The Springfield Museums’ monthly tour and lecture schedule continues in February with the popular Thursday Museums à la Carte lectures, held weekly at 12:15 pm in the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts. Admission is $4 ($2 for members of the Springfield Museums); visitors are invited to bring lunch (cookies and coffee are provided).

The programs are sponsored by Big Y World Class Market. For more information about Museums à la Carte, call 413.263.6800, ext. 488. This month’s lectures include:

• Feb. 6 – Paintings as Objects: Looking Beyond the Surface. Ulrich Birkmaier, Chief Conservator, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, discusses how the physical aspects of paintings affect how we read a work of art, often hundreds of years later.
• Feb. 13 – Sweethearts at Sea: Love and Marriage in the Nineteenth Century New England Whaling Industry. Amanda L. Goodheart, UMass Ph.D. Candidate, details how a group of whaling couples defied whaling industry traditions and society’s expectations by going to sea together.
• Feb. 27 – Introduction to the Tropical Rainforest. Frances Ryan of Horizon Productions presents a lecture and slideshow the fascinating variety of species which inhabit the various layers of this lush and productive eco-region.    

Note: No lecture on 2/20.

Also scheduled in February are informal half-hour “mini-tours” every Sunday at 1 pm by volunteer docent educators. The tours highlight a different element of the unique collections of one of the four museums, and are free with Museum admission (check with the Welcome Center staff or the Museums’ website for an updated schedule of mini-tours). Topics for February are:

• Feb. 2 – Japanese Influence in American Art in the late 19th Century by Dawn Whitney. D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.
• Feb. 9 – One Hundred Years of Jewish Life in the Valley: From Shtetl to Suburb.
• Peter Benjamin examines the struggles and triumphs of the region’s Jewish immigrants and their descendants. Wood Museum of Springfield History.
• Feb. 16 – Japanese Arms and Armor.  Richard O’Brien reviews weapons and armor in Japan from 1600 on.  George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum.
• Feb. 23 – Sentinels and Nomads: Imaginative Sculpture. Deena Maniscalchi explores the exhibition of whimsical sculptures created by New York–based artist Don Porcaro. D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts.