PRESS RELEASE:  MV Museum Announces Two New Exhibitions Exploring Identity, Place, and Visual Storytelling

Press release: MAY 2026

MV Museum Announces Two New Exhibitions Exploring Identity, Place, and Visual Storytelling

[VINEYARD HAVEN, MA] – MAY, 2026 – The Martha’s Vineyard Museum will open two new exhibitions this May, each offering a distinct lens on how individuals shape—and are shaped by—the communities around them.

Opening in the Museum’s Waggaman Community Gallery, Colin Ruel: The Light is Returning (May 16–August 16, 2026) is a deeply personal and visually immersive exhibition that examines the evolving realities of coastal life. Through artwork, archival materials, sound, and installation, Ruel juxtaposes his own experience raising a family on the Vineyard with that of his grandfather—a fisherman and folk artist whose life was rooted in labor, tradition, and place.

At its core, the exhibition reflects on the fracture of a generational cycle once sustained by community and belonging, now challenged by rising wealth inequity, displacement, and the increasing commodification of coastal communities. The result is a powerful meditation on continuity, loss, and what it means to remain connected to a place that is rapidly changing.

An opening reception for The Light is Returning will be held on Friday, May 15.

A second exhibition, Inside the Edit: Dolores Allen Littles, Time-Life, and the Island (May 30–October 4, 2026), opens in the Hollinshead, Cox, and Fleischner Galleries. This exhibition centers on Oak Bluffs resident Dolores Allen Littles, whose groundbreaking career in the Time Inc. photo department positioned her as one of the few Black women shaping national visual storytelling in the mid-20th century.

Rising from the clip desk to photo editor—and later Director of Photography at Time–Life Books—Littles played a critical role in shaping how millions experienced photography through publications like Life magazine and Time–Life Books. Her story is deeply connected to Martha’s Vineyard, where she first arrived in 1950 after reading about the Island in Ebony magazine and stayed at the historic Shearer Cottage in Oak Bluffs.

Through Littles’s career, the exhibition explores the often unseen craft of photo editing while also highlighting the Vineyard’s role as both refuge and creative hub for photographers, editors, and cultural leaders associated with Time Inc.

An opening reception for Inside the Edit will be held on Thursday, May 29.

“These exhibitions reflect two very different stories, but both speak to the ways people‘s experiences shape their lives and how they see the world.” said Anna Barber, Curator of Exhibitions. “Together, they offer a deeper understanding of our community and neighbors.”

About Martha’s Vineyard Museum:
The Martha’s Vineyard Museum inspires all people to discover, explore, and strengthen their connections to the Island and its diverse heritage. Through exhibitions, programs, and a vast collection of artifacts, photographs, and oral histories, the Museum preserves and shares the stories of Martha’s Vineyard—past and present. Located in Vineyard Haven, the Museum offers year-round opportunities for learning and engagement for visitors of all ages. For more information, visit mvmuseum.org.

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