Chaffee Art Center

The Chaffee Art Center occupies a handsome Victorian mansion near the centre of Rutland, serving as the city's main gallery space for local and regional artists. The exhibitions change regularly and cover painting, sculpture, photography, and craft. The centre also runs art classes and community events.

The building's domestic architecture makes for an unusual gallery setting: exhibitions hang in rooms with original fireplaces, ceiling mouldings, and built-in cabinetry rather than in white-cube spaces. Admission is free. The gallery shop sells work by local artists and is a good place to find something specific to Vermont.

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A story
The Chaffee Art Center is housed in a mansion built in 1896 for Dr. Thomas Chaffee, a local physician. The house was donated to Rutland as an arts center in the 1960s, and the Vermont Arts Council has operated it since. The building itself is a Victorian-era Queen Anne house with the original interior woodwork and leaded glass windows intact. The transition from private home to public gallery was made without stripping the domestic character, which gives exhibitions here a different feel from conventional gallery spaces.