)
Calendar of Events
Programs take place in the museum unless otherwise specified. Click here for public tour registration.
Highlights Tours | Thursdays–Sundays, 12:30 & 2pm
Family Tour: Eyes on Art | Every Second Saturday, 12:15pm
Meet outside 600 Main Street entrance
When the great orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass first came to Hartford in 1843, he inspired his listeners with a frank condemnation of slavery and its supporters. The city was already a center of Black resistance, uniting enslaved and free people in bold, defiant acts against the vast immoral system. Join this interactive tour led by Steve Thornton from The Shoeleather History Project, beginning at the museum and stopping at the very places Douglass and his local contemporaries struggled for liberation and full equality. The tour will last no longer than 90 minutes and is limited to twenty participants. Walking distance is approximately one-half mile and includes eight stops between 600 and 942 Main Street. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email invitation and registration link.
Join The Amistad Center for Art & Culture and the Wadsworth for Juneteenth Family Day. Gather with us outdoors for festivities, including a sing-along with Miles Wilson-Toliver, a performance by Hartford’s Proud Drill, Drum, and Dance Corp, live music from Nekita Waller and DJ Ch’Varda, crafting with Jacqueline Bright, African drumming and storytelling by Our Culture is Beautiful, and Anne Cubberly’s famous giant puppets. In case of inclement weather, activities will take place inside the museum. Free admission.
Juneteenth—the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States—is a recognition of June 19, 1865, when the enslaved in Galveston, Texas, first learned of their freedom, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Juneteenth Family Day is generously supported by The Hartford. Program supplies are generously donated by S&S Worldwide. This event is in collaboration with the Wadsworth Atheneum and in partnership with the City of Hartford. We acknowledge the permission of the Trustees of the Ella Burr McManus Trust for the use of the Alfred E. Burr Memorial.