Beginning Thursday, Jan. 5, Mystic Seaport will begin its winter hours and exhibit schedule. For visitors, this means that the North Entrance of the property becomes the focal point, highlighting our new Thompson Exhibition Building and the now complete McGraw Gallery Quadrangle.
Hours will be Thursday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (the grounds close at 5 p.m.). The entrance to the Museum will be through the Thompson Exhibition Building. Parts of the village and the shipyard will be closed during this period, but with two strong, compelling exhibitions, SeaChange in the Thompson Exhibition Building and “Voyaging in the Wake of the Whalers” in the Stillman Building, visitors can enjoy both outdoor and indoor activities. The Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaleship in the world, will be open to board and explore and the Benjamin F. Packard Ship’s Cabin has been recreated from original pieces on the second floor of the Stillman building.
Home Port in the P.R. Mallory Building will offer family activities all day and the Children’s Museum will have story time every afternoon. The Buckingham-Hall House will have daily hearth cooking and other life skills demonstrations.
The Treworgy Planetarium shows are included in museum admission during the winter schedule, which ends Monday, Feb. 20. There are two shows, “Winter Stars and the Mariner” (11 a.m. Sat. and Sun. and 2 p.m. Thurs.-Sun.), and a new show, “Polar Night, Arctic Light” (3 p.m. Thurs.-Sun.). In “Winter Stars and the Mariner” you will learn the constellations of the winter sky and how mariners used the stars to navigate at sea. In “Polar Night, Arctic Light”, learn about the time of year when there is no daylight at the Arctic Circle, and how the Inuit Native Americans used the constellations.
Schaefer’s Spouter Tavern will be open for lunch and visitors may browse the Museum shops at the south entrance and in the Thompson Building, or view the fine art for sale in the Maritime Gallery.
