Sheldon Food Distribution Center Public Art Project

Sheldon Food Distribution Center Public Art Project

A new public artwork is taking shape for Healthy Roots Collaborative's Sheldon Food Distribution Center in Northwest Vermont.

Led by artist Corrine Yonce, the project is rooted in the region’s food systems, agricultural landscape, gathering places, local history, and community relationships. Through field research, community conversation, and design development, the artwork will reflect stories of food, labor, care, place, and connection across the community.

The project is now moving from early research into design development (to be posted soon!). Following the first public community conversation at the Saint Albans Museum, Corrine is continuing to gather stories and visual references, develop the artwork’s imagery and materials, and build opportunities for people to participate throughout the coming year.

About the project

The Sheldon Food Distribution Center Public Art Project is being developed in conversation with the people, places, and histories connected to food access and agricultural life in Northwest Vermont.

The work will draw from themes such as:

• Local food systems and the movement of food through the region
• Agricultural landscapes, labor, and seasonal rhythms
• Gathering places and community care
• Local history and memory
• The people, volunteers, growers, neighbors, and organizations who help sustain food access work

Mural and mosaic materials are currently being considered as the design takes shape. The final direction will be informed by research, site context, material testing, and community input.

Project partners and support

Current project planning names the following partners:

• Healthy Roots Collaborative
• CVOEO’s Feeding Champlain Valley
• Saint Albans Museum

The project is supported by the Vermont Arts Council.

Meet the artist

Corrine Yonce is a visual artist whose work often centers public art, community storytelling, social history, and care-based spaces. For this project, Corrine is developing an artwork that can hold both the specificity of Sheldon and the broader relationships between food, landscape, labor, and community life in Northwest Vermont.

Rather than beginning with a fixed image, the project is unfolding through research and conversation. Corrine is looking at how community participation can meaningfully shape the work while still preserving a clear artistic vision.

Current project phase

The project is currently focused on:

• Field research and visual reference gathering
• Community conversation and feedback
• Design development
• Material testing
• Outreach to potential partners and participant groups

Some of the central questions guiding this phase include:

• What stories of food, gathering, agricultural labor, landscape, and local history should be held in the work?
• Where can community participation materially shape the project?
• What balance of mural, mosaic, figuration, abstraction, fragmentation, color, and surface best fits the site?
• Which schools, senior centers, community organizations, growers, volunteers, and neighbors want to stay involved as the project develops?

What we are hearing:

• Food moves through a network of farms, workers, volunteers, food-access sites and neighbors.
• Rivers and railroads are important ways people understand the region and its history.
• Food carries seasonal memory: fresh tomatoes becoming canned sauce, harvest periods, home preservation.
• Everyday objects—milk cans, boxes, jars, tables and other containers—can hold larger histories of labor, transportation and care.
• There is interest in an artwork that feels recognizable and locally specific without becoming a single literal illustration.

Participate now with our live menti meter!: https://www.menti.com/aldti5ebjer1

Community conversation

On August 19, community members gathered at the Saint Albans Museum for A Mural Takes Shape: Community Preview & Conversation, the first public gathering for the project. Participants were deeply engaged, sharing stories and memories about the region’s food systems and history—from milk cans and the “butter train” to home canning, harvest seasons, rivers, railroads, and the movement of food across generations.

The conversation began to reveal some of the relationships the artwork might hold: food as something grown, gathered, preserved, transported and shared; the river and railroad as routes through the region; seasonal changes in how food appears; and the people whose labor and care move food toward home. These stories will inform the next stage of the design.

How community input will shape the work

Community participation is an important part of this project. Input gathered through conversations, events, research visits, and partner outreach may help shape:

• Visual references and imagery
• Stories and themes included in the artwork
• Material and design decisions
• Future engagement opportunities
• Connections with schools, senior centers, community organizations, growers, volunteers, and neighbors

The goal is not open-ended crowdsourcing, but a thoughtful process where community voices help inform a cohesive public artwork.

What happens next

The August gathering was the first step in a year of making. Over the coming months, Corrine will continue developing the design while gathering stories, photographs, objects and community partnerships.

Fall will include continued story collection, outreach and opportunities for workshops and participation. Winter will move more deeply into fabrication and painting, including work that can happen off-site on mural cloth. Community making and installation will continue into spring and summer 2027.

Add your story

Were you unable to join us—or did the conversation bring another memory to mind? Stories, photographs and everyday memories connected to food, farming, gathering, work and life in the region can continue to be shared through the project story form.

THIS or THAT

Share your design preferences- full color or limited? Detailed figured or geometric? Vote yourself here!

Story Form:

Interested in sharing your story to inform this work? Fill out this form!

Follow along

This page will serve as a home for project updates as the Sheldon Food Distribution Center Public Art Project develops.

Check back for notes from community events, behind-the-scenes process updates, design milestones, and future opportunities to get involved.

Stay Involved:

Want to host a Community Smash day, a paint day or an art event? Want to participate in upcoming art events? Or do you want to just stay informed of project updates? Fill out this form

Coming Next:

• Community stories and research
• Design development
• Fall participation opportunities
• Material and process updates