Small craft made of wood have been part of Island culture for thousands of years. They have helped to feed local families, connect the Vineyard to the wider world, and introduce generations of summer visitors to the joy of “messing about in boats.”

Staged in indoor and outdoor spaces across the Museum campus, this exhibit explores wooden boatbuilding on Martha’s Vineyard from Wampanoag mishoons to the present. Art, models, historic images, oral histories, and full-size boats bring to life the ways in which Island boatbuilders have, for centuries, used their skills to create “perfect craft” for Vineyarders and Vineyard waters.