Islands are dynamic environments, and here on Martha’s Vineyard, we are constantly confronted with changes in the natural world. The fact that change happens is a given and in many ways out of our control, but what we can control is how we respond to it.

This exhibit explores three different ways in which people have responded to changes in nature here on the Island: documenting change through maps and photographs as a step toward understanding it… reacting to sudden changes with surprise, sorrow, and curiosity…  and managing change in ways that balance the protection of the natural world with the demands placed on it by human lives. Like change itself, all three are central to life on Martha’s Vineyard.