Mystic, Conn. (January 28, 2020) — Mystic Seaport Museum will hold its annual Ice Festival, February 15-17. The event will be three days of winter activities in conjunction with the exhibition J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, now on display in the Museum’s Collins Gallery.
Families are invited to enjoy games, activities, music, and entertainment throughout the Museum’s grounds:
In conjunction with the Turner exhibition, there will be daily screenings of the feature film Mr. Turner and periods of piano music in the gallery on Sunday and Monday. The exhibition ends it run at the Museum on Sunday, February 23.
New to the festival this year is “Resonances Boreales,”a live piano performance by Canadian musician Roman Zavada set to a stunning 360-degree video of the Northern Lights projected onto the dome of the Planetarium. There will be daytime and evening performances. Daytime performances are 30 minutes long and will occur at 1 and 3 p.m. all three days of the festival. Tickets are $3 for members and $5 for non-members and can be purchased at the Planetarium starting at 10 a.m. on the day of the show.
The evening shows are 60-minute performances beginning at 7 p.m. on February 14-16. Tickets for these after-hours events are $8 for members and $10 for non-members (General admission not required for the evening shows and tickets can be purchased in advance).
General admission tickets will be valid for all three days of the Ice Festival.
For more information, please visit mysticseaport.org/icefestival.
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that currently features J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, the most comprehensive exhibition of Turner watercolors ever displayed in the U.S. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Mystic, Conn. (January 7, 2020) — In conjunction with the exhibition J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, now on display on the Museum’s Collins Gallery, Mystic Seaport Museum is hosting “Tea with Turner,” a weekly lecture series that features a lineup of prominent speakers who will explore the iconic artist’s world, including his travels, techniques, and the time in which he lived.
The “Tea with Turner” series runs every Tuesday from January 14 to February 11.
Tea and lectures will take place in the dining room at Latitude 41° Restaurant at the Museum. A traditional British afternoon tea will be served at 3:30 p.m. The talks begin at 4 p.m. Participants are encouraged to view the show beforehand (same-day admission is included for non-Museum members).
January 14: Turner’s Inhabited Landscapes
Alexis Goodin, curatorial research associate at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, will explore the significance of the human figure in Turner’s landscapes. More than markers of scale, Turner’s figures contribute to compelling narratives that reveal social, cultural, and political concerns of Turner’s day. Goodin will discuss works in the exhibition as well as paintings in the Clark collection that reveal how Turner’s figures enrich and complicate his landscape paintings. Goodin recently curated the exhibition Turner and Constable: The Inhabited Landscape (2018-2019) and authored the accompanying booklet, Turner and Constable at the Clark (2018).
January 21: Turner and Switzerland
Constance McPhee, curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will explore Turner’s repeated visits to Switzerland, focusing on four seminal trips that he made to the area around Lucerne in the 1840s. Switzerland’s terrain and history were central to Turner’s artistic imagination, and its mountains and lakes offered him life-long inspiration. Using The Metropolitan Museum’s The Lake of Zug, 1843 as a touchstone, this talk will consider how the artist’s travel sketches offer fascinating windows into his process and supported masterful finished watercolors now regarded as highpoints of British art.
January 28: Why Turner?
Artist Ellen Harvey, who contributed to Mystic Seaport Museum’s recently published book Conversations with Turner, in connection with the current exhibition, will be discussing her own work, its relationship to J.M.W. Turner, and why she considers Turner’s work to be relevant to many issues we face today. Harvey is a British-born artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She is a 2016 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in the Visual Arts and a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program. Her new project, Ellen Harvey and J.M.W. Turner: The Disappointed Tourist, will be opening at Turner Contemporary in the UK in the summer of 2020.
February 4: Turner and Industry
Glenn Adamson, senior scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, is a historian and curator specializing in craft and design. He will offer thoughts on Turner’s work in the context of the industrial revolution. Turner lived during one of the greatest periods of transformation in history, one with certain parallels to our own. His paintings sometimes captured the awe-inspiring power but also the trauma of these shifts.
February 11: From Mystic to New York: A Close Look at the Frick Turners with Susan Grace Galassi
After examining J.M.W. Turner’s watercolors of the 1820s on view in the Mystic Seaport Museum exhibition, Galassi will shift the subject to New York City to look in depth at two of the artist’s masterpieces in oil from the mid-1820s, both centerpieces of The Frick Collection’s West Gallery. These luminous harbors of Dieppe and Cologne reveal Turner’s preoccupation with Continental subjects following Napoleon’s defeat and the lifting of travel bans. They also showcase the artist’s technical experimentation in which he brought qualities of the watercolor medium into oil paint, arousing the ire of critics and leading to a turning point in his art. Susan Grace Galassi is curator emerita of The Frick Collection. In 2017, she was co-curator with Ian Warrell and Joanna Sheers Seidenstein of Turner’s Modern and Ancient Ports: Passages Through Time.
Tea with Turner Tickets
Afternoon tea will be served at 3:30 p.m. Talks begin at 4 p.m. Both events take place in the Latitude 41° Restaurant Dining Room at Mystic Seaport Museum.
Members: $30 per lecture, or $135 for all 5 lectures
Non-members: $35 per lecture, or $160 for all 5 lectures (includes same-day Museum admission)
Tickets can be purchased by calling 860.572.5331 or purchased online at https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/tea-with-turner/
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that currently features J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, the most comprehensive exhibition of Turner watercolors ever displayed in the U.S. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Mystic Seaport Museum is exploring the possibility of adding electric propulsion to its steamboat Sabino with the installation of an electric motor and battery bank. The boat’s boiler and its original steam engine would remain in the vessel and operational. The addition of electric power would enable the vessel to operate under steam or electricity and vastly expand its capacity to provide public cruises on the Mystic River.
“In order to keep Sabino running on the Mystic River, we have determined that the highest and best solution for the vessel, both as a National Historic Landmark and as a beloved presence on the Mystic River, is to add an alternative means of propulsion to augment its historic steam power plant,” says Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum.
The plan calls for state-of-the-art, batteries, motors, and controls to be installed in parallel with the existing boiler and steam plant. The Museum will retain the ability to run Sabino under steam, but add the capability to run on electric power.
The 1908-built excursion vessel Sabino has been a fixture at Mystic Seaport Museum and on the Mystic River since its arrival in 1973. Built in Maine as a passenger ferry on the Damariscotta and Kennebec Rivers, the boat served in that capacity for nearly two decades and later as a ferry in Casco Bay. It is powered by the same duplex reciprocating steam engine that was original equipment in 1908. In fact, the engine was manufactured downriver from Mystic in nearby Noank. With its nearly silent steam propulsion, a cruise down the Mystic River on Sabino is a connection to the past when small steamboats filled the nation’s coasts and harbors. The boat was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
In partnership with a team of marine engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, the Museum determined that an electric system could be installed in such a way as to fully maintain the historic operational integrity of the vessel’s original steam power plant. Sabino would continue to operate the steam plant for demonstrations and special events, but operate under electric power for daily passenger cruises. The electric motor would quietly drive the vessel’s original shaft. Batteries would be recharged overnight and between trips. Importantly, this system would provide a smoke- and soot-free operation, greatly reducing the vessel’s environmental impact in terms of carbon emissions. Other benefits include a return to a seven-day per week schedule, and reduced crewing, maintenance, and coaling expenses.
The historic status of Sabino is paramount to the Museum. The historic fabric of the boat will not be altered and the installation of the electric system would be entirely reversible.
“The expectation is the addition of electric propulsion will enable us to increase the boat’s daily passenger capacity and provide more people with the opportunity to get out on the water and enjoy a cruise on the Mystic River on a National Landmark,” says White.
On December 25, 1929, Edward E. Bradley, an industrialist; Carl C. Cutler, a lawyer; and Dr. Charles K. Stillman, a physician; signed the papers incorporating the Marine Historical Association, today known as Mystic Seaport Museum. Their dream: create a dynamic, educational institution to preserve America’s maritime culture–and turn the achievements of a past era into an inspirational force for the future.
Cutler was writing what would become a seminal book on American clipper ships, Greyhounds of the Sea. As he traveled the East Coast doing research, he was appalled to discover how many maritime artifacts were being destroyed. He enlisted Stillman, who happened to be the grandson of local shipbuilder Clark Greenman, and Bradley to collect historical material. They incorporated the Marine Historical Association and began recruiting members and collecting maritime artifacts.
The association was gifted the buildings formerly belonging to the Mystic Manufacturing Company in 1931, turning its brick buildings into exhibit halls. That year, Dr. Stillman gave the Museum its first boat, the sandbagger racing sloop Annie, so that visitors could learn confidence, courage, and skill on the water. After Stillman and Bradley died in 1938, Cutler led the efforts to acquire and save the last surviving whaleship, the Charles W. Morgan. It arrived in November 1941, was placed in a sand berth, and opened for visitors in June 1942. Plans to build a representative seaport began in 1943, with the Shipsmith Shop the first to arrive in 1944.
The training ship Joseph Conrad joined the fleet in 1947 as part of the Mariner Training Program, and with the arrival of the coasting schooner Australia in 1951 and the schooner yacht Brilliant in 1952, the sail-training program expanded. More buildings were installed along the waterfront street, and in 1955, “activists”—now called interpreters—began to work in the exhibits.
In 1947, the Mystic Seaport Museum established a small library to hold its published books and manuscripts, which later serve as the center for the graduate-level Frank C. Munson Memorial Institute of American Maritime History after it was founded in 1955. The expanded G. W. Blunt White Library opened in 1965 and is now housed in the Collections Research Center.
To keep up with the demands of its wooden fleet, Mystic Seaport built the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard in 1973 at the site of the historic Charles Mallory Shipyard. The first major task was to restore the Morgan, an ongoing program that had begun years earlier and included significant structural work. The Morgan was removed from its sand berth in 1974 and hauled out on the Shipyard’s lift dock.
In the 1980s, the Mystic Seaport Museum built new bulkheads to stabilize the waterfront and acquired the Rosenfeld Collection of maritime photography, which numbers close to one million images. Mystic Seaport constructed the Freedom Schooner Amistad in 1998–2000 and opened the Collections Research Center in 2001 to house one of the largest maritime collections available for research in the United States.
The Morgan returned to the Museum’s Shipyard for restoration in 2008 and was relaunched in 2013. The ship embarked on a historic 38th Voyage in 2014—sailing for the first time since 1921.
The Museum then expanded its exhibition space, building the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle in 2015 and adding the Thompson Exhibition Building in 2016. These additions focus the Museum’s formal exhibits at the north end of the complex, providing year-round learning opportunities for visitors.
Mystic Seaport Museum is now 90 years old. We do not know what the next 10 years will bring, but if the journey so far is any indication, great things are in store when we celebrate 100 years in 2029.
Mystic, Conn. (December 17, 2019) — Stephen C. White announced today he plans to retire as President and CEO of Mystic Seaport Museum. White, who has served as President and CEO since 2009, will continue in that role until his successor has been named.
“I’m honored to have worked alongside the talented, passionate, and dedicated staff and volunteers who every day strive to inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience,” says White. “I came here with the goal of guiding the institution to reimagine the interchange between maritime heritage and broader contemporary culture. I’m proud of all we have achieved in the last decade and that the Museum is poised to achieve more great things as it enters its 90th year in 2020.”
Under White’s leadership, the Museum strengthened its role as a leader in America’s maritime heritage community while simultaneously adapting to new visions of what a museum must be in the 21st century. It restored and sailed the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan on its 38th Voyage in 2014. The north end of the campus was reconfigured into the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle, a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the Museum’s indoor exhibition spaces, which included the construction of the award-winning Thompson Exhibition Building. The Museum is poised to conclude funding of its $6-million Era of Exhibitions campaign. The campaign was launched in 2017 to fund exhibitions of world-class quality, innovation, and scholarship such as the present show J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, the most comprehensive collection of Turner watercolors ever displayed in this country.
White served as the president of the International Congress of Maritime Museums from 2015 to 2019, and Gov. Dannel Malloy named White Connecticut’s Tourism Leader of the Year in 2015.
“Steve’s impact on Mystic Seaport Museum is best seen in the strong sense of community he fostered, both inside the Museum and in its external relationships with the world at large,” says Michael S. Hudner, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “We are grateful for his steady, confident leadership and for the zeal and imagination with which he advanced the Museum’s mission.”
The Board of Trustees of Mystic Seaport Museum will establish a search committee headed by former Board chairman Barclay Collins in January 2020 to find White’s successor.
Mystic, Conn. (December 17, 2019) — Stephen C. White announced today he plans to retire as President and CEO of Mystic Seaport Museum. White, who has served as President and CEO since 2009, will continue in that role until his successor has been named.
“I’m honored to have worked alongside the talented, passionate, and dedicated staff and volunteers who every day strive to inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience,” says White. “I came here with the goal of guiding the institution to reimagine the interchange between maritime heritage and broader contemporary culture. I’m proud of all we have achieved in the last decade and that the Museum is poised to achieve more great things as it enters its 90th year in 2020.”
Under White’s leadership, the Museum strengthened its role as a leader in America’s maritime heritage community while simultaneously adapting to new visions of what a museum must be in the 21st century. It restored and sailed the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan on its 38th Voyage in 2014. The north end of the campus was reconfigured into the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle, a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the Museum’s indoor exhibition spaces, which included the construction of the award-winning Thompson Exhibition Building. The Museum is poised to conclude funding of its $6-million Era of Exhibitions campaign. The campaign was launched in 2017 to fund exhibitions of world-class quality, innovation, and scholarship such as the present show J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, the most comprehensive collection of Turner watercolors ever displayed in this country.
White served as the president of the International Congress of Maritime Museums from 2015 to 2019, and Gov. Dannel Malloy named White Connecticut’s Tourism Leader of the Year in 2015.
“Steve’s impact on Mystic Seaport Museum is best seen in the strong sense of community he fostered, both inside the Museum and in its external relationships with the world at large,” says Michael S. Hudner, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “We are grateful for his steady, confident leadership and for the zeal and imagination with which he advanced the Museum’s mission.”
The Board of Trustees of Mystic Seaport Museum will establish a search committee headed by former Board chairman Barclay Collins in January 2020 to find White’s successor.
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that currently features J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, the most comprehensive exhibition of Turner watercolors ever displayed in the U.S. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Mystic Seaport Museum is pleased to announce the winners of its watercolor competition inspired by the current exhibition J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate open now in the Museum’s Collins Gallery.
One hundred thirty-three paintings were entered in the competition from artists as far away as Denmark and California. After an initial submission period, six finalists were selected — three each in two categories: adult and child (ages 12 and younger). The finalists were presented to the public for an online vote, which determined the winner in each category.
The winner in the adult category is Lisa Miceli of Mystic, Conn., for her painting “New London Harbor Light at Dusk.”
The winner in the child category is Estefani R., a 5th grade student from Los Angeles, for her painting “Moonlight Forest.”
The six finalist paintings are on display in the lobby of the Museum’s Thompson Exhibition Building, outside of the Turner exhibition. The public may view the display free of charge. The other four paintings are:
J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate is open daily through February 23, 2020.
Mystic Seaport Museum and the Connecticut Library Consortium (CLC) launched a new three-year partnership in recognition of the enduring importance of museums and libraries to our communities. On behalf of the Museum, the CLC is managing an annual lottery for five free Mystic Seaport Museum Library Memberships, underwritten by the Museum’s Susan Lewin Memorial Library Membership Program.
The five winning libraries – drawn at random from CLC’s membership roster of libraries in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York – will enjoy all the benefits of library membership at the Museum for one year:
This year’s winners are Kent Memorial Library, Weston Public Library, Southington Public Library, Scotland Public Library, and Otis Library in Norwich.
The Susan Lewin Memorial Library Membership Program honors the memory of Susan Lewin, who died in 2013.
“Susan was an ardent believer in the power of museums and libraries to foster community, civic engagement and life-long learning. She loved Mystic Seaport Museum and was committed, through her philanthropic support, to the goal of increasing access to museum resources for under-served audiences. She was the driving force behind the initiation of the Museum’s Library Membership Program in 2003,” said Museum President Steve White.
“The Connecticut Library Consortium is thrilled to partner with Mystic Seaport Museum on this exciting library program and partnership to provide increased access to the Museum and its programs for our members,” said Jennifer Keohane, executive director of the CLC.
The inaugural winners were determined Tuesday evening at a special event celebrating the new partnership. Librarians from across the state as well as Museum Library Members came to hear a presentation on the artist J.M.W. Turner by Elysa Engelman, Ph.D., director of Exhibits, followed by a private viewing of the Museum’s acclaimed new exhibition J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate.
Libraries who would like to consider Mystic Seaport Museum Library Membership for their communities should reach out to Margaret Milnes, director of Membership and Corporate Partnerships, at Mystic Seaport Museum at margaret.milnes@mysticseaport.org/.
Mystic, Conn. (November 4, 2019) — Mystic Seaport Museum and the Connecticut Library Consortium (CLC) launched a new three-year partnership in recognition of the enduring importance of museums and libraries to our communities. On behalf of the Museum, the CLC is managing an annual lottery for five free Mystic Seaport Museum Library Memberships, underwritten by the Museum’s Susan Lewin Memorial Library Membership Program.
The five winning libraries – drawn at random from CLC’s membership roster of libraries in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York – will enjoy all the benefits of library membership at the Museum for one year:
This year’s winners are Kent Memorial Library, Weston Public Library, Southington Public Library, Scotland Public Library, and Otis Library in Norwich.
The Susan Lewin Memorial Library Membership Program honors the memory of Susan Lewin, who died in 2013.
“Susan was an ardent believer in the power of museums and libraries to foster community, civic engagement, and life-long learning. She loved Mystic Seaport Museum and was committed, through her philanthropic support, to the goal of increasing access to museum resources for under-served audiences. She was the driving force behind the initiation of the Museum’s Library Membership Program in 2003,” said Museum President Steve White.
“The Connecticut Library Consortium is thrilled to partner with Mystic Seaport Museum on this exciting library program and partnership to provide increased access to the Museum and its programs for our members,” said Jennifer Keohane, executive director of the CLC.
The inaugural winners were determined Tuesday evening at a special event celebrating the new partnership. Librarians from across the state as well as Museum Library Members came to hear a presentation on the artist J.M.W. Turner by Elysa Engelman, Ph.D., director of Exhibits, followed by a private viewing of the Museum’s acclaimed new exhibition J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate.
Libraries who would like to consider Mystic Seaport Library Membership for their communities should reach out to Margaret Milnes, director of Membership and Corporate Partnerships, at Mystic Seaport Museum at margaret.milnes@https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/.
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that currently features J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, the most comprehensive exhibition of Turner watercolors ever displayed in the U.S. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
About the Connecticut Library Consortium
The Connecticut Library Consortium is a statewide nonprofit membership collaborative serving all types of Connecticut libraries by helping them strengthen their ability to serve their users. We achieve our mission by initiating and facilitating cost-effective services, creating and supporting educational and professional development, and fostering innovation. For more information, please visit www.ctlibrarians.org and follow CLC on Facebook.
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Mystic, CT 06355
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info@mysticseaport.org
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