The Springfield Museums’ lecture series Museums à la Carte continues its 45th anniversary season on Thursday, January 9, at 12:15 pm with a deep dive into the inspiration and process behind Tiffany Studios’ iconic Favrile glass with Lindsy R. Parrott, Executive Director and Curator of the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass. The lecture is a complement to Tiffany’s Gardens in Glass, a special exhibition currently on view at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.
Parrott will discuss how Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), together with designers, artists, and artisans who shared his passion for nature’s beauty, translated natural forms faithfully into glass windows and lamps: velvety or paper-thin petals, waxy or veined leaves, dappled sunlight or shadow, and much more. Parrott will present virtually from her office in New York. Attendees can tune in via Zoom or view her talk in the Museums’ Davis Auditorium.
During her twenty-year tenure at The Neustadt, Parrott has conducted ground-breaking research on the manufacture and use of Tiffany’s opalescent flat glass, which has been published in numerous journal articles and exhibition catalogues. Parrott has curated traveling exhibitions exploring a variety of Tiffany topics. She is a member of numerous professional glass and decorative arts organizations, and in 2014 was elected as a Fellow of the Corning Museum of Glass.
“This winter’s slate of lectures will continue to highlight new and interesting topics for our community,” says Emma Lewis, Museum School and Lecture Coordinator. “We are especially excited for lectures like Lindsy Parrott’s that will offer our audience new perspectives and insights into our exhibits.”
Lectures continue each Thursday at 12:15 pm. In-person tickets are available at the Museums’ Welcome Center on the day of the lecture; advance virtual registration at SpringfieldMuseums.org/programs. Admission to the lecture is free for Springfield Museums members; nonmembers are just $4—museum admission not required. For more information, call 413.263.6800, ext. 488.
Beginning in 1979 as “Art à la Carte” with just a few dozen attendees, Museums à la Carte has reached thousands of people over the years and expanded its reach beyond the walls of the Museums when it began offering lectures digitally via Zoom in 2020.
Full Museums a la Carte Schedule for Winter 2025
January 9 – An Exploration of Tiffany’s Gardens in Glass; Lindsy R. Parrott, Executive Director and Curator, The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass
January 16 – The Ladders Fish Climb; Caroline Appel, marine biologist and environmental educator
January 23 – Gilded Echoes: A Conversation with Artist Josh Simpson; Josh Simpson, glass artist
January 30 – The Mystery of Suffering in Art; Dr. Simon Sibelman, Professor Emeritus, French and Holocaust Studies, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
February 6 – Sweethearts at Sea: A Love Story from the Age of Whaling; Dr. Amanda Goodheart Parks, historian and educator
February 13 – Women of the Night Sky; Jenny Powers, director, Springfield Science Museum
February 27 – 1000 Hands of the Guru; documentary film, Tobias Reeuwijk, director, 66 minutes
March 6 – Tales from the Science Museum: A Taxidermist, an Oil Company, the World’s Fair & a T-Rex; Joel Cummings, science docent and planetarium instructor, Springfield Science Museum
March 13 – A Conversation with Scott Strong Hawk Foster and ‘the Why’ Behind His Work as an Indigenous Artist; Scott Strong Hawk Foster, photographer and artist
March 20 – Handed Down in Song: New England History & Culture; Band of Steady Habits March 27 – Designing Downtown: How Springfield Took Shape; Zoë Cheek, Curator of Library and Archives, Wood Museum of Springfield History
MassMutual is the season sponsor of the Springfield Museums.