Shelburne Museum announces Native American art center design

Shelburne Museum announced the architectural team and design for The Perry Center for Native American Art, a building and integrated landscape collaboratively designed to create a national resource for the exhibition, study and care of an important collection representing Indigenous art from across the continent.

“The design of the Perry Center for Native American Art and the many steps that led us to this moment are the result of a collaborative approach focused on communication and relationship building with Tribal Nations to create a national resource for the study and care of Indigenous art,” said Thomas Denenberg, John Wilmerding Director and CEO of Shelburne Museum. 

Annum Architects of Boston and Two Row Architect of Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation were chosen to design the Perry Center, joining together noted firms with depth of experience in both major museum and Indigenous projects. Landscape design is by Reed Hilderbrand of Cambridge, Mass., a practice with extensive experience designing landscapes that seamlessly integrate with architecture.

The Perry Center for Native American Art is planned to be an 11,200 square-foot, highly sustainable structure with design consideration based on input from tribal partners. The $12.5 million Perry Center will serve as a welcoming space for tribal members and scholars to study and engage with the collection and will reimagine the museum experience for all visitors. Plans call for construction to begin in spring of 2025.

“Searching for the appropriate design response for the building and landscape has been a deliberate and deeply collaborative exploration between Shelburne Museum, Two Row, Reed Hilderbrand and Annum,” said Annum Principal Steven Gerrard. “Embedded in the design are careful listening, research and creative iteration of ideas, all reflective of how the museum has operated since its founding.”

Integral to the project is collaboration with over 50 Indigenous partners, who advised on cultural protocols and design considerations and care and conservation of the collection. In addition, insight and guidance about the building and landscape design were taken from listening sessions — a series of talking circles — led by Indigenous-owned Two Row Architect that included leadership and culture bearers of the local Abenaki, the traditional stewards of the site, along with Tribal Nations represented in the museum’s collection.

“The Talking Circles guided us in considering this project in different ways. The building needed to honor the host nation, the Abenaki. The internal space, where the items from many Tribal Nations will be housed, will need to accommodate unique moments with items in the collection and allow for those items to be to be looked at and taken care of in unique ways,” said Matthew Hickey, from the Mohawk Nation, and a partner at Two Row.

The Perry Center will be the 40th building on the museum’s 45-acre campus and will house a significant collection that includes items gathered by Anthony and Teressa Perry and recently gifted to the museum. When combined with the Indigenous art already stewarded by the museum, the collection represents more than 500 items from 389 Tribal Nations across the continent.

“The Perry Center will enhance the museum’s mission as an educational resource for the local community, will amplify Shelburne Museum’s role as partners rather than arbiters and will empower the Indigenous peoples represented in the collection by reconceiving the role of a museum facility in presenting material culture,” said D. Scott Wise chairman of the Shelburne Museum Board of Trustees.

The project has received early public and private grant funding support, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Vermont, Henry Luce Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc., Terra Foundation for American Art, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Arts and The Decorative Arts Trust.

(Leslie Wright is the Shelburne Museum’s director of communications and marketing.)