Southern Vermont Arts Center sits on more than 120 acres at the foot of the Taconic Mountains in Manchester, Vermont, on a campus that began in 1917 as the summer estate of Gertrude Divine Webster. Southern Vermont Artists acquired the property in 1950 and built it into a nonprofit arts center with galleries, an outdoor sculpture garden, and trails connecting to Equinox Mountain.
The estate's original 1917 mansion, Yester House, now anchors the campus with ten galleries and curATE Café, and can host private events. The Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum, designed by architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen and opened in 2000, houses the center's permanent collection of more than 900 works and includes a meeting room and kitchenette for private events. The Louise Arkell Pavilion, dedicated in 1970, is a 400-seat auditorium with professional-quality acoustics and retractable side walls that open to the back lawn for tented events.
Outdoors, the campus includes what the arts center describes as the largest sculpture garden in Vermont. Together, the buildings and grounds host weddings, receptions, and private events, with catering handled by Church Street Hospitality, the center's exclusive on-site caterer.
