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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Only: Taryn Bunger, (860) 838-4081
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| Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
December 2015 Calendar |
The following programs are for your calendars and event listings. Please note: some programs require a separate fee; please include this information with any mentions of such programs. If you have any questions or would like to request a related publicity image, please contact Taryn Bunger, Communications & Marketing Coordinator, at (860) 838-4081 or
[email protected].
FEATURED EVENT
42nd Annual Festival of Trees & Traditions
Friday, Dec. 4 - Sunday, Dec. 13
Guests are invited to celebrate the holiday season at the 42nd Annual Festival of Trees & Traditions, featuring musical entertainment and festive family activities in the midst of decorative trees and wreaths created by community organizations and local artists.
Established in 1973 by the
Women's Committee of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art as a museum fundraising event, Festival of Trees & Traditions has become an annual holiday custom for visitors from throughout the state and beyond. Every year community members, artists and organizations decorate holiday trees and wreaths to be displayed in the galleries throughout the week. All items are for sale, and profits help fund the museum's special exhibitions, educational programs, and operating expenses. Visitors can purchase a tree or wreath for their home, or donate it to a local charity.
Tickets available at the door; $3 fundraising surcharge is added to all museum admissions from Dec. 4 - Dec. 13. Festival of Trees and Traditions is on view during regular museum hours; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is closed Monday, Dec. 7 and Tuesday, Dec. 8.
https://thewadsworth.org/festivaloftrees/
EVENTS
Thursday, Dec. 3, noon
Gallery Talk: "Miniature World in White Gold"
Vanessa Sigalas, Dangremond Research Fellow for European Art and Decorative Arts, gives an introduction to Johann Joachim Kaendler, a longtime Meissen porcelain modeler who revolutionized the craft in 18th century Europe.
https://thewadsworth.org/event/gallery-talk-miniature-world-in-white-gold/
Thursday, Dec. 3, 5-8 p.m.
First Thursday: "Night of Illumination"
Guests will preview decorations for the 42nd Annual Festival of Trees & Traditions. Seasonal music by DJ Jon Eastman; holiday art activity; tastings and treats from Hartford Flavor Company, NoRA Cupcake Company, Olde Burnside Brewing Company, Bear's Smokehouse and Healthy Source Catering. 8 p.m. screening of "White Christmas." $8/$3 for members.
Thursday, Dec. 3, 8 p.m.
Film: "White Christmas"
A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act, and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general. 1954. USA. 120 min. Not rated. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. Free with admission to First Thursday.
https://thewadsworth.org/event/holiday-classics-white-christmas/
Friday, Dec. 4, 8 p.m.
Concert: Hartford Gay Men's Chorus "Home for the Holidays"
The Hartford Gay Men's Chorus presents its annual holiday concert. Additional performance Saturday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. Tickets www.hartfordgaymenschorus.org.
https://thewadsworth.org/event/home-for-the-holidays/
Friday, Dec. 11, 8 p.m.
Performance: CONNetic Dance "The Nutcracker Suite & Spicy"
CONNetic Dance puts a contemporary twist on the holiday classic, featuring a fusion of tap, jazz, and hip hop. Additional performances Saturday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. Tickets www.conneticdance.com.
Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Second Saturdays: "Art Holiday"
Learn about world holiday traditions, and make ornaments inspired by the collections that celebrate Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Three Kings Day. Museum admission is free during Second Saturday activities.
Friday, Dec. 18, 7 p.m.
Performance: Hartford City Ballet "The Nutcracker Suite"
Hartford City Ballet performs its popular holiday classic. Additional performance Saturday, Dec. 19 at 4 p.m. Tickets
www.hartfordcityballet.org.
https://thewadsworth.org/event/the-nutcracker-suite/
Sunday, Dec. 20, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Jazz Brunch: Metro Jazz Band
Enjoy a brunch buffet while listening to live jazz by the Metro Jazz Band. Tickets are $35/$25 for members and include museum admission, jazz, brunch, and one complimentary bloody mary or mimosa. Two seatings, 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Reservations required, call (860) 838-4100 during museum hours.
https://thewadsworth.org/event/jazz-brunch-metro-jazz-band/
Sunday, Dec. 20, 2 p.m.
Film: "Christmas in Connecticut"
A food writer who has lied about being the perfect homemaker must try to cover her lies when her boss and a war hero invite themselves over for a family Christmas. 1945. USA. 102 min. Not rated. Directed by Peter Godfrey. Starring Barbara Stanwyck. Free.
https://thewadsworth.org/event/holiday-classics-christmas-in-connecticut/
Thursday, Dec. 24
Museum closes at 3 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 25
Museum closed.
Sunday, Dec. 27, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Jazz Brunch: Atla and Matt DeChamplain Trio
Enjoy a brunch buffet while listening to live jazz by the Atla and Matt DeChamplain Trio. Tickets are $35/$25 for members and include museum admission, jazz, brunch, and one complimentary bloody mary or mimosa. Two seatings, 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Reservations required, call (860) 838-4100 during museum hours.
https://thewadsworth.org/event/jazz-brunch-atla-and-matt-dechamplain-trio/
Sunday, Dec. 27, 2 p.m.
Film: "Little Women"
Louisa May Alcott's autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters in Concord, Massachusetts in the 1860's. 1933. USA. 115 min. Not rated. Directed by George Cukor. Starring Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett. Free.
TOURS
All tours are free with museum admission and meet at the Information Desk by the Museum Shop.
Highlights Tours
Wednesdays through Sundays, 1 p.m.
"Warhol & Mapplethorpe: Guise & Dolls" Tours
Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
EXHIBITIONS
"Warhol & Mapplethorpe: Guise & Dolls"
Oct. 17, 2015 - Jan. 24, 2016
Focusing on New York in the 1970s and early 80s, "Warhol & Mapplethorpe: Guise & Dolls" will explore this vibrant and tumultuous era of change through the work of Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe, both of whom created significant bodies of work in self-portraiture, in which particular disguises, characters and ambiguous personalities are evoked. The first dual museum exhibition to feature these two visionary artists, "Guise & Dolls" will include the artists' portraits of each other, self-portraits and a selection of iconic portraits of sitters that address role-playing and gender roles-masculinity, femininity and androgyny. The exhibition will showcase approximately 75 works of art including paintings, photographs, Polaroids, prints and video.
"Sound and Sense: Poetic Musings in American Art"
Nov. 14, 2015 - Apr. 17, 2016
"Sound and Sense: Poetic Musings in American Art" will explore the connections between American Poetry and painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. The exhibition presents a diverse landscape of masterpieces from the museum's collection that incorporate poetic inscriptions in their composition or have direct relationships to America's rich poetic traditions. Featuring art by Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, and Georgia O'Keeffe, and poetry by Herman Melville, Lydia Sigourney, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and William Carlos Williams, the exhibition will present new scholarship and an illustrated catalogue by Alyce Perry Englund, former Richard Koopman Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and current Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
European Paintings, Sculptures, and Decorative Arts
Permanent Installation
The grand finale of the museum's five-year, $33 million renovation is complete, and the stunning Beaux-Arts Morgan Memorial Building, built by financier J. Pierpont Morgan in honor of his father Junius, is open to the public. The Morgan Memorial Building boasts the first complete reinstallation of the European Art Collection in over 20 years, showcasing over one thousand world-class works of European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts. An immersive Cabinet of Art and Curiosities will feature remarkable 17th-century objects, many assembled by Morgan himself, combined with natural history specimens and other rarities.
Mark Dion/MATRIX 173
"The Wadsworth Atheneum's Great Chain of Being"
Oct. 1, 2015 - Jan. 3, 2016
New York artist Mark Dion attended Hartford Art School in the early 1980s and, as a young artist, found inspiration and delight in the Wadsworth Atheneum's collection. For his MATRIX project, Dion combines the museum's collection with his practice of investigating the intersection of art and the history of science, developing a hierarchical chain of living creatures to create a Wadsworth-specific version of "The Great Chain of Being" (based on Aristotle's ancient model) through details of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts found in the museum's collection.
Post-War & Contemporary Art
Permanent Installation
The museum's exquisitely restored Hilles and Huntington galleries feature never-before exhibited works along with steadfast favorites in the first complete reinstallation of the Contemporary Art collection in nearly 20 years.
CLOSING
Director's Choice
"Aspects of Portraiture: Photographs from the Wadsworth Atheneum"
July 11 - Dec. 13, 2015
"Aspects of Portraiture" addresses the various approaches to photographic portraiture taken by artists, ranging from classical pieces by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Timothy Greenfield Sanders, to symbolic portraits by Patti Smith and John Coplans, to those that tell stories by artists like Adrian Piper and Carrie Mae Weems. Organized by Wadsworth Atheneum Director and CEO Susan Talbott, this selection of nearly 50 works examines social history, identity and race, as well as nostalgia for the traditional portraits that once defined photography.
About the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Founded in 1842, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is the oldest public art museum in the United States. The museum's nearly 50,000 works of art span 5,000 years, from Greek and Roman antiquities to the first museum collection of American contemporary art. The museum's five connected buildings-representing architectural styles from Gothic Revival to modern International Style-are located at 600 Main Street in Hartford, Conn. The museum celebrated its Grand Reopening on Sept. 19, 2015, marking the completion of a 5-year, $33 million renovation. Hours: Wed - Fri: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sat and Sun: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; First Thursdays: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. Admission: $5 - 10; discounts for members, students and seniors. Phone: (860) 278-2670; website:
http://thewadsworth.org
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