Sculpture Garden
**Please note: Our Sculpture Garden is currently closed to visitors due to flood damage.**
The Arts Council and the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services maintain an exhibit at the Council offices at 136 State Street in Montpelier—next door to the Capital Region Visitors Center. The Garden is a public/private collaboration featuring rotating two-year showings of contemporary work created by Vermont artists. Designed in 2002 by Burlington landscape architects H. Keith Wagner and Associates, it offers a place to picnic or engage in quiet reflection in Montpelier’s downtown.
Elements of Shelter
May 2023-2025
Opening reception 4-6 p.m. on Saturday, May 27
New in the Sculpture Garden starting May 27, 2023 and on view through May 2025, will be an exhibit of sculptures by faculty and staff members of Yestermorrow Design/Build School. Elements of Shelter will feature original works in wood, metal, and glass by Thea Alvin, Meg Reinhold, Nick Pattis, Anna Fluri, Sophia Mickelson, Johno Landsman, Skip Dewhirst, and Ben Service.
Located in Waitsfield, Yestermorrow Design/Build School teaches hands-on courses in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft. Their intensive courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. Yestermorrow students learn the art and wisdom of good design and the skill and savvy of enduring craftsmanship as a single, integrated process.
In the news
Read our feature about the exhibit
Listen to our podcast episode about the exhibit
“A New Outdoor Exhibit in Montpelier Reflects on the Climate and Housing Crises” in Seven Days
“This Montpelier sculpture garden was a testament to climate change. Then it flooded.” on Vermont Public
Read about the exhibit Art New England’s September/October 2023 issue
Statement from the artists
We bring our experience as artists, builders, and teachers at Yestermorrow Design/Build School to this collaboration. We are currently interacting with the elements of structure – wood, earth, fire, water, and metal. These represent material resources which, throughout history, have been used to create shelter and provide sustenance.
We recognize and bear witness to the housing crisis and the changing climate. As members of a fragile, interconnected global community, we seek opportunities to teach, engage in conversation, and inspire people to create a better, more sustainable world.
Photos from the opening reception
Photos by Pamela Tetteh.
Anna grew up in Southwest Virginia where she first discovered her love of all things nature related. After graduating college in 2015, she traveled and worked various jobs in wilderness therapy, outdoor education, trail maintenance, and farming. Last summer she spent a month in Alaska where she got a glimpse into the world of timber framing and her search to expand on that experience led her to Yestermorrow. She started at Yestermorrow as a design/build intern.
As a student at Bennington College, Johno pursued glassblowing and sculpture. After graduating, he spent time in Oakland building treehouses. A lifelong learner, he returned to Vermont to further his education at Yestermorrow as a student in the Semester in Design/Build, the Woodworking Certificate, and Natural Building Certificate. In his career, he wears many hats as a carpenter, woodworker, and glassblower.
Sophia is a former child and current Design/Build intern from San Diego, CA. Before coming to Yestermorrow as a student in the Semester in Design/Build, Sophia was in New York City earning a degree in urban studies. Sophia geeks on animation and playgrounds that encourage kids to take risks and create. She hopes to work at the intersection of design, build, education, and play to make more engaging public spaces.
Nick grew up in Brandon, VT. His family ran the Brandon Inn and was an important part of the community. He went to the University of Vermont and received a BS in Civil/Environmental Engineering. After graduating, Nick worked as an engineer and in construction in Oregon and Washington state. His roots eventually pulled him back to Vermont where he worked at the family business for years before moving to the Mad River Valley.
Meg is a muralist and textile artist living in Granville, VT. After graduating with a BFA in painting from the Maine College of Art she joined the staff at Yestermorrow Design Build School, where she worked in the kitchen for nearly ten years. While at Yestermorrow, she honed her woodworking and design skills and added beauty to the campus through painting murals in the dorm rooms and public spaces. Meg’s work draws inspiration from folklore and herbalism, mending and mysticism. She often sources her materials secondhand, interrupting the disposable cycle of consumerism and seeing value in that which is common and cast aside. Meg makes things that are beautiful and useful, that celebrate our relationship with the natural world and incorporate art into everyday life. She is the owner of Trillium Handcrafts, a business offering mural and decorative painting services in central Vermont.
After spending nearly 20 years living on the island of St John in the US Virgin Islands, Ben and his family were unexpectedly uprooted by a couple of record-breaking hurricanes in 2017. Having lost so much in this event, they decided to change things up entirely. Ben and his wife, Jen, bought an RV and took off to explore North America with their two children, Nicky and Dani, and two dogs. Eighteen months, twenty states and five provinces later, they eventually found their way to the Mad River Valley and Yestermorrow. Ben’s background as a sailboat captain and the GM at their family-owned restaurant on St John, ZoZo’s Ristorante, makes him adept at handling a multitude of unique and challenging situations daily. When he’s not on campus, you’ll find him out with his family hiking, mountain biking and trying to figure out this whole “winter” thing.
Curator
Anastasia is an architectural designer and educator. She was born in Memphis, TN, and raised with music, dance, photography, and design, all things which shaped a particular seeing of the world. Gathering these interests into an education and career, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Memphis and a Master of Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design. Her pursuits in drawing, making, building, photography, sculpture, exhibition design/installation/performance and furniture production continue to influence her work.
Currently, Anastasia is Principal of A L / STUDIO, a practice that combines her experiences in design/build and studio arts. She is also Director of the Semester Program and Design/Build Faculty at Yestermorrow.
Visiting the Garden
The public can enter from the city sidewalk on State Street, or from the parking area where there are two accessible parking spots at the garden’s entrance. All sculpture is visible from a walkway that crosses through the garden; the surfaces are concrete, finely crushed gravel, and flat slate. There are two steps into the lower garden, and snowbanks may block access to some areas of the garden in the winter. In the summer, visitors may enjoy the picnic table on the grass just beyond the pathway.
For more information, please contact Desmond Peeples.