Art Museum Tour New England Spring 2017
 

We a couple of museum tourists (h & w in 70s) and are trying to put together a visit to the New England states to take in various art museums along with quaint NE culture and architecture. We have taken in the Boston area extensively (except New Haven) and have a week to 10 days. Does someone already have a list?

Have you been to Salem? My absolute favorite is Peabody Essex!

Start with the book "Art Museums Plus: Cultural Excursions in New England."

I was fortunate enough to have had a job that took me all over New England to visit museums, libraries, and cultural institutions, and there are dozens of them out there.

Here are a very few that I love, leaving out the obvious like the MFA.

Connecticut
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
Wesleyan College Museum, Middletown
Griswold Museum, East Lyme

Massachusetts
Clark Institute Williamstown MA,
Williams College Museum of Art
Deerfield Village
Worcester Museum of Art
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton
Addison Gallery, Philips Andover School, Andover, MA

Rhode Island
RISD Museum
Museum of American Illustration, Newport

New Hampshire
St Gaudens Historical Site, Cornish
Currier Museum of Art, Concord (and Frank Lloyd Wright House)

Maine
Portland Museum of Art
Bowdoin Museum of Art, Brunswick
Farnsworth Museum, Rockland

This only scratches the surface.

Mass MOCA

Here are some more, in Vermont:

Burlington:
Fleming Museum

Shelburne:
Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Farms

Manchester:
Hildene, home of Robert Todd Lincoln

Middlebury:
Middlebury College Art Museum
Vermont Folk Life Museum

Saint Johnsbury:
Fairbanks Museum

Ferrisburgh:
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
Rokeby, Underground Railroad Museum

Montpelier:
Vermont History Museum

Of EYW's list, only the Shelburne Museum, Fleming, Middlebury College Art Museum, and Vermont Folk Life Museum are actually art museums. The first of these is wonderful, the second okay, the other two not so much.

Ack and 330east's recommendations are excellent.

For VT, add the Bennington Museum, Southern Vermont Arts Center (Manchester), University of Vermont Art Museum (Burlington), and the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum (St. Johnsbury).

For CT, add the Yale Museum of Art and Yale Center for British Art (both New Haven), and Lyman Allyn (New London).

For ME, add the Ogunquit Art Museum (Ogunquit).

For RI, add the Newport Art Museum.

For MA, assuming one already knows about the MFA in Boston, add the Gardner Museum (Boston), Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park (Lincoln), Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield), Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge), Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Cape Cod Museum of Art (Dennis), the art museums at Harvard (Cambridge), and those at Smith College (Northampton), Mt. Holyoke College (South Hadley), and Amherst College (Amherst). The Quad museums in Springfield are just okay, as is the one at UMass Amherst.

The Hood Museum (Dartmouth College) in Hanover. Unfortunately the main museum is closed for a year or so for renovations, but there is a temporary space in Hanover.

A correction - the Currier is in Manchester NH.

My DD went to school in New London, as an art history major. She was very pleasantly surprised by the Pequot Museum that is at Foxwoods Casino.

http://www.pequotmuseum.org/default.aspx

Is the Brandeis art museum collection still as good as it used to be for a smallish museum?

Also, many cities in and around Boston now have yearly Open Studio weekends in certain neighborhoods (depending on time of year, but usually the same weekend each year), where artists open their home studio or loft studio/professional space (often a converted warehouse) to visitors. Great way to get an idea of the current art scene.

OUTSTANDING! WOW! We hit the mother lode. Many thanks. We can surely fill 7 to 10 days in a circle from/to Boston. What an amazing response. We are so appreciative. We hope to string together some of the historic hotels as we work on our culture quotient... Merci beaucoup. This just we hoped to accomplish on the Forum. Kudos to all.

Also excellent suggestion from marvelousmouse, and thanks to zootsi for mentioning the Hood (forgot to list it). Plus the Fleming is the Univ of VT art museum -- forgot to remove it from list, my bad.

For CT add the Hillstead Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Mystic Seaport, The Custom House in New London.

Also Chesterwood in Stockbridge, MA. Home of Daniel Chester French, sculptor of Lincoln in Lincoln Memorial.

This is the kind of response, both from us and from the OP, that makes me put up with all the ego and ignorance on the Fodor forums.

Let's hear it for us!

I am going to edit this list, print it out, and keep it in the glove compartment with fuller versions on my iPad.

And thanks for the correction on the Currier. I knew that; it's just what my senior mind retrieved!

We now have enough "art" to do several trips. What excellent information? It is definitely a keeper. Fodorites should be proud of its ability to combine efforts to come up with something so valuable and useful!! Hear! Hear!! with appreciation and thanks for your sharing ...

We have indeed been to Salem and will return to the Peabody. What a resource? We have missed the museums in Cambridge (!note New Haven) in Boston and will include those places.

We recently had an "Art Adventure" in Philadelphia to take in the "art sights" and wonder it if would be appropriate to "do" a trip report. We stayed a week and essentially focused on art museums and places, with, of course, a hotel and dining. Is there a guideline for a "trip report" somewhere?

Yes, a trip report would be welcome. All you have to do is create a topic like you did but down below select the trip report option. It's also a good idea to have the phrase "Trip report" in the subject heading somewhere.

Well, you've gotten some lists from Fodorite people who know. My question is what do you want to besides or instead of suggested museums. Many small and large like MFA, Peabody Essex, Ogunquit, etc. We've seen and enjoyed many, but a few mentioned here we will keep in mind.

A few additional ideas: The Mill Museum run by Nat'l Pk Service in Lowell, MA, Olde Strawberry Bank Museum at Portsmouth (recreated Colonial village), Plimoth Plantation (www.plimoth.org) Norman Rockwell Museum in Rockbridge, maybe even Harvard Campus student tours (though I'm a Yalie), Mystic Seaport in E. Conn (already mentioned I see).

Many thanks for the exhaustive lists... now we will cross match them w/ some historic hotels and start with a BIG map. Many thanks.