, BWV 1020 by J. S. Bach; Triple Rondo, 1961 by Henry Cowell; Toward the Sea III, for alto flute and harp, 1989 by Toru Takemitsu; Friendly Frolic for flute solo, 1981 composed by Lionel Nowak; and Serenade No.10, Op. 79 by Vincent Persichetti. It is with great pleasure that we present the premiere performance of Sonatina for Flute and Harp, 2017, a new composition by Bennington composer Allen Shawn (b.1948).

The Bennington Museum invites everyone to Community Day on February 3 when admission is FREE and the “Creative Collisions” among the galleries are explosive. Explore the newly installed Grandma Moses Gallery with paintings like Thunderstorm, 1948, which has not been at the Museum in over two decades. On loan from a private collector, this iconic painting enhances the walls of the gallery along with Old Oaken Bucket, 1946, which has never been installed at Bennington Museum. “We are thrilled to have such iconic works here at the Museum,” states Jamie Franklin, curator at the Museum. “These are joined by other masterworks from the Museum’s collection as well as Deep Snow, 1959, and A Christmas Gift, 1946, both from the private collection of the Zarnegin family, Beverly Hills, California. Any person who admires Moses’ work and wants to get another perspective on what she created, must be sure to visit in 2018.” But there is so much more.