I had SO MUCH fun- what a glorious day! My visit to the Shelburne was wonderful. To start, the weather was perfect- mid-70’s, clear, no humidity, light breeze. Amazing. There is tons to see so I guess I will just have to go back. I tried to see the things I knew I would be most interested in and along the way I also saw some other treasures that weren’t on the list.

My friend and I started at the top on the hill and headed down the path that lead us into the carousel exhibit. The Round House building  also held a 3-d paper exhibit. The artwork of Jared Schorr caught my attention- enough that when I got home, I checked out a whole lot more of it on his website.

Next, we went to the Circus Building. Learning about the circus collection is what reminded me last winter that I really needed to visit. I have known about the Shelburne for years, especially their toy and folk art collection and I knew I wanted to go “some day”. But, it is far enough away (4+ hrs driving) that it is easy to forget about. I am so glad that I made myself leave the studio and make the trek.

They have an amazing collection of posters. Here is my friend standing next to one so you can see the scale. I love these giraffe. I might have to spend some time thinking giraffe thoughts. Most of the exhibits had glass in front so please forgive the glares and reflections.

This was my favorite exhibit in the circus collection- an enormous circus “toy”. One man (Edgar Decker Kirk) worked for 40 years, first for his children and later for the neighborhood kids. I can totally relate to getting so immersed in a project. It would be fun to examine each piece close up- there are so many details.

After the circus, we explored needle arts. Amazing quilts, samplers, embroidery, clothing. This is a fantastic collection for anyone interested in fiber arts.

I fell in love with the Helen Bruce dioramas and am grateful that (no flash) photography was allowed. I am thrilled that my photos actually came out so well considering how little light there was. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any postcards or books with photos so I’m glad I’ve got a record. This photo has my hand for scale. (More photos on flickr)

And our last stop was the folk art collection. Again, so much inspiration in this collection. And, I loved the bright colored rooms that the artwork is displayed in.

I have added a lot more photos to Flickr. I would highly recommend a visit to this wonderful museum. I am only showing what I saw and we were at the museum from 10:30 until 5. There is so much more as you can see if you check out their website. I did some other things on my trip, but I’ll save that for another day.