Mystic Museum of Art (MMoA) presents the inaugural exhibition of
its exhibition year on the theme of Migration, investigating the complex experiences of
leaving a home or homeland—deciding what is essential to take and what to leave
behind. One World Project: Art, Culture, and Children’s Literature from Around the World
explores the ways that culture is conveyed over time and distance in colorful, formative,
children’s stories. By combining the One World outreach project with the exhibition
program, MMoA can share with its visitors the journey of young artists as they join a
global conversation about how we can live together and flourish. The exhibition opens
to the public on Friday, January 31 and will run through Sunday, March 9.
The annual One World Project outreach program enriches public school curriculum with
the study of art and cultures from around the world. The project is designed to engage
students in finding creative new pathways to community with individuals from widely
diverse backgrounds.
Starting in the Museum’s KTJ Studios in September 2024, 16 middle school students
from Bennie Dover Jackson Multi-Magnet School Campus in New London considered
more than 30 classic children’s stories, spanning many eras and continents. With MMoA
art educators Jeff Crew and Carol Mann, Lead Outreach Teacher Meredith Andrews, and
Director of Education, Lavanya Shubhakar, they discussed how stories reflect their
cultures, and how they may be carried to new places and new communities as a
treasure from home.
Each student then selected one story to represent in three dimensions. They
experimented with different materials and techniques to create key scenes and
characters.
The student artists realized that their stories share common themes of wit, resilience,
and learning, and explanations of the world around them. The exhibition features the
students’ artwork, their thoughts and processes, and the students themselves, as artists.
MMoA is deeply grateful to the following for making this inaugural project possible:
• CT Office of the Arts
• CT Humanities
• The Kitching Family Foundation
Step into the studio life of architectural photographer James Florio.
Florio is Grace Farms’ Artist-in-Residence, visiting throughout the seasons to build a body of work composed on large format film. Encounter Florio’s creative process in the Grace Farms Library, which will temporarily transform to display his photography, along with curated, tactile elements representing his Montana studio.
Large format film removes barriers between the viewer and image to capture the world as it is: simple yet complex, imperfect but beautiful. During his residency, Florio explores how the River building—with glass walls that remove barriers between people and nature—transforms with the landscape across the seasons.
About James Florio
James Florio is a Montana-based photographer focused on the built environment and the life surrounding it. He works slowly whenever possible, visiting a place repeatedly to gain a greater understanding of it and to deliver a thoughtful and profound interpretation. Using the camera as a means to investigate, understand, and document, he prefers to work with large format film for its depth and deliberation. In 2022, he was awarded the Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award.
His work is featured in various publications and books, including the MAS Context book, Radical Logic, On the Work of Ensamble Studio, the two upcoming books, FOG and Thirtysix Views of Inverted Portal, the Divisare Book set, Structures of Landscape-James Florio, Gio Ponti in the American West, Kengo Kuma: Portland Japanese Garden, National Geographic Traveler, Domus, Architectural Record, Modern in Denver, and others.
You are invited to an Opening Reception for three new exhibitions: Minnie Negoro: From Heart Mountain to UConn, and Digital Media and Design Faculty Exhibition
Light hors d’oeuvres and cash bar
Everyone is welcome
FREE admission. (Suggested donation $5)
RSVP Appreciated but not required.
As the Connecticut Art Trail celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025, we’re thrilled to be doing so with 30 member sites! The Trail is bigger than ever, welcoming the Glass House as a full member and Grace Farms as an affiliate member. With a whole new year ahead of us, it’s a great time to pick up our new Passport-Journal — still just $35 — and explore these amazing destinations in the months ahead.
Read our latest newsletter to learn about the latest news and events on the Connecticut Art Trail, including:
- A distinctive award for the chief curator at the Mattatuck Museum
- The Hartford Dance Collective becoming artists in residence at the New Britain Museum of American Art
- A call for “Recycled Runway” designers from the American Mural Project
- Family programming at Connecticut Art Trail museums, including Joy in the Making at the Florence Griswold Museum, Storytime for Kids at The Aldrich Museum Contemporary Art Museum, and Recess Art Camps at MoCA CT.
- A profile of the latest Connecticut Art Trail member site, The Glass House in New Canaan.
This exhibition explores Tonalism in the United States from the 1880s to the early 20th century, through artists from the Northeast such as George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, and John Francis Murphy. Tonalism is a transitional movement that grew out of and reacted to the Hudson River School of painting and laid the groundwork for modernism. Evocative landscapes, evoking a spiritual connection to the natural world, often painted from memory, are the primary genre of this movement. The more than fifty artworks in this exhibition are drawn from private and institutional collections.
The conversation will be livestreamed on The Quick Live.
Image: Bruce Crane, Sunset, ca. 1890, oil on canvas. Private Collection, Connecticut
This exhibition explores Tonalism in the United States from the 1880s to the early 20th century, through artists from the Northeast such as George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, and John Francis Murphy. Tonalism is a transitional movement that grew out of and reacted to the Hudson River School of painting and laid the groundwork for modernism. Evocative landscapes, evoking a spiritual connection to the natural world, often painted from memory, are the primary genre of this movement. The more than fifty artworks in this exhibition are drawn from private and institutional collections.
Image: Bruce Crane, Sunset, ca. 1890, oil on canvas. Private Collection, Connecticut
2025 marks the double centenary of the birth of American artist George Inness (1825-1894), one of the premier landscape painters of the 19th century. Art historian Adrienne Bell, author of the 2015 George Inness and the Visionary Landscape, will discuss Inness’ relationship to the Tonalism movement on Tuesday, January 21 at 5 p.m. in the Diffley Board Room in Bellarmine Hall. A painting by Inness that has not been publicly exhibited in over 70 years, on loan from the Milton Klein Collection at the Bridgeport Public Library is one of the earliest works in the exhibition Dawn & Dusk: Tonalism in Connecticut,
About the Exhibition: This exhibition explores Tonalism in the United States from the 1880s to the early 20th century, through artists from the Northeast such as George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, and John Francis Murphy. Tonalism is a transitional movement that grew out of and reacted to the Hudson River School of painting and laid the groundwork for modernism. Evocative landscapes, evoking a spiritual connection to the natural world, often painted from memory, are the primary genre of this movement. The more than fifty artworks in this exhibition are drawn from private and institutional collections.
The event will also be livestreamed on The Quick Live. Click here to register for a reminder.
George Inness, Durham, Connecticut, 1879, oil on wood panel. Lent by The Milton Klein Collection, Bridgeport Public Library
2025 marks the double centenary of the birth of American artist George Inness (1825-1894), one of the premier landscape painters of the 19th century. Art historian Adrienne Bell, author of the 2015 George Inness and the Visionary Landscape, will discuss Inness’ relationship to the Tonalism movement on Tuesday, January 21 at 5 p.m. in the Diffley Board Room in Bellarmine Hall. A painting by Inness that has not been publicly exhibited in over 70 years, on loan from the Milton Klein Collection at the Bridgeport Public Library is one of the earliest works in the exhibition Dawn & Dusk: Tonalism in Connecticut,
About the Exhibition: This exhibition explores Tonalism in the United States from the 1880s to the early 20th century, through artists from the Northeast such as George Inness, John Henry Twachtman, and John Francis Murphy. Tonalism is a transitional movement that grew out of and reacted to the Hudson River School of painting and laid the groundwork for modernism. Evocative landscapes, evoking a spiritual connection to the natural world, often painted from memory, are the primary genre of this movement. The more than fifty artworks in this exhibition are drawn from private and institutional collections.
The event will be livestreamed on The Quick Live.
George Inness, Durham, Connecticut, 1879, oil on wood panel. Lent by The Milton Klein Collection, Bridgeport Public Library
About the Exhibition: Environmental threats and climate change are urgent matters of concern at Jesuit universities, where conversations on this topic often take place in reference to two documents by Pope Francis: Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home (2015) and the 2023 update Laudate Deum. Artists play an indispensable role in our collective response to climate change. To See This Place: Awakening to Our Common Home, curated by Al Miner and David Brinker, will present work by Athena LaTocha, Mary Mattingly, and Tyler Rai, three contemporary artists whose outlook resonates with the themes of Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum. Embodying a breadth of personal, geographic, and cultural backgrounds, the three artists create works strongly associated with a sense of place, whether specific or imaginary. They employ media as diverse as photography, sculpture, video, and painting, and often incorporate materials sourced from particular locales. Yet the artists draw forth broader themes from this particularity, critiquing political and economic systems that perpetuate destructive self-interest and drawing attention to people who have been marginalized and historically excluded or harmed. The works are artistically compelling yet can inspire us to creativity and boldness in our efforts to address climate change. This exhibition will open at Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art in Fall 2025.
This event forms part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation. The conversation will also be livestreamed on The Quick Live. Click here to register for a reminder.
Image: Mary Mattingly, Saltwater, 2022, chromogenic dye coupler print. © Mary Mattingly, courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery
About the Exhibition: Environmental threats and climate change are urgent matters of concern at Jesuit universities, where conversations on this topic often take place in reference to two documents by Pope Francis: Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home (2015) and the 2023 update Laudate Deum. Artists play an indispensable role in our collective response to climate change. To See This Place: Awakening to Our Common Home, curated by Al Miner and David Brinker, will present work by Athena LaTocha, Mary Mattingly, and Tyler Rai, three contemporary artists whose outlook resonates with the themes of Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum. Embodying a breadth of personal, geographic, and cultural backgrounds, the three artists create works strongly associated with a sense of place, whether specific or imaginary. They employ media as diverse as photography, sculpture, video, and painting, and often incorporate materials sourced from particular locales. Yet the artists draw forth broader themes from this particularity, critiquing political and economic systems that perpetuate destructive self-interest and drawing attention to people who have been marginalized and historically excluded or harmed. The works are artistically compelling yet can inspire us to creativity and boldness in our efforts to address climate change. This exhibition will open at Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art in Fall 2025.
This event forms part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation. The conversation will also be livestreamed on The Quick Live.
Image: Mary Mattingly, Saltwater, 2022, chromogenic dye coupler print. © Mary Mattingly, courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery