Bruce Museum of Arts and Science

Entrance

The Bruce Museum is a museum institution in downtown Greenwich, Connecticut with both art and science exhibition space. In 1908, Robert Moffat Bruce deeded his home to Greenwich, with the condition the space be used to house a museum. "The Bruce", as it's more familiarly known, has holdings of about 15,000 objects, including fine art, decorative art, natural history and anthropology.[1]

A second location, the Bruce Museum Seaside Center, is maintained at Greenwich Point Park, focusing on beach-related exhibits, including a touch-tank. The museum also has a "Brucemobile" with exhibits in a traveling van. The museum hosts frequent lectures and social events.[1]

Members total about 2,800, and over 400 volunteers contribute a total of more than 14,000 hours of their time each year. It has 32 full-time employees and nine more part-timers.[1]

The Bruce's main building at 1 Museum Drive, sits on a hill in a downtown park, and its tower (not open to the public) can be easily seen by drivers passing by on Interstate 95.[1]

Exhibits at the museum change more than a dozen times a year.

Art holdings

The art collection has a strong emphasis on the Cos Cob School, an Impressionist school, including paintings by Childe Hassam, Emil Carlsen and Leonard and Mina Fonda Ochtman. Sculpture includes nineteenth and twentieth-century work by Auguste Rodin, Hiram Powers, Frederick MacMonnies and George Segal.[2]

Mineral crystals

Permanent Exhibits

The museum has permanent exhibits focusing on geology, paleontology, archeology, local Native Americans, natural history, and the effects of man on the areas around Greenwich. There are several display cases with mineral specimens, including a touchable meteorite, large mineral crystals from around the world and minerals that glow in black light. Part of a Northeast woodland wigwam has been created as a seating area to learn about Native Americans, and there is a model of an archaeological dig. There are several cases focusing on the changes in the land and environment of Greenwich from pre-settler days up until the early 1900s. A large exhibit focuses on different prehistoric eras and fossils associated with those times. A fifteen-foot diorama displays local woodland wildlife. Other display cases show more birds and animals found in the area. A marine tank holds live small fish, crabs and sea stars for close examination.

Recent Exhibits

Charles Harold Davis (1856-1933): Mystic Impressionist

September 26, 2015 - January 3, 2016

The Bruce Museum presents a retrospective exhibition of paintings by American landscapist Charles Harold Davis (1856-1933) with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, The Charles M. and Deborah G, Royce Exhibtion Fund, and a Committee of Honor co-chaired by Nancy Duffy, Leora and Steve Levy, Alice Melly, Linda and Steve Munger, and Lynne and Richard Pasculano.

At his 1934 Memorial Exhibition, Davis was hailed as a figure who would take his place beside the greats of literature and art —Hardy, Millet, Tolstoy — yet today he is little known. The grand praise he received in his time speaks to his ability to capture the shifting moods of his native Connecticut landscape, from the calm of a breezy summer day to the bittersweet twilight of late November. An influential figure in his day, he exhibited at the famous 1913 Armory Show in New York and established the art colony in Mystic, Connecticut. Yet in the modern era, Davis’s work has received scant scholarly attention. The upcoming retrospective of Davis’s paintings at the Bruce Museum, the first in decades, offers the public a chance to rediscover a leading American landscapist. Further information and images are available on the exhibition site - http://www.mysticimpressionist.com

Bjørn Okholm Skaarup: Carnival of the Animals

October 31, 2015 - January 3, 2016

Carnival of the Animals is Danish sculptor Bjørn Okholm Skaarup’s first American museum exhibition, presenting a contemporary bestiary in bronze. Each of the twenty animal sculptures on view offers a whimsical story or allegory to decipher, inspired by ancient fables, art history, or modern animation.

The title of the exhibition is derived from the suite Le carnaval des animaux by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, who famously translates animal attributes into music. Okholm Skaarup instead interprets them in bronze.

Theodore Nierenberg: Photographs from His World Travels

August 1, 2015 - November 29, 2015

This series of approximately 30 photographs by Theodore Nierenberg highlights his portraits of indigenous peoples from around the world. Reflecting the vitality and personality of each subject, the images shine a light on the life stories written on their faces. With attention to color and composition, Nierenberg's portrayals celebrate the people and cultures he encountered during his travels from Central and South America to Africa and the Far East. The photographs are selected from a gift from Martha Nierenberg to the Bruce Museum in 2014.

Secrets of Fossil Lake

November 21, 2015 - April 17, 2016

“Fossil Lake is arguably the most important paleontological site in the world... the detail of preservation is beyond exceptional.”

- Dr. Daniel Ksepka, Curator of Science and expert on fossil birds

Travel back in time to a lake that vanished 50 million years ago. This exhibition brings together a remarkable assemblage of fossils that capture an ancient ecosystem from a time when Wyoming was covered in subtropical forests. Encounter ferocious predatory fish, delicate feathered birds, and tiny primitive horses, all preserved in astonishingly beautiful fossils.

Images of the City

December 12, 2015 - March 6, 2016

The exhibition Images of the City highlights 30 prints and photographs from the Bruce Museum Collection that paint a portrait of the modern American city. Some of these, from the early decades of the 20th century, are being shown for the first time after recent conservation. An additional selection from private lenders will complement the Museum’s collection. Etchings, lithographs, screen prints and photographs depict views of iconic architecture, public art and dramatic construction scenes from throughout the 20th century to the present, evoking a mood and atmosphere that range from gritty to nostalgic and from restless to formal.

The exhibition includes works by:

Last year, the Museum received two gifts on this subject to add to its diverse collection. On public view for the first time are:

Comments on the museum

A reviewer for the Wall Street Journal praised the "urbane Peter C. Sutton [director of the museum], a splendidly connected director of impeccable academic credentials, the Bruce -- with nothing to loan -- has been scoring quite a few coups of late. (A fall show of the 17th-century master Jan van der Heyden, inventor of the cityscape, is a joint project with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.)" The reviewer also mentioned Sutton's partnership with Edgar Peters Bowron, a curator of European art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the art historian Robert Rosenblum for the museum's exhibition on the dog in art, which garnered loans from The Louvre, the Prado and other major museums.[3]

History

The Bruce Museum's origins date to 1908 when the textile merchant, Robert Moffat Bruce (1822-1908), deeded his home to the town of Greenwich with the stipulation that it be used "as a natural history, historical and art museum, for the use and benefit of the public."[4] The home was originally built in 1853 and owned by Francis Lister Hawks, a priest and politician. It was purchased by Robert Moffat Bruce in 1858.[4]

The Museum's first exhibition opened in 1912, featuring the Greenwich Society of Artists. The Greenwich Society of Artists exhibited annually at the Bruce from 1912-1926.[5] Several of those artists were also members of the Cos Cob Art Colony. The Museum's early holdings include paintings, drawings, watercolors, and notebooks of Cos Cob Art Colony artists including George Wharton Edwards, Hobart Jacobs, Leonard Ochtman, and Mina Ochtman.[6]

In 1992 governance of the museum was restructured, with the Bruce Museum, Inc. established as a non-profit organization. That same year the museum started a project to completely renovate its building.[1]

When it reopened in September 1993, museum featured an architectural structure wrapped around the original building, housing galleries for art on one side of the main pavilion with galleries of environmental history on the other.[1]

"Continued growth over the years in attendance, exhibitions, public programs, and collections is leading the Bruce to undertake an architectural study of its future space and facilities needs," according to the Town of Greenwich Web page on the Bruce.[1]

Events

Lectures, etc.

The Bruce's Bantle Lecture Gallery has more than 100 events each year related to exhibitions and collections. Regular events include the "Goergen Art Lecture Series," "Science Lecture Series," and " the "Robert Bruce Circle."[1]

Family Days and Workshops

The Bruce hosts "Family Days" and a wide range of programs for children and adults, as well as special teachers' workshops.[1]

Arts and Crafts Festivals

Each October the museum presents the Outdoor Arts Festival and each May its Outdoor Crafts Festival. Both are juried events featuring artisans from across the country.[1]

Renaissance Ball

The Bruce Museum’s Renaissance Ball has been the highlight of Greenwich’s social season. Always held the first Saturday in June, the annual black-tie event is the Museum's major fundraiser, with net proceeds accounting for nearly 20% of the Museum's annual budget and earmarked for education programs and exhibitions.

Icon Awards in the Arts

Bruce Museum Icon Awards in the Arts will honor those who have demonstrated commitment to the arts. Artists, collectors, art business leaders, art critics, patrons of the arts, and art historians will be honored in an evening ceremony and cocktail event taking place at a private residence in Greenwich.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 http://www.greenwichct.org/BruceMuseum/BruceMuseum.asp Town of Greenwich Web page on The Bruce, accessed on July 1, 2006
  2. ↑ http://www.brucemuseum.org/collections/index.php?collection=art Bruce Museum Web site, "Collections" page, "Art" accessed on July 1, 2006
  3. ↑ "At This Art Exhibition, Dogs Are Hot," (`a review of the exhibition "The Dog in Art From Rococo to Post-Modernism," at the Bruce Museum) by Matthew Gurewitsch, The Wall Street Journal July 11, 2006; Page D5; accessed August 23, 2006
  4. 1 2 "Bruce Museum History page". Bruce Museum.
  5. ↑ "Bruce Museum history page". Bruce Museum.
  6. ↑ "Greenwich, CT town website". Greenwich, CT town website.

External links

Coordinates: 41°01′08″N 73°37′25″W / 41.019°N 73.6235°W / 41.019; -73.6235

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