A Rainy March Day at Wadsworth
March can be a great time of year in Connecticut, or it can be cold and rainy. On one of those latter variety days, it’s great to still get out — how many shows can you actually stream on Netflix anyway? An awesome option is the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. It’s only a 30-minute walk or six-minute drive from Park Place, and your inner cultural side is longing to go.
Tell me more about the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Founded in 1842 with a vision of infusing art into the American experience, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is home to a collection of nearly 50,000 works of art, spanning 5,000 years and encompassing European art from antiquity to contemporary as well as American art from the 1600s through today.
And there’s this — The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is the oldest continuously-operating public art museum in the United States. How about that for little old Hartford?
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art was founded by Daniel Wadsworth, one of the first major American art patrons. Wadsworth originally planned to establish a “Gallery of Fine Arts,” but he was persuaded to create an atheneum, a term popular in the 19th century used to describe a cultural institution with a library, works of art and artifacts, devoted to learning history, literature, art, and science.
Highlights at Wadsworth
A trip to Wadsworth on any day is awesome, but it’s particularly welcome on a cold, dreary March day. Highlights include the Morgan collection of Greek and Roman antiquities and European decorative arts; world-renowned Baroque and Surrealist paintings; an unsurpassed collection of Hudson River School landscapes; European and American Impressionist paintings; Modernist masterpieces; the Serge Lifar collection of Ballets Russes drawings and costumes; the George A. Gay collection of prints; the Wallace Nutting collection of American colonial furniture and decorative arts; the Samuel Colt firearms collection; costumes and textiles; African American art and artifacts; and contemporary art.
Renewed in 2015
The Wadsworth Atheneum was showing its advanced age as the country’s oldest art museum, so in 2010 a major renovation was undertaken. This $33 million renovation was completed five years later. It renewed the museum’s historic structures and added 17 new gallery spaces to the building’s existing footprint for an improved visitor experience.
So, don’t just sit there with the remote in hand. Get out to the 175-year-old wonder that is the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. If you want to know more on the museum website, click here.
The Wadsworth is just another thing to love about the beauty of our location in Hartford and Park Place. If you have any questions about Park Place or leasing or anything else, please call us at (860) 951-3400.
