While most people are familiar with the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, few are aware of the scores of other wonderful museums throughout New England. From the Colby College Museum of Art to the Museum of Russian Icons and the National Museum of American Illustration, the cradle of American art is home to a dazzling abundance of cultural opportunities. Traute M. Marshall has written this smart and engagingly personal guidebook for curious travelers, bringing to light the wealth of small and large art museums in the six New England states, ranging from world-class encyclopedic collections to more modest and specialized venues. While providing the information found in a traditional guidebook—addresses, websites, opening times, directions, and so forth—Marshall also offers readers informed and intimate introductions to the museums and their histories, holdings, traditions, and architecture. This guide also explains exhibition practices, the presentation of the permanent collection versus the attraction of temporary shows, the different educational activities offered, and the special relationship between a town or city and its art museum. Each entry concludes with a special “PLUS” section designed to further enrich any visit. This might point you to other types of museums nearby, an architecturally distinctive building in the neighborhood, the home of a famous local artist, or other sites such as artist colonies or distinguished galleries, historic inns or restaurants, or even movies with some connection to the locale. Useful as both a resource for planning your next road trip and an essential glove- compartment companion, Art Museums PLUS is a must-have for New England natives and tourists alike.
Table of Contents
Introduction • CONNECTICUT • Bridgeport • Housatonic Museum of Art • PLUS: Barnum Museum • Farmington • Hill-Stead Museum • PLUS: Avon Old Farms School (Avon) • Greenwich • Bruce Museum • PLUS: Bush-Holley Historic Site (Cos Cob) • Groton • Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art, University of Connecticut • PLUS: Connecticut College outdoor sculpture (New London) • Hartford • Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art • PLUS: Chick Austin House and biography • Middletown • Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University • PLUS: Campus architecture • New Britain • New Britain Museum of American Art • PLUS: Walnut Hill Park • New Haven • Yale Center for British Art • PLUS: Louis Kahn building; My Architect (film) • Yale University Art Gallery • PLUS: Modernist campus architecture • New London • Lyman Allyn Art Museum • PLUS: New London architecture; Eugene O’Neill sites • Norwich • Slater Memorial Museum • PLUS: Walking tour of historic district • Old Lyme • Florence Griswold Museum • PLUS: Lyme Art Association Gallery; First Congregational Church • Stamford • Stamford Museum and Nature Center • PLUS: Sculptures by Reuben Nakian • Storrs • William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut • PLUS: Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry • Waterbury • Mattatuck Museum • PLUS: Cass Gilbert District • Wilton • Weir Farm National Historic Site • PLUS: Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum • RHODE ISLAND • Newport • National Museum of American Illustration • PLUS: Campus of Salve Regina University • Newport Art Museum and Art Association • PLUS: Tennis Hall of Fame • Providence • Annmary Brown Memorial, Brown University • PLUS: Nightingale Brown House; John Brown House • Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum of Art • PLUS: First Baptist Church • MASSACHUSETTS • Amherst • Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art • PLUS: Atkins Farm Country Market • Mead Art Museum, Amherst College • PLUS: Emily Dickinson Museum • Andover • Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy • PLUS: Stevens-Coolidge Place • Arlington • Cyrus E. Dallin Art Museum • PLUS: Robbins Garden bronze sculptures • Boston • Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)/Boston • PLUS: Harbor Walk; Moakley Courthouse • Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • PLUS: Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston • PLUS: Back Bay Fens and Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace • Trinity Church • PLUS: Boston Public Library • Brockton • Fuller Craft Museum • PLUS: Buildings by H. H. Richardson in North Easton • Cambridge • Harvard Art Museum • Fogg Museum • PLUS: Corbusier’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts • Busch-Reisinger Museum • PLUS: Adolphus Busch Hall organ concerts • Arthur M. Sackler Museum • PLUS: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology • Canton • Milton Art Museum • PLUS: Forbes House Museum (Milton) • Clinton • Museum of Russian Icons • PLUS: National Plastics Center and Museum (Leominster) • Cotuit • Cahoon Museum of American Art • PLUS: Historical Society of Santuit and Cotuit • Dennis Cape Cod Museum of Art • PLUS: Rockwell Kent mural • Duxbury • Art Complex Museum • PLUS: John Alden House • Essex • Cogswell’s Grant • PLUS: Essex Shipbuilding Museum • Fitchburg • Fitchburg Art Museum • PLUS: Bulfinch Church in Lancaster • Framingham • Danforth Museum of Art • PLUS: N. C. Wyeth in the Needham Free Public Library • Gloucester Beauport (Sleeper-McCann House) • PLUS: Hammond Castle Museum • Cape Ann Museum • PLUS: Art-related sites on Cape Ann • Harvard • Fruitlands Museum • PLUS: Harvard Shaker Village Historic District • Ipswich • Ipswich Historical Society and Museums • PLUS: Arthur Wesley Dow walking tour • Lenox • Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio • PLUS: Morris Elementary School • Lincoln • DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park • PLUS: Walter Gropius House • Lowell • New England Quilt Museum • PLUS: Brush Art Gallery and Studios • Whistler House Museum of Art • PLUS: Lowell National Historical Park • Newton • McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College • PLUS: Bapst Library, Boston College • North Adams Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) • PLUS: Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography (Turners Falls) • Northampton • Smith College Museum of Art • PLUS: Campus Center • Pittsfield • Berkshire Museum • PLUS: Arrowhead, Herman Melville’s home • Provincetown • Provincetown Art Association and Museum • PLUS: The Mayflower Compact; Unitarian Universalist Meeting House • Salem • Peabody Essex Museum • PLUS: McIntire Historic District, Chestnut Street • South Hadley • Mount Holyoke College Art Museum • PLUS: Wistariahurst and Mt. Holyoke • Springfield • Springfield Museums • George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum • Museum of Fine Arts • PLUS: Two courthouses • Stockbridge • Chesterwood, the Studio of Daniel Chester French • PLUS: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church • Norman Rockwell Museum • PLUS: Naumkeag • Waltham • Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University • PLUS: Stonehurst, the Robert Treat Paine Estate • Wellesley • Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College • PLUS: Elm Bank Horticultural Center • Williamstown • Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute • PLUS: Williamstown Theatre • Williams College Museum of Art • PLUS: River Bend Farm • Winchester • Griffin Museum of Photography • PLUS: Richardson Library in Woburn • Worcester Higgins Armory Museum • PLUS: Tower Hill Botanic Garden (Boylston) • Worcester Art Museum • PLUS: American Antiquarian Society • NEW HAMPSHIRE • Cornish • Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site • PLUS: Glory: Robert Shaw and the Fifty-fourth Regiment • Hanover • Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College • PLUS: Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts • Manchester • Currier Museum of Art • PLUS: Zimmerman House by Frank Lloyd Wright • VERMONT • Bennington Bennington Museum • PLUS: Old Bennington and Robert Frost Gravesite • Burlington • Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont • PLUS: Billings Student Center by H. H. Richardson • Manchester • Southern Vermont Arts Center • PLUS: Equinox hiking trails • Middlebury • Middlebury College Museum of Art • PLUS: Campus sculpture • Montpelier • T.W. Wood Gallery and Arts Center, Vermont College • PLUS: Athenwood and the Thomas W. Wood Studio • Shelburne • Shelburne Museum • PLUS: Shelburne Farms • St. Johnsbury • St. Johnsbury Athenaeum and Art Gallery • PLUS: Town Architecture • Windsor • Cornish Colony Museum • PLUS: Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge • Woodstock • Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park • PLUS: Billings Farm & Museum; Woodstock • MAINE • Bangor • University of Maine Museum of Art • PLUS: Hudson Museum, Orono Campus • Brunswick • Bowdoin College Museum of Art • PLUS: Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum • Lewiston • Bates College Museum of Art • PLUS: Lewiston Public Library • Ogunquit • Ogunquit Museum of American Art • PLUS: Marginal Walk • Portland • Portland Museum of Art • PLUS: The Art Gallery at the University of New England (Westbrook College Campus) • Rockland • Farnsworth Museum and Wyeth Center • PLUS: Olson House • Waterville • Colby College Museum of Art • PLUS: Skowhegan Lecture Archive • Resources • Index • Color plates follow page 174