Highlights
Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States and one of the jewels of Connecticut's art community. Founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth, the museum has a permanent collection of 45,000 works. In the mid-1800s, only the very wealthy purchased paintings or objects of art. The idea of sharing those treasures with the public raised Hartford's profile as a community and a mecca for artists. After Wadsworth's largess, the museum enjoyed large bequests from area notables including Elizabeth Hart Javis Colt, wife of the industrialist and noted gun manufacturer Samuel Colt, as well as international banker J. Pierpont Morgan. The collection includes many works coll...
Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States and one of the jewels of Connecticut's art community. Founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth, the museum has a permanent collection of 45,000 works. In the mid-1800s, only the very wealthy purchased paintings or objects of art. The idea of sharing those treasures with the public raised Hartford's profile as a community and a mecca for artists. After Wadsworth's largess, the museum enjoyed large bequests from area notables including Elizabeth Hart Javis Colt, wife of the industrialist and noted gun manufacturer Samuel Colt, as well as international banker J. Pierpont Morgan. The collection includes many works collected by Wadsworth from the Hudson River School of painting as well as notable works by European masters, -- Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Vincent van Gogh as well as priceless Meissen and Sevres porcelain, English silver and American furniture.The American Painting & Sculpture collection has more than 600 paintings, 200 sculptures, and 1,200 drawings and watercolors by approximately 400 artists. The Wadsworth has a rich tradition of firsts, leading the way in art collecting and embracing new art movements, especially under the direction of A. Everett "Chick" Austin Jr. beginning in 1927. For example, the first U.S. exhibition of Surrealism a school of art perhaps best marked by the works of Salvatore Dali, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and others was hosted at the Wadsworth in 1931. Three years later, the museum held the first American performance by George Balanchine's then-new ballet company, now New York City Ballet. Also in 1934, the museum mounted the first major Picasso retrospective in America and hosted the world premiere of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson's opera, Four Saints in Three Acts.In recent years, the Atheneum, like most museums in the country, has struggled with declining attendance in the past decade and subsequent financial difficulties.
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Travelers' Founder: Hartford's 19th-Century Renaissance Man
The Hartford CourantIn 1845, a young man from the marble district of the Litchfield Hills arrived in Hartford just as the city's new rail line helped trigger an industrial boom that, by 1870, made it one of the richest small cities in America. At age 22, James G....Tags: Arts, Republican Party, Bloomfield (Hartford, Connecticut), Windsor (Hartford, Connecticut), Abraham Lincoln
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Documentary About Gay Bishop Center Of Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
The Hartford CourantGene Robinson is the star of the centerpiece film in this year's Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. He would love to attend the screening, but he can't. "My day job keeps me kind of busy," Robinson jokes. Robinson's "day job" is the Episcopal...Tags: Same-Sex Marriage, Christopher Isherwood, Anglicanism, Comedy (genre), Berkshire International Incorporated
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Labyrinth of Sound: Theremin virtuoso Eric Ross creates music, just by waving his arms around
Eric and Mary Ross: Boulevard d'Reconstructie May 25, 8 p.m., $8-$15, Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St., Hartford, (860) 232-1006, realartways.org. It's the spooky solo instrument in every '50s sci-fi movie orchestra. It's the trippy, skyward warble in...
Tags: B.B. King, Arts, Music Industry, Science, Electronics
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'Still Revolutionary': $27 Million State Tourism Campaign Launched
The Hartford CourantThe new tourism slogan — "Connecticut: Still Revolutionary" — could boost history-related attractions, but it's also meant to remind residents and visitors that the state is a leader in the arts, science and engineering, and civil rights....Tags: Hartford Stage, Tourism and Leisure, Bridgeport (Fairfield, Connecticut), Essex (Middlesex, Connecticut), Modern Family (tv program)
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'Collective Memories' Exhibit At Amistad Center In Hartford
The Amistad Center for Arts & Culture, which is inside the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, has a new exhibit, "Collective Memories.' Catch this exhibit, and the one at the Twain House, "Hateful Things," and together they make a great lesson about the...
Tags: Arts, The Amistad
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'Collective Memories' At Amistad Center
The historical collection at the Amistad Center for Art & Culture was begun by Randolph Linsley Simpson, who collected, according to Olivia White, "anything with a black face on it": photos, newspapers, books, paintings, artifacts, etc. But White, the...
Tags: Arts, Slavery, Photography, The Amistad, Mark Twain
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Films Inspired By Andrew Wyeth At Wadsworth
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, which currently has an exhibit on display of work by Andrew Wyeth, this week is starting a film screening series of movies inspired by the great painter. Opening the series is "The Reflecting Skin," a 1991 film by Philip...
Tags: Arts, Movies, Drama (genre), Sigourney Weaver, Viggo Mortensen
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'Collective Memories' exhibition at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford
The first of two new exhibitions presented by the Amistad Center at the Wadsworth, Collective Memories explores societal concepts of race and culture — how they are created, distributed, and maintained historically — to help folks understand...
Tags: Arts, The Amistad
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Spring Tag Sales, Flea Markets, Book Sales
The Hartford CourantConnecticut becomes a bargain central on Saturday, when towns, churches and organizations hold spring tag sales and flea markets and libraries hold book sales. In Pomfret, maps of participating tag sale locations go on sale for $1 at 7 a.m. at Pomfret...Tags: Arts, Windham County, Windham (Windham, Connecticut), Marlborough, FedEx Corporation
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Angels Restore Hartford's George Washington Painting
The Hartford CourantSchool carpenters were awaiting the arrival of the father of our country on Thursday morning at Hartford Public High School, and talk turned to hardware. After years of collecting donations and calling in favors, alumni alliances and anonymous donors,...Tags: Arts, Mark Twain, New Haven (New Haven, Connecticut), Gilbert Stuart, Schools
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Best Opening Reception
1) Real Art Ways Creative Cocktail Hour, held on the third Thursday of the month from 6 to 10 p.m., is approaching its 10th anniversary as a mainstay of Hartford nightlife. Spirited receptions pair an art opening (and cash bar) with live music or a DJ,...
Tags: Real Art Ways, West Hartford
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Best Museum
1) Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art With Robin Jaffee Frank as the new head curator, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is poised to continue and extend its impressive legacy as one of the country’s greatest art institutions. The Atheneum has...
Tags: New Britain Museum of American Art, Arts, Hudson River, Artists, Museums
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