The Shelburne Museum: Just do it. Electra Havemeyer Webb’s collection of fine and folk art may be Vermont’s greatest cultural treasure. The “gallery” experience could not be less intimidating. You can walk leisurely between the buildings, where people in period dress act as printers, blacksmiths and apothecaries. Or wander through the staterooms on the lovingly restored passenger steamer S.S. Ticonderoga. In the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building are some of the museum’s — and the world’s — most precious paintings by Manet, Monet, Degas and Cassat. The Shelburne has even more works by American masters, such as Homer, Wyeth and Moses. But it was Webb’s extensive folk-art collection that inspired her to create the Shelburne, and its curators continue to seek out talented unintentional artists — including contemporary ones.

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