Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont, has opened a new season of its “Art on the Barns” exhibition featuring work by New Hampshire artist Gail Rickards. The outdoor installation transforms the museum’s historic barns and farm buildings into a large-scale contemporary art display, with agricultural-themed works adapted into painted cut aluminum and PVC foam. Featured pieces include “TROPHY ROOM,” “SILOS,” “ICEHOUSE,” and “QUILT BARN,” and additional paintings by Rickards are shown inside the Visitor Center. An artist reception is scheduled for May 28, 2025.
This exhibition matters because it merges contemporary art with rural heritage, using the farm’s architecture as both canvas and context. By placing site-specific works in dialogue with daily agricultural life, the show invites visitors to reconsider the aesthetic and cultural value of working landscapes. It also highlights how small museums and historic sites can serve as innovative venues for contemporary art, broadening access to art outside traditional gallery settings.