End of Year 2025
Dear Friends and Supporters, When I arrived at an open house for the newly rehabilitated Coach Barn in September, I thought, “This is another one of those amazing moments in the life of Shelburne Farms as an educational organization.” Where once there were carriage horses and cows in the barn and courtyard, now there will be people gathering and learning around tables made from farm-harvested wood, in a building warmed by a state-of-the-art geothermal system. The adaptive reuse of the Coach Barn embodies so much of who we are and what we do. To inspire learning for a sustainable future, we are using our amazing working farm and historic buildings, forging partnerships and collaborations that reach far beyond this place, and creating opportunities for discovery and dialogue–for coming together, not breaking apart. I’m so heartened by all that the “new” Coach Barn makes possible, and for the community it will help foster. For that, we have you to thank. Your support underpins all the vision, creativity, collaboration, and craft that transformed this barn over the past year. And, your support will continue to help Shelburne Farms cultivate positive change in the world far into the future. With gratitude,
Alec Webb, President
Looking from the West Hall through to the East Hall
The Coach Barn reopens Its adaptive reuse will facilitate learning and foster community.
A
fter a year of renovations and rehabilitation, the Coach Barn has opened its doors as an historic, year-round, sustainably designed and operated space for learning and convening. From your first step into its newly granite-paved courtyard, rimmed by native sedges to absorb rainwater, to entering the big halls enlivened by environmental, acousticThe building honors enhancing art, the building honors the both the natural world natural world around it and the history around it and the behind it.
history behind it.
More than 55 businesses—architects, designers, consultants, artisans, suppliers, and contractors—contributed to the barn’s transformation. The result is a space that is more than a backdrop to people learning; it actively fosters that learning. continued