Vermont Utopias: Imagining the Future
Exhibition and Closed Bid Auction benefitting Bennington Museum and Regional Artists
November 27 through December 28
Parmelee and Limric Galleries
Vermont has a long history of supporting progressive, forward thinking ideas. This exhibition and closed-bid auction, a program of the museum’s annual Festival fundraiser, features the work of 25 contemporary artists living and/or working in Vermont and the immediately surrounding region. The works on view are their response to the simple prompt: “What is your vision for the future of Vermont?”
Vermont is strongly associated in the collective consciousness with idyllic visions of a rural past. But what about our future, especially in the midst of an international pandemic and a national reckoning with systemic racism and social injustice? How will we as a state deal with these pressing issues and the many other preexisting problems facing our communities, such as an aging population, a dwindling jobs base, and the looming environmental crises, in our increasingly interconnected world? Aware of the complexities of change over time and of the dangers of utopian prognostication, the artists in this exhibition have used their imaginations and creative energies to provide warnings of what might come to be if with we don’t take action now, while simultaneously helping us envision a happier and healthier future for our state.
Vermont Utopias is part of 2020 Vision: Reflecting on a World-Changing Year, a statewide initiative of the Vermont Curators Group.