CURRENT EXHIBITS
“The Hues of Hadley: Pioneering Places for Preservation and Growth”
The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum presents The Hues of Hadley: Pioneering Places for Preservation and Growth. This exhibit showcases University of Massachusetts graduate student Elisha Bettencourt's thesis on Phelps Farm. Charles (Moses) Porter Phelps, grandson of Moses Porter, built Phelps Farm in 1816 just across the street from the home he grew up in, now the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum. As envisioned by Bettencourt, Phelps Farm would showcase Hadley’s history through both people and the environment.
"Field Notes 8"
The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum presents Field Notes 8, a new installation of suspended collage and wooden bas reliefs created by architects Sigrid Miller Pollin and Stephen Schreiber, and landscape architect Jane Thurber. The exhibit explores rhythms found in the landscape and structures of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum. The exhibit will be on display from August 4 through October 15, 2018 in museum’s historic Corn Barn. On September 16, the museum will host an artist reception from 2-4 pm.
"Undulated Inundation"
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum currently hosts "Undulated Inundation," an outdoor installation that captures the perpetually evolving character of the Connecticut River and its flood planes over time. The piece was designed by artist and designer Anthony DiMari, and its structure is intended to reflect the historical flood planes of the river. The piece consists of a square grid of steel poles of varying heights set in a gravel bed, topped with photo-luminescent caps that glow at night, powered by the sunlight they have captured over the course of the day.
Past Exhibits
"Massachusetts," artwork by Philip Grant
The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum will present a solo exhibition of paintings by award-winning artist Philip Grant. The exhibition of portraits and scenes collectively entitled “Massachusetts,” were inspired by Grant’s neighbors and his daily walks around his home in Hampden, MA. These scenes of daily life in Western Massachusetts form what Grant calls "a visual autobiography." The exhibit will be on display from June 1st to July 24th at the museum’s historic Corn Barn.
"Landscapes of Spirit"
"Landscapes of Spirit"The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum will present “Landscapes of Spirit”, an exhibition of photographs by Christopher Curtis. The exhibition captures the ancient rock art and ruins of the Anasazi, Chumash, and Shosone peoples of the Americas in addition to the Australian aboriginal peoples. The exhibit will be on display in the Corn Barn from August 1st to October 15th. On Sunday August 6th, the Museum will host an opening to meet the artist, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm.
Learn more about the exhibit here.
"A Portrait of Afghanistan," the artworks of Philip Grant
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is excited to announce a solo exhibition of paintings by award-winning artist Philip Grant. Grant’s paintings form an autobiographical narrative of his experience in the Peace Corps that focuses on the people he met during his travels in Afghanistan. The exhibition will be on view in the Corn Barn from July 1st through July 31st. On Sunday, July 9th, Philip and his wife, Karla will present the paintings and discuss their experiences in Afghanistan. The presentation will begin at 3:00pm in the Museum’s Corn Barn, 130 River Drive, Hadley, MA 01035.
"Beautiful People in the World," Portraits From My Travels by Robert Markey
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is delighted to announce an exhibition of paintings by Robert Markey, whose eclectic sounds have had a recurring presence at the museum. “Beautiful People in the World,” Portraits from my Travels is a diverse collection by Markey created in oil on canvas which catalogue the many faces he has encountered in his travels in his work with kids and communities in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Greece, Israel and India. The exhibit will run from May 15th through June 30th in the Museum’s Corn Barn.
"A Life in Letters: Elizabeth Porter Huntington Fisher" by Kristin Malin
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum in Hadley will host “A Life in Letters: Elizabeth Porter Huntington Fisher,” a mixed media installation by Kristin Malin. This exhibition will be housed in the Museum’s Corn Barn from August through October.
For “A Life In Letters” Malin transcribed onto long scrolls of paper in ink sections of letters shared between Elizabeth Porter Huntington Fisher and her mother, Elizabeth Whiting Phelps Huntington. The letters impart a sense of Elizabeth and what her life was like in the mid-1800’s. The letters, and Kristin’s scrolls, broach many topics including courtship, marriage, family, illness, death, God, religion, travel, education, and love.
Malin, whose husband and daughters are decedents of the family, created a physical link between herself and Elizabeth Porter Huntington Fisher by transcribing her letters. In addition to the scrolls, the exhibit also includes portraits of Elizabeth Porter Huntington Fisher’s descendants, Olivia Birdsall, Katherine Birdsall, and Elizabeth Wheeler.
To learn more about this exhibit, click here. To visit Kristin Malin's website, click here.
"Kathy Greenwood-A Stitch in Time"
From June 1st to July 31st, 2016, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum featured an exhibition by artist Kathy Greenwood entitled "Kathy Greenwood-A Stitch in Time." This exhibition featured collage and textile works that cross familiar materials and patterns with contemporary sensibilities. The objects and images that populate this work allude to stories, relationships and observations of daily living and how the ephemera of home – heirlooms, implements and cast-offs – can invoke personal memories as well as conjecture about the lives of others.
Learn more about this exhibit.
"Images from the Connecticut River Valley"
From July 1 to September 1, 2015, the Corn Barn hosted "Images from the Connecticut River Valley," which showcases Christopher Curtis’s 30 years of experience photographing nature, haunting rural landscapes, and other subject matter through two series of images: “Looking at Rivers” and “Ghosts and Machines.”
“Looking at Rivers” captures the energy and beauty Christopher Curtis finds in the wild streams and rivers of western Massachusetts. In his work as an environmental planner, he has spent the better part of a lifetime working to clean up and protect rivers; in his work as a photographer, he has captured the beauty and movement of these rivers.
“Ghosts and Machines” turns from the environmental to the mechanical, exploring the old abandoned farm vehicles from the 1930’s and 40’s that lie decomposing behind barns and in the woods bordering farmland of the Connecticut River Valley. By depicting these old trucks as they sink and erode into the landscape, the “Ghosts and Machines” photographs reflect on nature’s reclamation of human creations, as the vehicles become partially submerged in mud, covered with weeds in the summer, and merge back into the earth again.
"Field Notes 4: Transect"
In 2014, the Corn Barn hosted "Field Notes 4: Transect," an exhibition of drawings, paintings, collages and sculptures by architects Sigrid Miller Pollin and Stephen Schreiber, and landscape architect, Jane Thurber. "Field Notes 4: Transect" is the fourth exhibition created by these artists. This collaborative exhibit focuses on patterns found in the natural and built environments with several of the pieces specifically exploring the Connecticut River Valley near the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House. In particular, the artists are focused on the transect, or cross-section, of the built and natural environments - from the river, through floodplains, cultivated fields and meadows, to the mountains. The clarity in the way each artist stays centered around their own explorations and the subtle unity in the way the works complement each other are self-evident.
The exhibit in the Museum’s Corn Barn ran from June 14 through October 15, 2014.