Fitchburg Art Museum

Fitchburg Art Museum, Main Entry; Photo: Ted Dillard

Fitchburg, MA

978-345-4207

http://www.fitchburgartmuseum.org/

Monadnock

The Fitchburg Art Museum opened "Monadnock" on September 26, 1999 and runs through January 9, 2000. The exhibition highlights the beauty of Mount Monadnock, its influence on the region's history and the relationships of humans with the mountain, presented through the works of various artists and writers.

The White Dot Trail guides visitors through the exhibition, examining the mountain's history, geology, and literature primarily through painting, photography, and literary works.Exhibited works from the past two centuries will include artists Rockwell Kent, William Preston Phelps, Abbott Handerson Thayer , and many others.

In the 19th century, Monadnock was popularized by writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who represented Monadnock as a site for spiritual exploration and a place to seek out the divine in every day. As views and thoughts changed so did the artist's works that were inspired by Monadnock These images created during the past centuries reflect the human relationship with nature. This exhibition through memorabilia, signage, souvenirs, and various other objects presents the art of Monadnock in the context in which it was created from the mid-1800s through the present day. (left: William Preston Phelps (1848-1923), Mt. Monadnock, Winter, Oil on canvas, 29.5 x 17.5 inches, Private Collection)

"Monadnock" is Algonguin for 'mountain that stands alone" a name given to the mountain by the Abenakis of the Algonquin tribe who when the first to call the region home. The name Monadnock spread across the world from this specific mountain to identify every solitary prominence that rises above its surroundings. Located 20 miles from the Museum, Monadnock is the most climbed mountain in the world with more than 130,000 people climbing it each year. It continues to inspire artists, writers and photographers today. (right: Charles Curtis Allen (1886-1950), Indian Summer, Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches, New England Gallery, Andover, MA)

This premiere exhibition is exclusively curated for and presented by The Fitchburg Art Museum, the first Museum in collaboration with a public school to use its collections to teach children, grades six through nine, traditional academic subjects in a full time setting.

In addition to the Monadnock exhibition the Fitchburg Art Museum also features selections of its own permanent collection of over four thousand paintings, decorative arts, and antiquities spanning more than fifty centuries.

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The Fitchburg Art Museum it located at 185 Elm Street in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

The Museum is open Tuesday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m and Sunday I to 4 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults; children and Students are free. (information as of 10/99)

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