Calendar of Events

Learn how historic imagery informed the story brought to life on stage in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning musical Hamilton. Explore Hamilton: The Art of Remaking History with curator Brandy Culp as she takes a fresh look at the past through art and artifacts relating to the era and examines the ways we continue to reevaluate our nation’s history. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.

Join Towson University’s art and culinary historian Nancy Siegel for a discussion exploring the connections between food, drink, and politics during the American Revolution. Sample sweet treats from the era to declare the winner of the ultimate Federalist versus Republican cake duel. Tickets are limited, registration required. $25; $10 members.

Explore Naama Tsabar’s immersive installation with curator Patricia Hickson as she illuminates Tsabar’s feminist and political approach to artmaking. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop. 

Catalan painter Francisco Ribalta vividly captured religious images at the turn of the seventeenth century, positioning himself as one of the major figures of the early Baroque. Paintings conservator Allen Kosanovich examines an in-process treatment of Ribalta’s The Ecstasy of Saint Francis: The Vision of the Musical Angel (c. 1620–1625), discussing how these efforts address the results of four hundred years of aging and numerous restoration attempts. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.

Explore how Naama Tsabar creates objects that function both as artworks and musical instruments. Design a musical instrument of your own and watch a presentation by our friends at the Connecticut Science Center as they unravel the mysteries behind sound. Enjoy a dance performance from Spectrum in Motion. Find the Ice Cream for a Dream truck for free ice cream while supplies last. Admission is free noon-2pm on Second Saturdays.

This program is sold out. Join decorative arts curators Brandy Culp and Linda Roth as they consider the complex history of punch and the ways silver and rum were entangled in the eighteenth century. Sample rum from Bloomfield’s Waypoint Spirits distillery and preview the historic objects in the museum’s new Silver Vault that were used to serve this complicated beverage. $15; $10 Members/students with ID. Must be age 21 to attend. 

Join composer, sound artist, and museum educator Adam Lenz for an inside look at artworks in the Wadsworth’s collection that engage with music, sound, and auditory histories. The talk will end in Naama Tsabar / MATRIX 189 where visitors will have a chance to experience a large-scale sound installation. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop. 

English silversmith Isaac Dighton fashioned silver objects for London’s well-to-do at the end of the seventeenth century, including an ornately decorated punch bowl housed in the Wadsworth’s collection. Objects conservator Casey Mallinckrodt and conservation assistant Kat Sarris discuss the steps taken to prepare the Wadsworth’s silver collection for the new Silver Vault installation and the processes involved in helping Dighton’s punch bowl shine for the occasion. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.

Preview  our new Silver Vault and discover how artisans transformed the material into innovative drinking vessels and other decorative artworks. Watch while master silversmith Stephen P. Smithers demonstrates colonial American silversmithing techniques. Afterward, design your own tabletop décor using silver wire. Find the Ice Cream for a Dream truck, parked outside the museum from noon–2pm, for free ice cream while supplies last. Admission is free from noon-2pm on Second Saturdays. 

Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 6) performances are canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.  Ticket purchases will be refunded automatically. Ticket-holders may present their original email confirmation for complementary same-day admission.

Tsabar’s Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 6) performances are realized in a landscape of smashed guitars. The shattered remains evoke the destructive actions popularized in male-dominated rock and roll, but here they become instruments of communal performance that offer a feminist narrative. Join Tsabar and an ensemble of women and gender non-conforming performers from across the region as they activate Tsabar’s installation through site-specific performance. Free with admission. Masks are required for visitors attending this performance. Musicians not required to wear a mask. Tickets are limited, reservations required.