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Calendar of Events
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.
Glass is a medium full of magic and possibility, championed by artists who are innovating through techniques, materials, and personal inspirations. Follow Brandy Culp, curator of Fired Up: Glass Today, as she sheds light on the ways contemporary glass artists are pushing boundaries, forging new paths, and encouraging viewers to take a closer look at the art form. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop
Artist Stephanie Syjuco uses photography as a means of reframing the museum collection and exploring America’s colonial history in her MATRIX exhibition. Syjuco will discuss her process of working with the museum’s registration, photography, and conservation departments, bringing to light the complexities of collection stewardship and the role art plays in shaping our view of history. Join us in the galleries before the program for a first look at the exhibition. Free with required reservation.
5pm gallery viewing, 6pm artist talk
From the dustbin of American design, Amber Cowan creates glass sculptures that tell stories of self-discovery, escapism, and loneliness. Come meet this internationally acclaimed glass artist and see how she uses recycled, upcycled, and second-life American pressed glass to create her diorama-style sculptures through various techniques such as flameworking, hot-sculpting, and glassblowing. Free with required reservation.
5pm gallery viewing, 6pm artist talk
This program is sponsored by the Trinity College Fine Arts Department (James and Isabelle English Endowment).
American artist James McNeill Whistler divided his time between Paris and London throughout his career. In the autumn of 1861, he spent three months on the coast of northern France to recover from illness. While there, he painted his first ever seascape, Alone with the Tide, which he later renamed The Coast of Brittany. Listen in as curator Erin Monroe, Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, and Director Dr. Matthew Hargraves explore the meaning and story behind Whistler’s powerful composition. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.
In MATRIX 190, Stephanie Syjuco turns to incorporates imagery of nineteenth–century works from the Wadsworth’s American art collection as a lens to explore how art and museums shape our view of history. Join curators Erin Monroe and Jared Quinton as they discuss the shifting narratives around these grand portraits, idealized landscapes, and dramatic history paintings, including John Vanderlyn’s The Murder of Jane McCrea (1804). Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.
The Wadsworth cares for a large costume and textile collection spanning centuries of construction and representing cultures from around the globe. Join Ned Lazaro, the Wadsworth’s new associate curator of costume and textiles, for an in-depth exploration of two mid-nineteenth-century costumes on view. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.
Robert Wiesenberger, curator of contemporary projects at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., responds to Matt Paweski / MATRIX 191, drawing on his own critical and curatorial interest in the intersection of modern and contemporary art, design, and architecture. Wiesenberger discusses how Paweski’s sculptural work both aligns and breaks with tradition, and makes connections with the Wadsworth’s collection, buildings, and histories. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.