Center for Contemporary Printmaking · Norwalk, CT
Perspectives: Celebrating 250 Years of Democracy
Revolutionary Prints: Boston Printmakers Celebrate America
September 13 – November 8, 2026
Exhibition
The Boston Printmakers present a non-juried exhibition marking 250 years since American independence. New prints by members reflect on the nation’s past, interrogate its present, and imagine its future through the historically resonant medium of printmaking. Rooted in New England’s pivotal role in the nation’s founding, the show spans relief, intaglio, lithography, screen printing, monotype, digital, and experimental processes.
Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
Artists’ Reception: Sunday, September 13, 2026 · 2–4 pm
Website coming soon
Mattatuck Museum · Waterbury, CT
About Face: 250 Years of American Portraits
April 27 – September 14, 2026
Exhibition
Exploring American history through the images and experiences of diverse Americans, About Face challenges the role of portraiture in asserting identity, navigating citizenship, and expressing belonging. Featuring portraits from 250 years of American life, the exhibition speaks to portraiture as a mode of artistic, political, and cultural expression.
144 West Main Street, Waterbury, CT 06702
Link coming soon
Mattatuck Museum · Waterbury, CT
Lunch and Learn: The Sons of Liberty in Connecticut
April 2026
Program
Historian Dayne E. Rugh explores how local networks organized protest, fostered civic action, and influenced the path to independence—grounding the story of the Sons of Liberty in Connecticut’s regional history. Enjoy your lunch while connecting with the people and places that shaped our state’s past.
William Benton Museum of Art · Storrs, CT
Encounters with the Collection: Exploring America at 250
August 26, 2025 – July 26, 2026
Exhibition
Free Admission
Key works from the Benton’s holdings of American art prompt dialogue about culture and identity from the 18th century to the present. Themes of identity, place, and ideals are viewed through the lens of being American. A second chapter, Reframing America at 250, opens September 1, 2026.
Connecticut’s State Art Museum · 245 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT
Housatonic Museum of Art
Making His Mark in Connecticut: The Creative Process of F. Luis Mora
2026
Exhibition
Featuring never-before-seen preparatory drawings, this exhibition tells the origin story of the first Hispanic member of the National Academy of Design—a Uruguayan-born artist who settled in Gaylordsville, CT. A deeply personal exploration of immigrant identity, creative legacy, and American belonging.
More details coming soon
Fairfield University Art Museum · Fairfield, CT
Three Exhibitions: A Year-Long Exploration of American Identity
2025–2026 Academic Year
Exhibition Series
Three thematically linked exhibitions with extensive complementary programming explore American identity, history, and civic life across the full academic year.
Hartford Art School · Hartford, CT
America: The Third Century — An Artistic Time Capsule
All of 2026
Exhibition
Free & Accessible
Five prints from America: The Third Century—commissioned by Mobil in 1975 and gifted to Hartford Art School in 1981—are on exhibit at the Taub Hall Atrium. The edition of 200 features 13 artists including William Bailey, Christo, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, and Ed Ruscha. Open and free to the public for all of 2026.
Taub Hall Atrium, Hartford Art School
MoCA CT · Westport, CT
Looking for History: Rick Shaefer, Ellen Harvey, and Michael Borders
June 25 – November 15, 2026
Exhibition
Marking the nation’s 250th anniversary, MoCA CT gives three artists their own gallery on rotating schedules. Rick Shaefer’s Colossi presents monumental landscape drawings dominated by a wall that eventually encircles the globe, asking whether we are walling in or walling out. Ellen Harvey’s The Disappointed Tourist paints places that no longer exist, submitted by people in more than 40 countries, including sites named by local residents. Michael Borders’ Connecticut Industry is a 10-by-40-foot mural, one panel per county, tracing 350 years of the state’s industrial history.
Rick Shaefer, Colossi: June 25 – November 15
Ellen Harvey, The Disappointed Tourist: June 25 – August 2
Michael Borders, Connecticut Industry: August 13 – November 15
19 Newtown Turnpike, Westport, CT 06880
Onera Foundation · New Canaan, CT
America Abroad: Art, Architecture, and Diplomacy – Works from the FAPE Collection
July 1 – December 31, 2026
Exhibition
Free Admission
A replica of the 1823 William J. Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence, one of the copies gifted by David M. Rubenstein for display in US embassies worldwide, anchors this look at how America presents itself abroad. Drawn from the FAPE collection, the exhibition opens rare public access to embassy artworks by Carmen Herrera, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Julie Mehretu, Robert Rauschenberg, and Carrie Mae Weems, alongside a section tracing embassy architecture from Walter Gropius and Edward Durell Stone to SOM and KieranTimberlake.
Curatorial Tour: 45 minutes with co-curator and Executive Director Laurence Lafforgue. Registration required.
63 Park Street, New Canaan, CT 06840
