Michael S. Currier Center

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Michael S. Currier Center

Michael S. Currier Center

Free and open to all, our art gallery and performing arts center is a hub for student artwork, plays, and creative expression.

Visits to to the gallery (outside of public art openings) are by appointment. To schedule a visit, please contact the school in advance by calling our main line 听(802) 387-5566 or emailing听info@putneyschool.org.

Featured Exhibit

The Natural World: Crafted by Hand, Fired in Smoke

March 27 — May 10, 2026

The ceramic work of Putney alums Paula Shalan 鈥�81 and Richard Foye 鈥�65 will be on display this spring in the Currier Center. Foye鈥檚 work is inspired by 12th-century Persian glazes and a Japanese Raku style he will demonstrate during Parents Weekend, smoking the pieces in an old-fashioned washing machine drum in order to produce his stunning finishes. Shalan also smoke-fires her work and hand-builds each piece based on observations gleaned from the smallest details found in nature, 鈥渋n order to distill and highlight the astounding beauty and quiet wisdom of fields and forests.鈥�

A Place to Create

Through offerings that spark ideas, conversations and experiences relevant to current topics, we build connections in our 淫荡少妇, and beyond. Our space includes a 300-seat auditorium and stage, an art gallery, dance studio, music library and practice rooms, a green room, and office and storage space. Our gallery exhibits are constantly changing, and are always free and open to the public.

A Unique Space

Designed with the future in mind, the Currier Center building features a sustainable design with plenty of natural light to contribute to the feeling of movement and activity within. Inside, bold colors heighten the experience of the performance spaces, gallery walls can be moved to reconfigure the exhibition space, and gorgeous views connect visitors to the surrounding landscape.

Past Exhibits

Portraits of Energy

January 9 — February 20, 2026

For the last forty years, Rick Harlow has lived and worked with the indigenous peoples of Colombia, in support of the preservation and continuance of their traditional practices. This body of work is his investigation and manifestation of the reality that everything is alive and contains energy, as the indigenous cultures of the world have always known and celebrated.

The Architecture of Silence

September 5 鈥� November 20, 2025

Artists Elena Lyakir and Eric Slayton explore the intersection of place and belonging, creating a dialogue between the inner and the outer. Elena, born in Ukraine, creates layered landscapes and photographs of birds in flight, which seek to unravel the trauma of dislocation she experienced as an immigrant, restoring a sense of wholeness and continuity aligned with the natural world. Eric鈥檚 brutalist architectural structures evoke the urban horizons that nature eventually reclaims, as he believes that nature is the ever-present principle. His work is a meditation on resilience, time, and transformation. World travelers and longtime city dwellers, Eric and Elena now live and work in Marlboro, Vt.

Transcendent Nature

March 18 鈥� May 12, 2025

Michael Abrams is an artist and painter of nature who has exhibited his works around the United States and abroad. He grew up in Rensselaer County in a home perched above the majestic greenery of the Hudson Valley. These views became deeply engrained in his subconscious and profoundly influenced the way he sees the world. Combining a love of art history and images collected from memory and nature, Abrams work offers a glance at personal observations summoning far off scenes, diffused tree forms, and glints of light reflecting off distant waters, all suggesting a selection of familiar fragments of nature meant to recall memory and emotion and instill longing for an idyllic world.

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The Weight

January 10 鈥� March 1, 2025

Artist Ruth Shafer sculpts at the intersection of craft, domesticity, and feminism. By conflating the female form with furniture and furnishings, Shafer explores the feminine body鈥檚 place in the home, in art history, and in the ways that the past becomes the future. With humor, abstraction, and the familiarity of repurposed fabrics, Shafer鈥檚 work confronts the dualities of domesticity; safety vs confinement, decoration vs identity, opportunity vs obligation. She works from her home studio in Brattleboro, Vt.

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淫荡少妇 Faculty Show 2024

November 8 鈥� December 9, 2024

Our Faculty Show this year focuses on the inclusive nature of the second Putney School Fundamental Belief: “To learn to appreciate and participate in the creative arts where we give expression to our struggle for communication of our inner lives and for beauty, and to grant these arts great prestige.” This show features the work of 21 faculty members. It celebrates our faculty’s joy in making and willingness to share.

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Johnny Swing

September 10 鈥� October 30, 2024

Johnny Swing ’80 is most known for his coin furniture. Focusing on “objects of refulgence, with money鈥攖he material that makes the world go round,” he strives for his work to be entertaining, to spark curiosity, and to be comfortable.

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Alisa Sikelianos-Carter

March 30 – May 11, 2024

Alisa Sikelianos-Carter is a queer mixed-media artist who explores themes of boundlessness, infinitude, and futurity. She is endlessly inspired by light, patterns, landscape, and the dark night sky.

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Three Perspectives: Tracings, Trackings, Terrains

January 17 – March 3, 2024

Artists Madge Evers,听Nancy Storrow听and听Stefania Urist focus on and re-imagine the natural world, using elements of plant life for inspiration.

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Eight Alumni Artists: 2006 鈥� 2021

November 10 – December 17, 2023

The work includes a wide variety of mediums including sculpture, fiber, animation, digital ceramics, painting, and photography. Each artist was inspired by their experience at 淫荡少妇鈥攁 teacher, a friend, the farm, the landscape, or other members of the Putney Community.

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Vaune Trachtman and Rachel Portesi

September 15 – October 30, 2023

This show features two Vermont artists using alternative photographic processes that combine historic and 21st century technologies. Although neither artist appears in their work, each image nonetheless can be viewed as a type of self-portrait.

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Art in Exile: A collaboration between The Art Lords and Putney School students

March 20 – May 13, 2023

Join us to celebrate the collaborative murals created by the two groups of artists.

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Niagara in Winter paining by James Mullen for Currier Center art exhibit

Luminous Edge: Paintings by James Mullen

January 19 – March 3, 2023

On display will be 72 vignette paintings from renowned artist James Mullen鈥檚 Pilgrim series. These paintings investigate iconic sites belonging to the lexicon of the 19th century American landscape.

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where are we?

Evie Lovett, Elizabeth Billings, Andrea Wasserman

November 4 – December 19, 2022

An exhibition of the 2021-2022 Brattleboro Museum and Art Center climate change artists in residence.

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淫荡少妇 Visual Arts Faculty Show

September 16 – October 30, 2022

Featuring Thomasin Alyxander, Jules Bruno, Tim Ellis, Melissa Johnson, Naomi Lindenfeld, Robin Muller, Rodrigo Nava, Rosi Olivan, Kegan Refalo, Helen Schmidt, Zachary P. Stephens, Joseph Tracy, Lynn Weinstein, Cai Xi.

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Waterloo Sunset by Elise Ansel for the Currier Center exhibit Space Between Angels.

Space Between Angels
Elise Ansel

April 1 – May 15, 2022

Artist Elise Ansel鈥檚 solo exhibit translates Old Master Paintings into a contemporary pictorial language, drawing upon familiar compositions from throughout the history of art, and modernizing classical works.

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