Hill-Stead Museum

Programs: Education and visitor serviceshsm serves as a destination for learners of all ages, and each year offers over 4,000 public tours in art, architecture and gardens, within the context of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since opening to the public in 1947, over 1 million visitors have toured the pope-riddle house, explored the 152-acre grounds, and participated in art, literature and nature programs. Hsm welcomed 39,741 visitors to its site in 2016. Hsm's variety of programs include concerts, lectures, workshops and family festivals, in keeping with the pope and riddle family's enjoyment of cultural pursuits. Program highlights and departmental growth included: a twelve-week spring-summer special exhibition, a new weekend-long "rooms in bloom" fresh floral exhibition and new autumn concert series in the period rooms, the appearance of lady fiona carnarvon and her sold-out presentation on "highclere castle and the real downton abbey", and formation of the impressionist council, an affinity group for young professionals who share an interest in art, culture and philanthropy. Hsm is open to the public tuesday through sunday, except major holidays for tours of the historic home's period rooms. Grounds are open daily and free to the public.

collections and conservationhill-stead's 1901 country home, characterized by a 33,000 square foot, 36 room interior and white clapboard exterior with mount vernon veranda, is considered "perhaps the finest colonial revival house and museum in the united states" (national historic landmark report). Established in 1946 as a cultural resource for the public in perpetuity, hsm is one of the nation's few remaining representations of early 20th-century country place estates. Hsm boasts french impressionist masterpieces - four by claude monet, three by edgar degas - and notable works by edouard manet, mary cassatt and james mcneill whistler, among others. Collections include 250 prints and photographs, 290 ceramics, 400 pieces of furniture, 3,300 books and 16,000+ archival documents. The property features a 150-person capacity arts & crafts theatre, stone garages, fully restored sunken garden designed by beatrix farrand(american, 1871-1957), wild garden, 3 miles of reclaimed woodland trails, a pond, and a dairy farm complex with two barns under rehabilitation. During 2016, hsm completed over $175,000 in capital restoration projects to the historic property, including extensive wood repair and painting throughout the campus, new roofing on three structures, installation of new custom-dyed and woven carpet to match original carpet in one of the period rooms, and a light-control study for long-term collections preservation.

poetry programthe sunken garden poetry festival(sgpf), one of the premier poetry events in the country, constitutes a series of five poetry and music performances featuring top tier american poets, as well as emerging and student poets. 2016 performers included u. S. Poet laureate juan felipe herrera, macarthur "genius" award recipients heather mchugh and edward hirsch. Poets selected to perform at sgpf this season were chosen with their diverse backgrounds, performance styles and points of view in mind, providing attendees the opportunity to understand and appreciate a broad spectrum of human history, culture, values and beliefs through the written and spoken word. The performances take place in hsm's historic sunken garden from june to august. Fully subscribed pre-performance prelude conversations, with headlining poets and poetry writing workshops, provided humanities-rich content, with broad appeal to a diverse audience. As an offshoot of its sgpf, hsm promotes the reading, writing, enjoyment and interpretation of poetry by diverse constituents, through its sgpf(a national competition for adult writers), fresh voices competition(hsm juried writing and performance competition for connecticut high school students), and hartford student poetry outreach efforts (enriching academics for under-served hartford, connecticut schools with 98-100% minority figures for over 15 years).