The Springfield Museums’ monthly tour and lecture schedule returns in September with the popular Thursday Museums à la Carte lectures, held weekly at 12:15 p.m. 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:
- Sept 4 – Norman Rockwell’s World: Tradition and Nostalgia in Twentieth Century American Art. Guy McLain, director of the Wood Museum of Springfield History, examines the significance of the drawings in the current exhibit and places them in the context of Rockwell’s career.
- Sept 11 – Money, Museums & Masterpieces. Richard Muhlberger, former director of the Springfield Art Museums, former Head of the Education Department at the Worcester Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of the Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Muhlberger will discuss the history of collecting art and of museums, and meeting Andy Warhol – or thinking he did.
- Sept 18 – Sweethearts at Sea: Love and Marriage in the Nineteenth Century New England Whaling Industry. Amanda Goodheart Parks, Ph.D. Candidate, UMassAmherst, details how a group of whaling couples defied whaling industry traditions and society’s expectations by going to sea together.
- Sept 25 – The Intersection of Art & Music – Composers’ Inspiration & Context in this Season’s Classical Performances. Kevin Rhodes, Springfield Symphony Orchestra Music Director, discusses the relationships between music, literature and painting in the classical works featured in SSO’s upcoming season.
Also scheduled in September 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 September are:
- Sept 14 – Everett Barney: A Tale of Steel and Ice; Bobby Girard, Wood Museum of Springfield History.
- Sept 21 – Islamic Arts; Ellen Peck–Killoh, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum
- Sept 28 – American Art 1930: Three Artists, Three Paintings, Three Prints; Pat McCarthy, D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.
(No mini-tour on September 7)
Monthly Walking Tours are presented in collaboration with the Armoury-Quadrangle Civic Association (AQCA). On September 13, join Wayne Phaneuf, historian and Executive Editor of The Republican, for a tour highlighting Springfield’s many Civil War connections. Walking tours are free for Springfield Museums and AQCA members, $5 nonmembers, and start at the Museums’ Welcome Center.