Known as the birthplace of American Impressionism, Connecticut is a haven for art enthusiasts. Connecticut’s pastoral countryside and rural villages lured American Impressionist painters at the turn of the 20th century. Artists flocked to the state to paint en plein air, forming colonies at the Holley House in the Cos Cob neighborhood of Greenwich (now the Bush-Holley Historic Site) and Florence Griswold’s boarding house in Old Lyme (now the Florence Griswold Museum).
Groups can take advantage of the state’s plethora of art via the Connecticut Art Trail (www.arttrail.org), a self-guided trail that connects 15 museums and historic sites across the state.
“We started as the Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail, but expanded several years ago,” says Sandy Betner, director of what is now the Connecticut Art Trail. “It left off important museums, so the group decided to broaden the scope to focus on the best art in the state.”
The trail’s website indicates which restaurants and hotels are in the area of each museum. Visitors can travel from museum to museum, spend the night and visit other area attractions.
“We market the trail as part of a travel experience,” Betner says. “We have a group planner who can set up the whole tour for them—schedule the transportation, accommodations, meals and tickets to museums. Some do it on their own.”
Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (860.278.2670; www.wadsworthatheneum.org) is one of the state’s most prominent museums, thanks to its world-class collection of fine and decorative arts. The museum’s collections include Old Master paintings, modernist masterpieces, 19th century French and Impressionist paintings, American furniture and decorative arts, and contemporary art.
Groups can host receptions for up to 200 in the Morgan Great Hall, where art masterpieces hang below the two-story vaulted ceiling and balconies. There is also space for up to 350 in Avery Court, which features works by contemporary masters and a central fountain.
Mystic Country’s Florence Griswold Museum (860.434.5542; www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org) includes major works by Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman and Willard Metcalf.
The museum can accommodate corporate events for up to 150. Large parties can be held outdoors under a tent on the Adrian P. Moore Garden Terrace overlooking the Lieutenant River. Corporate meetings of up to 40 can be held in the Hartman Education Center, while the first floor of Marshfield House at the Krieble Gallery can host up to 100 for cocktails.
In Richfield, close to Danbury, the Aldridge Contemporary Museum of Art (203.438.4519; www.aldrichart.org) spans 25,000 square feet and features flexible galleries, including a screening room, a sound gallery, a 22-foot-high project space, a 100-seat performance space, an art education center and a redesigned two-acre outdoor exhibition space, The Cornish Family Sculpture Garden. The museum can host receptions both outdoors and inside.
The Yale Center for British Art (203.432.2800; www.ycba.yale.edu) in New Haven houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the U.K. The collection includes paintings‚ sculpture‚ drawings‚ prints‚ rare books and manuscripts that date from the Elizabethan period onward. The facility is also open to groups.
