The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

We’re more than just the first public art institution in the United States. We were the first museum in America to begin collecting contemporary American art – resulting in our world renowned Hudson River School collection.  We staged the first retrospective of Pablo Picasso in America; we were the first museum to both exhibit and purchase works by Surrealist artists – today almost every exhibition about Surrealism includes works borrowed from our collection. We were the first art museum to also have a theater – and we were the first to show Gertrude Stein’s Four Saints & 3 Acts – which we also produced.

Learn more about our firsts, our history, our leadership and more using the links above.