Celebrate The Last Green Valley’s Walktober with a walk-through and discussion around our exhibition Exploring America at 250.
Join Curator of Education, Matthew Marshall for a walk-through of the exhibition Encounters with the Collection: Exploring America at 250. The exhibition draws on the museum’s holdings of American art to think broadly about how the very word “American” can be defined: as an identity, a place, and an idea.
Highlights include landscapes and cityscapes by Ansel Adams, Martin Johnson Heade, and Richard Misrach; representations of President Abraham Lincoln across different media; and a salon-style wall of portraits from the 18th century to the present. Also featured are recent additions to the collection by Valerie Hegarty, Jeffrey Gibson, and Sarah Sense.
This presentation of key works from the Benton’s collection will encourage dialogue about American art, culture, and identity. Visitors are encouraged to think about the ideas and ideals that shaped America at its founding while also exploring how they resonate in America today and for the future.
FREE
Register at the website link below.
5pm gallery viewing | 6pm lecture followed by book signing
Grant B. Romer, a leading authority on early photography and former director of the Photograph Conservation Department at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, discusses the breadth of outdoor views captured by daguerreotypists offers insight into mid-19th-century America. Join us before the lecture to view The Scenic Daguerreotype in America 1840–1860. Reservations encouraged.
Free. Registration encouraged.
Presented in partnership with the Daguerreian Society with additional support provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Fund.
5pm gallery viewing | 6pm lecture
Contemporary Seneca artist Marie Watt discusses her creative process and artwork that explores the intersection of history, community, and storytelling.
Marie Watt (she/her, b. 1967, Seattle, WA) is a member of the Turtle Clan of the Seneca Nation of Indians whose work draws on images and ideas from Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) protofeminism and Indigenous teachings. Her practice is interdisciplinary, incorporating printmaking, painting, textiles, and sculpture. Watt conducts both solo and collaborative projects, but in all of them she explores how history, community, and storytelling intersect. Watt holds an MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University; she also has degrees from Willamette University and the Institute of American Indian Arts; and in 2016 she was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from Willamette University. Selected collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, the Crystal Bridges Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and National Museum of American Art, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Watt is represented by PDX Contemporary Art in Portland, OR; Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, CA; and Marc Straus in New York, NY.
Free. Registration encouraged.
Presented with support from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and with additional support provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Fund at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Oliver Tostmann, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art, and Erin Monroe, Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, share highlights from the museum’s new installation Inventing the Modern: Art 1890-1970, exploring the development of modern art as a complex phenomenon evolving across decades, styles, and continents. Meet outside the Museum Shop.
Free with admission. Registration required.
Everyone is welcome to attend the opening reception for the newest exhibition at the Housatonic Museum of Art, “Ink and Impressions: 110 Years of the Society of American Graphic Artists.” Meet many of the artists participating in this anniversary celebration while enjoying appetizers and drinks.
The Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) celebrates its 110th anniversary by showcasing the diversity and daring of its members’ art making. The 90th annual members exhibition features 160 hand-pulled prints representing a broad range of techniques and subjects, created by SAGA artists from across the country.
This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP: https://bit.ly/saga-opening-rsvp
Saturday, October 4 | 7 to 9 pm
Member: $300; VIP: $650; General Admission: $350
The Aldrich is thrilled to share that our signature biennial benefit, Aldrich Undercover, will take place on Saturday, October 4 from 7 to 9 pm. This lively “secret” art sale—featuring work by artists who have exhibited at the Museum whose identity is only revealed after a work of art has been purchased—raises critical funds that directly support The Aldrich’s mission to serve as a leading incubator for artists at critical creative junctures, providing a collaborative platform that engages and inspires.
More than 85 artists will contribute 9 x 12-inch original artworks priced at $550 each and sold anonymously. All guests will enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. VIP ticketholders receive special priority access to the sale for a limited time.
All proceeds benefit The Aldrich’s dynamic exhibitions and education programs. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Museum depends on the generous support of friends like you.
Saturday, August 23 | 10:30 to 11:30 am
$30 per family (up to 5 people); Pre-registration required
Sensory Saturday is a program designed for children (ages 4-12) with developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, those on the autism spectrum and their family members.
The program includes exploration in the galleries in a relaxed environment and the discovery of contemporary art through touch, sound, and movement. In The Studio, participants will engage in a hands-on art-making project inspired by the current exhibitions.
Saturday, August 9 | 10:30 to 11:30 am
$22 per person, plus one care partner free of charge; Pre-registration required
Join us for Care and Connection, an access program designed to provide a welcoming and engaging museum experience for visitors living with memory loss, and their care partners.
Access Specialist Holly Lapine will facilitate a meaningful conversation with all participants inspired by the artwork on view in the Museum’s galleries, with memories and personal connections taking center stage.
Saturday, July 19 | 3 to 5 pm
Free
Join us for an outdoor conversation between artists Martin Beck and Elle Pérez, moderated by The Aldrich’s Associate Curator, Eduardo Andres Alfonso. Taking place in the Museum’s newly renovated Sculpture Garden—weather permitting—this talk will explore the intersection of each artist’s practice and dives into the current exhibition, Martin Beck: … for hours, days, or weeks at a time, on view until October 5, 2025.
Martin Beck is known for his research-driven installations and projects that examine the social, political, and material conditions of exhibition-making and display. Elle Pérez’s intimate photographs center on queer identity, vulnerability, and the quiet power of everyday moments, often blurring the line between portraiture and personal narrative.
Enjoy drinks and coffee by Ursa Roastery in the Sculpture Garden from 3 to 5 pm, with a cash bar and conversation that begins at 3:30 pm. The talk will include an audience Q&A—an invitation to listen, reflect, and connect.
Free admission!
Visit the Museum for FREE the third Saturday of every month as part of our Third Saturdays program.
Participate in a Story Time at 10:30 am, a Discovery Tour of Nickola Pottinger: fos born, Zak Prekop: Durations, Martin Beck: … for hours, days, or weeks at a time, and Aldrich Projects | Julia Bland: Woven in the Reeds at 1 pm, and drop-in to The Studio for art-making activities.