Museums & Attractions
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is undergoing an extensive expansion, due for completion in November. Features will include a new wing for the Art of the Americas collections and adjacent to it, a glass-enclosed courtyard that will link the visitor center in the current museum building with the new wing, which can be used for special events. The museum’s net square footage will increase from 483,446 to 616,937 square feet. The 121,307-square-foot wing will feature a central glass building flanked by two pavilions, one north and one south. For the first time since the museum’s founding in 1870, the art of all the Americas will be presented together. Approximately 5,000 works from the Art of the Americas collections will be on view spanning 53 galleries. Another feature of the new wing will be a 150-seat auditorium. In addition, there will be a new special exhibitions gallery, the Gund Gallery, measuring 8,280 square feet. For more information, call 617.267.9300.
Programs & Packages
- The Glen Cove Mansion Hotel and Conference Center, in Glen Cove, N.Y., is offering a Centennial Meeting Package in celebration of its 100th anniversary. The IACC-certified hotel and conference center sits on 55 wooded acres and offers 29,000 square feet of meeting space and 187 guest rooms. The package includes deluxe overnight accommodations; breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets; dedicated meeting space; an audiovisual package and sound package; wireless high-speed Internet access; 24-hour access to the executive business center; conference rooms set to the group’s specifications; continuous refreshment breaks; a dedicated conference planning manager; and all food and beverage gratuities. The package extends through 2010, the property’s centennial year. For those looking to add team bonding activities, the mansion offers many unique programs, including Wii tournaments and karaoke evenings in Pub 1910. For more information, call 516.671.6400.
- The Baltimore Marriott Waterfront is currently offering a free buffet lunch for meeting attendees for qualified events booked by June 30. Located on the edge of Baltimore’s historic Inner Harbor and steps from downtown, the hotel is a part of Baltimore’s newest neighborhood, Harbor East. The hotel features 80,000 square feet of meeting space and 35 meeting rooms, including a Grand Ballroom measuring 19,140 square feet. There are up to 41 breakout meeting rooms as well as exhibition space on-site. To qualify for the free buffet lunch offer, meeting events must include 325 overnight guest rooms on peak and a minimum two peak nights. The offer is valid for events held during the summer months of 2010, 2011 and 2012 and is good for new bookings only. For more information, call 410.385.3000.
Kudos
- Saybrook Point Inn & Spa, in Old Saybrook, Conn., recently launched a green meetings program. The program incorporates farm-to-chef sourced menus, recycling containers in meeting spaces and many other green meetings practices. The property can also provide a back-of-the-house tour of the inn’s environmentally sound operations, including its solar panels and chemical-free cooling tower, waste water disposal system, heat recovery components and organic lawn care systems. The property is the first full-service hotel in Connecticut to receive an Energy Star rating, awarded by the EPA, and one of the first hotels in the state to be certified as part of the Connecticut Green Lodging Program. For more information, call 860.395.2000 .