Winter Lights at Shelburne Museum features new performance series

In addition to the elaborate and impressive light displays at Shelburne Museum, the Vermont landmark’s fourth-annual edition of Winter Lights will feature a new performance series.”Weekends are popular anyway, but this is going to make them even more popular, we think,” said Shelburne Museum spokeswoman Leslie Wright.The holiday light spectacle runs Nov. 21 through Jan. 5. Select evenings feature the talents of local performers. The museum’s entertainment schedule includes harpist Marie Hamilton, pianist Owen Leavy, a capella groups from the University of Vermont and Middlebury College, and the Randall Pierce Jazz Trio. The performances are primarily on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.The Lyric Theatre Company has a vocal ensemble singing on four nights of Winter Lights. Lyric said since it and Shelburne Museum are both non-profit arts organizations with long histories in the area, it makes perfect sense to team up for this series.”During the holiday season, it’s so nice to walk around and look at all the lights,” said Hannah Normandeau of the Lyric Theatre Company. “And hearing that live music just gives an aura of festiveness and joy. So we hope to bring some of that to new audiences at Shelburne Museum.”The performances are not limited to musicians. Flow artists from Burlington Burn Club will be performing four nights. However, they will not be using flames, as they normally do. Instead, the artists will be spinning LED lights.Some of the outdoor displays throughout the museum’s 45-acre campus also feature QR codes that you scan with your phone, playing videos that bring the installations to life. Special attention was paid this year to decorating the fence along the museum grounds and locations around the village of Shelburne, the museum said.Wright explained the new offerings are part of Shelburne Museum’s goal to expand Winter Lights and market it more broadly as a tourist destination. Wright said the landmark hopes expanding Winter Lights will help draw out-of-state visitors during the shoulder season between foliage and ski season. Roughly 50,000 visitors attended Winter Lights last year, Wright said. She said the destination hopes to see the number increase this season.”It’s really going to make things festive and even more of a holiday feel,” Wright said of the new performance series. “We are a museum. We’re about the arts. So bringing in music, and we try to bring in aspects of our collection into our light display, it really differentiates us. As we grow, we want to keep building that.”The performances are included in the Winter Lights ticket price. They are $15 for adults and $10 for kids aged 3 to 17 if you buy them ahead of time on Shelburne Museum’s website. Ticket prices increase by $5 if you buy them at the door, according to the website.Additionally, the site provides information on special drive-around nights, which cost $65 per car, and the Dec. 6 ice bar night. That event for patrons aged 21-plus features food trucks, music, and bars with special drinks. Tickets for the ice bar night purchased ahead of time are $90 for the general public and $75 for museum members. The website’s calendar page also describes what patrons can expect from two evenings of Winter Lights that are tailored for people with sensory needs.NBC5 First Warning Weather Chief Meteorologist Tyler Jankoski reported live from a preview event for Winter Lights, conducting a series of live interviews:Tyler interviews Shelburne Museum director Tom Denenberg at Winter LightsShelburne’s town manager discusses the boost Winter Lights gives his community Tyler reports from an enchanted garden at Shelburne Museum’s Winter Lights