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Watching the Seasons Change

We suggest that you pre-register before you visit this exhibition. Click here to register and see our open hours.

Dates: June 4 – September 17, 2022

Location: Museum of the White Mountains

Opening Reception: June 4, 4-6pm

When we think of the seasons changing, we all expect certain signs: the bright red of the sugar maple, the crackle of frozen puddles under foot, the sweet smell of fresh growth as the snow melts, the burble of the brook under a thick canopy of leaves. This pattern becomes more complicated as the markers of change disappear. The cycles we anticipate shift. As the seasons change in the Northeast, what will our autumns look like with fewer sugar maples? What will it sound like as they are replaced by oaks that hold their leaves much longer? What will winter be without frozen ponds?

This exhibition brings together a plurality of voices that span 200 years of appreciating and adapting to the seasons in the White Mountains: Abenaki basketmakers joining with foresters to protect the brown ash tree; artists immersing themselves in experimental environmental research; scientists at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, the Mount Washington Observatory, and the Appalachian Mountain Club building a robust understanding of climate change; painters traveling to these mountains to record their beauty; and beadworkers preserving and reviving traditional patterns and skills. These makers and many others are examining and interpreting our surroundings as they watch the seasons change. 

 

Featuring artworks by:

Rhonda Besaw
Benjamin Champney
Woolsey Conover
John J. Enneking
Regis Gignoux
Bill Gould
Sherry L. Gould
William Hart
Mary Brewster Hazelton
Edward Hill
Marion Howard
Anne Jennison
Elizabeth Galbraith MacIntyre Jewell
Benjamin West Kilburn

Eric Koeppel
Rita Leduc
Nikki Lindt
Edmund Darch Lewis
Fletcher Manley
Edward West Nichols
Mikhu Paul
Daniel Santry
Cheryl Savageau
Frank Henry Shapleigh
John P. Soule
Allen Tucker
T.E.M. White

Exhibition Resources

Scientific Resources and Links

Watching the Seasons Change Summer Event Series

Accompanying this exhibition is a special series of related lectures and presentations. The 2022 Summer Event Series project is supported in part by a grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts & the National Endowment for the Arts.

Events are free and open to all. Several events are being presented via Zoom and in person at the Museum of the White Mountains. If you are attending virtually, pre-registration is required.

Click Here to See Events

Story Telling with Hears Crow 
Presented by Hears Crow 
June 25, 2022 at 2pm 

Hears Crow is a woman of the Eastern Woodlands who lives her life in the tradition of the Nanhigganêuck, the people known today as the Narragansett. She is a Storyteller of Longhouse Tales, told in many traditional ways. Join Hears Crow and Museum of the White Mountains for an afternoon of outdoor songs and storytelling. Meet at the Museum of the White Mountains. Suitable for all ages. 

Dawnland Winters: Decolonizing One Season’s History 
Presented by Tom Wickman
July 7, 2022 at 5pm 

Tom Wickman is the author of Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural History of Winter in the Early American Northeast. In this presentation, learn how early 18th century colonial soldiers appropriated snowshoes for winter attacks against Wabanaki people. Centuries later, the Indigenous technology of snowshoes has become a symbol of so-called “New England winters, but do we acknowledge the presence, expertise, or authority of Indigenous people? Tom will discuss ways winter knowledge, winter histories, and winter futures in Northern New England might be decolonized. 

Presented virtually and in person. Click here to learn more.

Ecology Extended: Climate Changing Minds 
Presented by Rita Leduc and Rich Blundell
July 12, 2022 at 5pm

Ecology Extended is a unique collaboration between an artist, an ecologist and the temperate montane ecosystem of the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. This on-going project is grounded in the principles and practices of Oika, a creative approach that combines cross-domain conversation and communication. For this MWM event, the artist and scientist will manifest Oika to discuss Ecology Extended, first through open dialogue with each other and next by inviting the White Mountain community into conversation. 

Presented virtually and in person. Click here to learn more.

Stories from the Land 
Presented by Cheryl Savageau
July 21, 2022 at 5pm

Cheryl Savageau is the author of a memoir, three books of poetry, and a children’s book, Muskrat Will Be Swimming. In this event, Cheryl will read poetry about the Dawnland, including New Hampshire and the White Mountains from her books, Out of the Crazywoods, Dirt Road Home, and Mother/Land, as well as new work.  

Presented virtually and in person. Click here to learn more.

Brown Ash Basket Making Demonstration & Discussion
Presented by Bill and Sherry Gould
July 23, 2022 at 2:00 pm

Bill and Sherry Gould, citizens of the Nulhegan Band of Abenaki, will give a family-oriented talk about Abenaki basketmaking and will bring baskets (both finished and in-process) to show how they are made. As one of the main materials of basketmaking, ash trees are very important to basket makers. Unfortunately, increasing human population and the introduction of foreign invasive species has made it much harder to find healthy ash trees for basketmaking. 

Presented virtually and in person. Click here to learn more.

State of Maple 
Panelists: Steve Roberge, Ben Farina, and Dave Fuller. Moderated by Sarah Stanley
August 4, 2022 at 5pm

Join MWM for a panel discussion on the State of Maple in New Hampshire, today and in the future. Panelists include: Steve Roberge, UNH Cooperative Extension’s Specialist in Forest Resources for the state, and a NH licensed forester and sugarmaker; Ben Farina, Forest Silviculturist on the White Mountain National Forest; and Dave Fuller, owner of Fuller’s Sugar House in Lancaster, whose syrup has been judged best in NH, and also best in North America. 

Presented virtually and in person. Click here to learn more.