Southern Vermont Arts Center’s New Renaissance

Photos by Megan Demarest, courtesy Green Mountain Media Group

Hi, Friends! This is a big week for our colleagues at the Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC) in Manchester. The 104 year old institution just added a major expansion to the Yester House, celebrated this past Sunday, June 7 at their Grand Opening and Ribbon-cutting ceremony. I had a sneak peak of the Yester House before the big event, and I was blown away by the new space from top to bottom, inside and out.

My photos don’t do it justice, it’s something you really have to see in person. It’s time for an Art Day, anyway, isn’t it? Grab some of your favorite people, dine al fresco at curATE Café, and take your time browsing the stunning new galleries with the most lovely views of Southern Vermont. The beautiful drive past the sculpture garden toward the Yester House will build anticipation. It will be good for your soul.

Southern Vermont Arts Center’s New Renaissance

By Megan Demarest

The Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC) in Manchester recently celebrated the opening of a significant new addition to its campus — the largest single museum expansion in state history, completed on time and on budget in just 12 and a half months.

The project, which came in at $13.5 million against a capital campaign that raised $14 million, was funded entirely through private donations, family foundations, and individual donors, with no state or corporate money involved.

At the heart of the expansion is a new gallery dedicated to the Lyman Collection, a gift of approximately 300 works being donated to SVAC over time by Lyman Orton, owner of the Vermont Country Store. The collection focuses primarily on 20th-century art depicting Vermont life and landscapes. "Lyman likes to collect art that showcases places in Vermont and the life of Vermont," said Executive Director Amelia Wiggins. About 90 works rotate on view at a time, organized thematically — village life, fairs and auctions, and Vermont landscapes among the recurring subjects. Highlights include two Rockwell Kent paintings of Mount Equinox as seen from Red Mountain near Arlington, where Kent maintained a brief studio. The Art Institute of Chicago and the National Wildlife Art Museum each hold one of the four versions of the composition; SVAC now has these two.

Totality: All Eyes on the Sky by Suzanne L. Flint (hooked tapestry, 2024)

The expansion also includes a new contemporary exhibition gallery named for board chair and lead donor Bob Van Degna, inaugurated with a solo show of documentary photographer Dona Ann McAdams, a Sandgate-based artist whose decades of work spans social activism, feminist and civil rights protests, the AIDS crisis, and community portraiture. The exhibit, Troubleshooting,runs through the end of the year.

The Birches by Luigi Lucioni (oil on canvas, 1940)

The previously existing gallery spaces in the Yester House will continue to exhibit the work of SVAC member artists. “We have always been a member artist organization built to exhibit and sell the work of our members, and that continues in the Yester House into the future, even as this new addition comes in” says Amelia.

Practical gains for the institution are substantial. For the first time in 75 years, Amelia noted, the campus has an elevator — connecting all floors of the historic Yester House to the new addition and finally making all galleries accessible to visitors with wheelchairs or strollers. The expansion also includes a proper loading dock, climate-controlled art storage capable of housing the entire permanent collection and the incoming Lyman gift, and expanded restroom facilities.

“If you know Lyman, you know that he feels passionately that everyday people should have access to art. This gallery was designed to be comfortable, quiet, and feel like a living room or a library, not like a white box gallery,” shares Amelia. “We put in acoustic panels and carpeting, so that we can have a conversation here. It’s a comfortable environment.”

Moon Bush by Brian Metzdorf (acrylic on canvas, 2025)

The new building effectively replaces the Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum, which Amelia describes as inadequately built for Vermont winters — lacking overhangs, it has suffered from leaks for decades. The new space is designed for maximum efficiency in art storage, allowing the museum to store and exhibit any kind of artwork one can imagine.

The expansion also doubles the outdoor seating for curATE, the on-site restaurant run by Church Street Hospitality, via a new terrace and overlook, which also serves as a stormwater retention feature.

Education is next on the horizon. "Our education program has grown by 70%," Amelia said, adding that SVAC will reimagine the Wilson building site to meet that need once the collection is fully relocated. Sounds like there’s lots to look forward to at Southern Vermont Arts Center in the months and years to come.