Shelburne Museum fully intends to continue being northern New England's foremost art and history museum and Vermont's preeminent resource for visual art and material culture, while maintaining a national presence. Our goals are to: *preserve, interpret, and make broadly accessible our collections *celebrate American ingenuity, creativity, and craftsmanship *collect at and artifacts of the highest artistic and historical merit *assume a special responsibility for serving our Vermont community *value the contributions of Museum staff and volunteers *achieve and maintain the highest standards of professionalism *fulfill the legacy of our founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb

In January 2016 the Board of Trustees adopted a strategic plan that set a course for the 21st century and reaffirmed the organization's role as an educational institution that explores and celebrates Vermont's role in the national imagination. The product of an inclusive, yearlong process, the plan makes explicit the shared value that Shelburne Museum is for and of Vermont. The Museum will represent the best of our state for those who visit and will be central to the lives of Vermonters as a welcoming and encouraging cultural experience. Strategies include: * The Museum will provide a dynamic exhibition program to augment the permanent collection and deliver innovative and engaging learning opportunities for visitors of diverse ages, backgrounds, and interests *Define and adopt best practices in stewardship of our many historic buildings *Advance the Museum's focus on community and place *Advance our graphic identity through internal and external re-branding process *Employ tested and emerging platforms of marketing and communication *Foster engagement, efficacy, and development of Trustees *Recruit new Trustees actively and broadly and conduct regular Board self-evaluation *Grow revenue sources and endowment to achieve balanced operating budget by increasing annual development activities to provide operating funds and to build local, regional and national networks of support *Increase the Museum's endowment to provide at least one-third of the operating budget

Success in reaching our goals is greatly enhanced by the high quality and dedication of the Shelburne Museum staff which includes 53 year-round and 121 seasonal employees along with 76 guides and 201 volunteers. They reach, and exceed, their goals within critical Museum areas such as Education, Curatorial, Conservation, Landscape and Gardens, and visitor relations. An operating budget (2017) of $6. 3M bolstered by an endowment of approximately $26M provides a solid financial foundation moving forward. The Museum has strong leadership from its Board of Trustees, a distinguished group, representing expertise in a wide range of professional and philanthropic fields, which has adopted a clearly-defined Strategic Plan to which staff are bringing new energy and creativity for the advancement of the enterprise. Leadership continuity is embodied in Thomas Denenberg, Ph. D. , who was hired as Director in 2011 and charged with the task of reimagining the Shelburne Museum as a year-round destination of national stature. A recognized expert in American art with numerous writings and lectures on the subject, he has held fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution and Winterthur and has taught at Boston University, Harvard, and Wake Forest. Finally, one of the most powerful assets of Shelburne Museum is its solid reputation-- locally, regionally and nationally. Donors are especially attracted to supporting not only the largest art and history museum in northern New England and Vermont's foremost public resource for visual art and material culture but also exhibitions that partner with prominent museums across America. Shelburne Museum's widely diverse collections number over 100,000 objects and include: Impressionist art of Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt; American paintings by Andrew Wyeth, John Singleton Copley and Winslow Homer; the nation's best waterfowl decoy collection on public view; and a 1906 steamship Ticonderoga. Beyond its collections, Shelburne Museum has a reputation for scholarship and preservation excellence of national and international stature, including deep roots among some of the most important museums and scholars in the country.

The Museum's 2016 Strategic Plan established a measurable framework from which the Director, Board of Trustees, staff, donors, members, and community can gauge progress on the museum's relevance based on five critical areas of importance: 1) Programs and Collections: Accessibility, Innovation, and Excellence; 2) Campus and Infrastructure: Preservation of Buildings and Enhancement of the Visitor Experience; 3) Outreach and Engagement: Deeper Ties to Members and Vermont Community; 4) Governance: Foster Engagement, Efficacy, and Development of Trustees, and; 5) Financial Sustainability: Grow Revenue Sources and Endowment to Achieve Balanced Operating Budget. The Museum will measure progress in achieving these goals through a set of annual action plans, fundraising results, and exhibition, program, education, and preservation excellence metrics.

Testimony to Shelburne Museum's progress is real and apparent. Highlights include: *Prior to the Board endorsement of the strategic plan, the Museum successfully completed a $14. 8 capital campaign in 2013 to build the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education. This building has transformed the Museum into a year-round operation with its two galleries, classrooms and an auditorium. * A year later improvements were made to the Webb Gallery in conjunction with the reinstallation of some of the Museum's best American paintings. Shelburne is the only regional museum that can offer the breadth and depth of this group of paintings, which includes works by John Singleton Copley, Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Winslow Homer, William Mathew Prior, Martin Johnson Heade, Albert Bierstadt, Fitz Henry Lane, Eastman Johnson, Grandma Moses, and Andrew Wyeth. *Most recently (2017) the Museum celebrated the re-opening of Dorset House (1832) and the re-installation of our collection of waterfowl decoys, known throughout the world as the finest such collection on public view. Private fundraising augmented a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. *Up next: the Board of Trustees is exploring plans for an initiative to dramatically increase the endowment to bring it to a level where it would fund one-third of operating costs annually, a stated goal.