Calendar of Events

Join a docent for a tour of the special exhibition Warhol & Mapplethorpe: Guise & Dolls.

Free with museum admission. Meet by the Museum Shop.

Join a docent for a tour of the special exhibition Warhol & Mapplethorpe: Guise & Dolls.

Free with museum admission. Meet by the Museum Shop.

Join The Costume & Textile Society of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art for a lecture and jewelry trunk show with Andrew Prince, expert artisan and creator of select jewelry pieces for the hit PBS series Downton Abbey and The Young Victoria. Jewelry worn by members of the Downton Abbey cast will be on display. A cash bar will be available.

Lecture | 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Trunk Show | 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Advance-sale tickets are $15 each, and are available online only through Tuesday, March 29. The remaining tickets will be available at the door on Thursday, March 31 for $20 each, beginning at 5 pm.

PLEASE NOTE: The museum’s Avery Door entrance (along Atheneum Square North, across from Travelers Tower) is currently closed to accommodate construction on Travelers Plaza. Please enter the museum through the doors at 600 Main Street. Click here for directions and more information.

Museum members are invited to enjoy a complimentary continental breakfast in the Museum Café, followed by a tour of Gothic to Goth: Romantic Era Fashion & Its Legacy with Lynne Bassett, costume and textile historian and guest curator. Gothic to Goth is the first exhibition to fully explore the Romantic Era as a formative period in costume history, featuring the presentation historic garments alongside literary works, paintings, prints, and decorative arts.

Museum members only. Reservations are required; please call (860) 838-4171. Not a member? Join or renew today!

PLEASE NOTE: The museum’s Avery Door entrance (along Atheneum Square North, across from Travelers Tower) is currently closed to accommodate construction on Travelers Plaza. Please enter the museum through the doors at 600 Main Street. Click here for directions and more information.

Art Talk
American Gothic

5 pm | Public Reception & Gothic to Goth Exhibition Viewing
6 pm | Talk

What did it mean to be “Gothic” in the Romantic Era? How did this manifest itself in America more broadly and Hartford specifically? Lynne Bassett, guest curator of Gothic to Goth: Romantic Era Fashion & Its Legacy, explores perceptions of the Gothic and its links to history, religion, nature, imagination, and behavior, in a talk that places a transcontinental movement in local perspective. Free and open to the public.

Art Talk
Dark Glamour

5:30 pm | Public Reception & Gothic to Goth Exhibition Viewing
6:30 pm | Talk

Dr. Valerie Steele, author of Gothic: Dark Glamour and director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), will speak about Gothic themes in high fashion and in sub cultural style, charting their relationship with art, film, literature, and music. Free and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by The Costume & Textile Society of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and The Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation.

Gallery Talk
Literary Fashions

Join Cornelia Pearsall, professor and chair of the English department at Smith College, for a literary journey through the exhibition Gothic to Goth: Romantic Era Fashion & Its Legacy, exploring how literature shaped emotional and aesthetic sensibilities in the nineteenth century. Free with museum admission. Meet by the Museum Shop.

Followed by a free screening of Possession at 1:30 pm.

Walking Talk
Gothic Revival Architecture in Hartford
Rain Date: July 8

Join Jared Edwards, principal architect at Smith Edwards McCoy Architects, for a walking excursion to study three significant Gothic Revival examples in Hartford’s architecture. Beginning with the façade of the Wadsworth Atheneum (Town & Davis, 1842), the group will walk to the Church of the Good Shepherd (Edward Tuckerman Potter, 1869) and its Caldwell Colt Parish House (Edward Tuckerman Potter, 1896). Free with museum admission. Meet by the Museum Shop.

Image: E. B. & E. C. Kellogg, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., 1845, Hand-colored lithograph, Gift of James Junius Goodwin, 1935.434

First Night Hartford will be kicking things off a day early with a tribute to famed jazz bassist and educator at the Hartt School, Nat Reeves. $25.

Ticket includes: slideshow, music, reception, and button (this year’s ticket) to First Night 2020.

6:00 PM: Doors open
7:00-9:00 PM: Tribute Band, Discussion with Nat, and the Nat Reeves Quintet

Stop into the Wadsworth for an afternoon of art making during First Night Hartford. Learn how artists use shapes, colors, and texture to create a mood and communicate feelings through their work. Express yourself by creating a New Year’s Day party mask that lets everyone know how you’re feeling. Have fun wearing your festive mask around the city as you enjoy other First Night Hartford activities.

Free with First Night Hartford button. For additional information and tickets visit firstnighthartford.org.

Please note the museum is only open on December 31 for First Night activities. Enter at 600 Main Street.