Calendar of Events

Second Saturdays for Families is virtual this month. Click here for a digital activity pack celebrating Black heritage and culture!
Although in-person Second Saturdays activities will not take place, museum admission will still be free all day.
Second Saturdays for Families is supported by the Ensworth Charitable Foundation, the Newman’s Own Foundation, and the Charles Nelson Robinson Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee. Program supplies are generously donated by S&S Worldwide.

In-person tickets are SOLD OUT. Click here to register for the live stream via Zoom.
Join Edith Devaney, managing director and curator for David Hockney Inc. and the David Hockney Foundation and the organizing curator of the retrospective exhibition Milton Avery, as she sheds light on the trajectory of Milton Avery’s career and his place in American modern art. Devaney will explore the artist’s sophisticated and profound understanding of color. Free and open to the public. 5–6pm Exhibition viewing, 6pm Lecture
This lecture is generously sponsored by the Docent Council of the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Celebrate Women’s History Month at the Wadsworth! Get to know works in the collection produced by women artists on a docent-guided tour. Create a mixed-media card alongside textile artist Ed Johnetta Miller and design a booklet recognizing powerful women and their stories with painter Amanda Mendoza. Museum admission is free all day. Family-friendly tours take place at 12:15 & 1:30pm. At 1pm, visit The Amistad Center for Art & Culture for an interactive storytelling performance inspired by the current exhibition Changing Lanes: Mobility in Connecticut.
Second Saturdays for Families is supported by the Ensworth Charitable Foundation, the Newman’s Own Foundation, and the Charles Nelson Robinson Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee. Program supplies are generously donated by S&S Worldwide.

5pm gallery viewing & reception
6:30pm conversation
The American artist Tony Smith occupies an important place in the history of twentieth-century art and design. Best known for his large-scale sculptures—inventive polygonal forms made of steel, most painted black—Smith left behind a body of work that continues to defy easy classification and whose fertile breadth is yet to be fully explored.
The Wadsworth Atheneum’s decisive role in the development of Tony Smith’s artistic career serves as the historical context for a conversation between the art historian and curator James Voorhies and artists Tom Burr and Torkwase Dyson who, in separate bodies of work, have referenced Smith’s art and the modernist ideologies out of which it evolved. Matrix: On the Art of Tom Burr, Torkwase Dyson, and Tony Smith will inaugurate a new series of nomadic programs called “In Dialogue,” presented by the Tony Smith Foundation, which is committed to placing the legacy of the artist in context and in conversation with the contemporary arts.
Join us in the galleries before the event to view a selection of works by Tony Smith and the collection of abstract expressionist paintings donated to the Wadsworth by the artist in 1967. Free and open to the public with required registration. Learn more about our theater vaccination requirements.
Presented in partnership with the Tony Smith Foundation.

The works of Nevine Mahmoud (MATRIX 188) and Pipilotti Rist (MATRIX 136) converge in their feminist approaches to examining gender, sexuality, and the body through the lens of contemporary media culture. Drop in on Mahmoud and Rist as they discuss their respective practices, gravitation towards rigorous mediums, and blending of humor and intimacy in their work.

Learn how artists use the elements of art to catch your attention. Create alongside illustrator Bonnie Rose Sullivan to design a superhero cape with an eye-catching focal point. Enjoy a performance by violinist Dongbin Shin. Be sure to grab a free copy of Susan Mangiero’s book The Big Squeeze: Hugs & Inspirations for Every Grown-Up Who Loves Teddy Bears. While supplies last. Admission is free all day on Second Saturdays.

5-6pm Gallery Viewing
6pm Artist Talk – In museum
Sculpture, installation, and performance intersect with sound in the works of artist Naama Tsabar. Listen in as Tsabar explores her approach to creating interactive sound sculptures and learn about her process for building site-specific performances with local communities of women and gender non-conforming performers. Free with required registration.

The Wadsworth is pleased to host the season finale performance of the Arazzo Music Festival, a new initiative building community through musical performances here in Connecticut. Join Connecticut cellist and festival director Samuel DeCaprio as he performs an evening of string music in Morgan Great Hall with musicians from across the region. The program centers around Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s String Sextet in D minor “Souvenir de Florence”, Op. 70 (1890). Free with required registration.