Rutland County is bursting with color and art. Driving or walking through Downtown Rutland you will notice art represented by a multitude of mediums. We have marble sculptures, murals, and art galleries to feast your eyes on. But it does not stop in Downtown Rutland, all of Rutland County has art to offer. 

 

Murals

Downtown Rutland is home to about twenty larger-than-life murals featuring animals, people, superheroes, and nature. This app was created by the

Downtown Rutland Partnership to lead you on a tour of the murals, which takes about an hour to complete. To the West of Downtown Rutland is another mural at the Vermont Farmer’s Food Center and to the Northeast is one of the newest murals just off Woodstock Avenue. 

 

Marble Sculptures

Vermont is well-known for its Marble. The Vermont Marble Company in Proctor, Vermont, was once considered the largest U.S. corporation in the world. Now, artists from near and far are invited to carve sculptures from Vermont Marble. The sculptures feature local, influential people such as Martin Henry Freeman, the first black president of an American college, and Andrea Mead Lawrence, the first American alpine skier to win two Olympic gold medals. If you would like to explore the Sculpture Trail, you can use this map. The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in West Rutland is currently hosting its Annual Members’ Exhibition at the Gallery from June 10-July 10, watch the artists carve the newest sculptures in person, or wander through the Sculpture Garden. The center also hosts workshops and residencies throughout the year! 

 

Ideal Actual City: The Rutland Drawing

Or immerse yourself in a pencil-drawn downtown by Bill Ramage. Ramage moved to Rutland in 1971 and has been creating art ever since. His “Ideal Actual City: The Rutland Drawing,” is a cylindrical installation that lives within the Opera House on Merchants Row in Downtown Rutland. A fun fact: if you stand on the white circle and talk aloud, it sounds like you are speaking directly into your ears, kind of freaky but cool! 

 

Art Galleries

Rutland County is also home to art galleries. If you are already in Downtown Rutland, check out the Castleton University Bank Gallery, where student art is on display throughout the year. About a block up the road is Timco Gallery, where all sales support local student art programs. And a little further up the road is The Chaffee Art Center, a rotating gallery in a home built in 1895 and opened to the public in 1961 to promote the arts within Rutland County. Or take a drive North to Brandon, Vermont, and visit the Brandon Artists Guild, home to over thirty artists and artisans. 

 

Peter Huntoon

And we cannot forget about Peter Huntoon, an artist who creates paintings of the beauty in and around Rutland County. He even has a newsletter sent every other week, “A Day in Vermont,” featuring his latest work as a way to celebrate the “glorious beauty of Vermont through art.” 

Here, we believe it is important to celebrate not only the beauty that surrounds us every day but the creativity within each of us. Make Rutland your home and express your true self through art.  

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