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Vermont Museum Project

I. Concept:

Harking back to Paul Bruhn’s landmark VT Tourism and Marketing Brochure from the ‘80s entitled “300 Things to See and Do in Vermont” which highlighted Vermont museums, arts and crafts galleries, performing arts centers, covered bridges as areas of unique cultural interest to visitors, tourists, and natives, we are proposing a high-tech renaissance of Paul’s original concept.

The Vermont Museum Film Project (phase I) will engage vetted members of the Vermont film community (Collective?) who respond to a competitive request for proposal(RFP) to produce fifty 3-5 minute videos of each of Vermont’s fifty museums.

The RFP will be drafted by Lukas Huffman, Michael Couture, and Bill Schubart and will include the technical, production sequencing, and overall aesthetic parameters for the productions to ensure consistency while also allowing for the individual film aesthetic of the cinematographer and the unique voice and characteristics of each museum. Ten filmmakers will be selected, each of whom will be assigned five museums. Final selection will be by the project principals and will be based on their prior work and their understanding of the project’s aesthetic and utility.

II. Project Budget (in development)

III. Stakeholder Representation: Vermont Curators Group

IV. Project Funding

A collaborative grant request to potential funders:

  • National Endowment on the Arts(NEA) through the Vermont Arts Council (VAC)
  • National Endowment on the Humanities(NEH) through the Vermont Humanities Council(VHC)
  • Vermont Community Foundation(VCF) in their donor-advised fund resources
  • Vermont Public Television(PBS-VT) from their new production fund
  • Vermont Tourism and Marketing Council(VTMC) from their marketing state budget
  • Private philanthropy: as needed

V. Utility:

These video vignettes will highlight the unique features and curatorial focus of each museum while allowing them to tell their own stories.

  1. For use on the museum’s own website
  2. For use in their visitor-orientation center (screen or projection)
  3. For appending to events press releases
  4. For creation of a VT Tourism and Marketing online Vermont map site of all Vermont museums with print descriptors and direct links to the specific museum. Unlike Paul Bruhn’s inspired brochure, which was limited to physical distribution, the online map of Vermont museums will be accessible to interested visitors anywhere in the world. A Swedish engineer searching for 19th century mechanical innovation might discover the American Precision Museum in Springfield and the Shelburne Museum’s exhibit on the Ticonderoga’s operating steam engine. A researcher on spiritualism might be directed to Rokeby Museum where they could learn about The Robinson Family and their practice of calling up the spirits. A bird carver might be directed to the Birds of Vermont Museum.
  1. Accessible as stock footage to any and all local or regional tourism programmers
  2. Kiosk (or projected) availability at all Vermont Welcome Centers
  3. A cultural stock-footage library maintained by VT Public Media(PBS-VT) for open use by any news organization or for use as stock footage by other filmmakers.
  4. A production opportunity for PBS-VT to produce a series on Vermont museums.

 VI. Participating Museums:

Vermont Historical Society Museum, Montpelier

Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich

Indigenous Heritage Center at the Ethan Allen Homestead, Burlington

Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, Marlboro

Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester

Birds of Vermont Museum, Huntington

Bennington Museum, Bennington

Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro

Calvin Coolidge Historic Site

Chimney Point, Addison

ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington

Ethan Allen Homestead Museum, Burlington

Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium, Saint Johnsbury

St. Johnsbury Atheneum, St Johnsbury

Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, Stowe

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Ferrisburgh

Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock

New England Maple Museum, Pittsford

American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester

Henry Sheldon Museum, Middlebury

Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home

Black River Academy Museum, Ludlow

The Museum of Everyday Life, Glover

Vermont Marble Museum and Gift Shop, Proctor

Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington

Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village, Brownington

Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Woodstock

Rokeby Museum, Ferrisburgh

Museum of the Creative Process, Manchester

Main Street Museum, Hartford

Vermont Folklife Center,  Middlebury

The Art of Humor Gallery,  Wilmington

Vermont Granite Museum,  Barre

American Precision Museum,  Windsor

Vermont Toy Museum,  Hartford

Old Constitution House, Windsor

Hall Art Foundation,  Reading

Bread & Puppet Theatre, Glover

The Nature Museum, Grafton

Shelburne Museum,  Shelburne

Noyes House Museum, Morristown

VINS Nature Center,  Hartford

Farrar-Mansur House & Museum, Weston

Vermont International Museum of Contemporary Art + Design,  Eden

Dorset Historical Society, Dorset

Estey Organ Museum,  Brattleboro

Vermont National Guard Library & Museum,  Colchester

The Dollhouse and Toy Museum of Vermont, Bennington

Sullivan Museum and History Center,  Northfield

Wonderfeet Kid’s Museum,  Rutland

Burlington City Arts @ The BCA Center, Burlington

Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center, Burlington

Adams Old Stone Grist Mill,  Town of Rockingham

Madsonian Museum of Industrial Design,  Waitsfield

T.W. Wood Gallery & Arts Center, Montpelier

Saint Albans Historical Museum, St Albans

Norman Rockwell Exhibition, Arlington

Morse Farm Sugarhouse & Museum, East Montpelier

Chafee Center for the Visual Arts, Rutland

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