The Springfield Museums’ monthly tour and lecture schedule continues in May with the popular Museums à la Carte lectures, which take place on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. in the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts. Admission is $4 ($2 for members of the Springfield Museums); visitors are invited to bring a bag lunch (cookies and coffee are provided). For more information about Museums à la Carte, call 413-263-6800, ext. 488. This month’s lectures are:
May 5 – Celebrating 100 Years of the National Parks: Beyond the Grand Canyon. Jack Megas, lecturer, tour planner & guide, provides an overview of our country’s network of federally-protected parks on this, the 100th anniversary of its establishment.
May 12 – The Grand Tour: George and Belle Smith Collect in Italy. Julia Courtney, Curator of Art Museums for the Springfield Museums, highlights the two-and-a-half years the Smiths lived in Venice and the striking paintings they collected which are now on display at the Museums.
May 19 – Blue-Eyed Doll: The Story Behind the Book. Deanna K. Klingel speaks on the inspiration for her new novel, which tells the story of the exchange of Friendship and Ambassador Dolls by American and Japanese children between 1927-1947.
May 26 – Hollywood: Wild West to Movie Mecca. Anne Barrett of A Brief History! historical lectures describes how Hollywood evolved from a barren landscape to a prosperous community and then to the “Tinseltown” of the modern era.
As part of the Museums’ members-only “Continuing Conversations” series, museum docents Betty Romer and Richard O’Brien will lead a guided gallery discussion at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum following the May 12 lecture, and docent John Howell will lead a post-lecture gallery discussion on May 26 at the Wood Museum of Springfield History.
Monthly Walking Tours are presented on second Saturdays in collaboration with the Armoury-Quadrangle Civic Association (AQCA). Walking tours are free for Springfield Museums and AQCA members, $5 nonmembers, and start at the Museums’ Welcome Center. On May 14, city planner Susan Heller will lead a tour titled “The Quadrangle.”