Top Things to do in Mystic Country
Top Hotels in Mystic Country
- 1. The Whaler's Inn
- 2. Hyatt Place Mystic
- 3. Hyatt Place Mohegan Sun
- 4. Hampton Inn & Suites Mystic
- 5. Hilton Garden Inn Preston Casino Area
- 6. Bellissimo Grande Hotel
- 7. Holiday Inn New London - Mystic Area, an IHG Hotel
- 8. Microtel Inn & Suites By Wyndham Uncasville
- 9. Taber Inn And Suites
- 10. Howard Johnson by Wyndham Mystic
Countries
Top 7 Art Museums in Mystic Country, Mystic Country
Discover the best top things to do in Mystic Country, United States including Florence Griswold Museum, Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail, Mystic Museum of Art, Slater Memorial Museum, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, William Benton Museum of Art, New England Center for Contemporary Art at Brooklyn.
Restaurants in Mystic Country
1. Florence Griswold Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 245 reviews
A 12-acre museum campus with a historic home museum, a modern art gallery with changing exhibitions, and gardens and river frontage along the delightful Lieutenant River. Visitors enjoy seasonal events including June's GardenFest and October's Wee Faerie Village. Discovery Sundays (April - September) give visitors of all ages the opportunity to take a mini-lesson in landscape painting and create their own masterpiece on the extensive grounds of the Museum. Visitors can enjoy lunch on the veranda at the outdoor Cafe Flo (May-October), and find unique gifts, exhibition catalogs and more at the Museum Shop. The Museum is named for Miss Florence Griswold, who at the turn of the 20th century opened her home as a boardinghouse which quickly became popular with American artists including Childe Hassam and Willard Metcalf. Museum docents share tales of the Lyme Art Colony and this home of American Impressionism. Check FlorenceGriswoldMuseum.org for a calendar of events and exhibitions.
Reviewed By kzsull01 - Windsor, United States
My husband and I visited the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut on Thursday, March 11, 2021. We enjoyed both the Special Exhibits and the Florence Griswold House, which are both very impressive and definitely worth seeing. This time we particularly enjoyed touring the Florence Griswold House because of the friendly docent/interpretive staff member at the house who provided great details about the house, including its restoration and its contents, about Florence Griswold and about interesting places to see while we were visiting the area. The information that she provided was quite helpful making the tour seem like a walk back through time. . We have come to the museum and house many times and have always enjoyed both the temporary Special Exhibits and the exhibits from the Permanent Collection, which change on an on-going basis. As always, we found our visit to be quite enjoyable, being informative, interesting and educational. Our current experience viewing the Special Exhibits and house is described in more detail in separate sections below. We recommend the museum and house and we hope that you have the opportunity to enjoy them as much as we have for a very nice mixture of art, history and nature, especially as reflected in the rural landscape paintings of New England. It is definitely worth the visit and we will go back again. All the overviews/write-ups within the museum, the house and other areas of the grounds are well done and nicely explain what is on exhibit. In the spring, the grounds are quite nice to walk around, and are a great place for artists to come and paint as Impressionists artists did in the past. But this was even true at the time of our visit, which was in early March. There are new trails to hike, including a River Walk and a Hedgerow Walk that we have not had the opportunity to explore but will during a future visit. Details about these trails are in the Visitors’ Guide. . Our visit this time took a little over an hour. There was plenty of free parking in the designated parking area. Please refer to the below for further details about our visit. Although there was no orientation film to watch before our visit at this time as there has been in the past, the write-ups in the house as well as the docent/interpretive staff member provided a very good overview from a historical perspective of Florence Griswold, her home and about the Old Lyme Art Colony. We thank the museum for being open during their normal hours throughout the pandemic and for not having reduced hours as many other museums have had. The only issue we had was with the Timed Tickets. The on-line process was a bit complex. Also, we prefer more flexibility in terms of the time we have to arrive at the museum to visit. We got tickets for 10:30 a.m.. We left our house in order to arrive early but due to construction on Route 9 we were delayed for about 25 minutes and arrived in the later part of the 15 minute time slot that the tickets applied to. This was a bit stressful and we would have preferred more flexibility, perhaps having the time range for the tickets apply to a longer period of time. Although we had no issues being admitted into the museum, we did not like the stress of having to arrive at the museum by a specific time because we didn’t want to be late. Special Exhibits: The Special Exhibit: ‘Expanding Horizons; Celebrating 20 Years of the Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) Collection’ expanded on the museums focus on landscape paintings by American Tonalist and Impressionist artists from the Old Lyme Art Colony to include canonical American portraits, still lifes, figurative compositions, narrative scenes and landscapes painted by Connecticut artists working in other locations. The exhibit interestingly illustrated new methods of research and interpretation and the importance of connecting the narrative lessons of historical works of art with changes that happened in our contemporary world. Hence, the exhibit addressed issues very relevant to current times. New methods and approaches to American Art, including Ecocritical Approaches; Thing Theory; “New Materialism”; new ethical museum practices for structural transparency in museums; and new ways of looking at landscape paintings, identity, and hidden histories in art are all presented in the exhibit with very informative overviews/write-ups and very nicely done corresponding artwork. This exhibit is well done and quite educational. Interesting, intriguing, and thought-provoking concepts were explained within the different sections of the exhibit. Below I mention some of the information that I got from the overviews/write-ups pertaining to each section, to give you an idea of what these concepts are based on my understanding of them, but the write-ups say a lot more than what I mentioned below and should be definitely read if you have the opportunity. Please note that this information is just from the overviews and not from the individual pieces of art. So there is really a lot of information to absorb!!. . ‘Thing Theory’ examines subject-object relationships in art based on the assumption that objects – their materials, construction, physical lives – hold knowledge about human history, culture and nature. Examining works of art based on this theory can take a variety of forms with the goal of a more nuanced understanding of objects within their historical context. Ecocritical Approaches to American Art is interdisciplinary, studying the physical environment and its relationship with other aspects of society and culture. This approach can be applied to historical art and ideas to learn about their environmental significance, both in the past and present. The ‘Revealing Hidden Histories’ Section raises awareness surrounding ethical museum practices and the need for structural transparency in museums. Prior to the HSB Collection the museum had articles primarily created from the largely male Lyme Art Colony. The HBS Collection showcases artwork from more diverse populations in Connecticut, which is a priority of the Museum going forward. New collaborative research has expanded art historical inquiry, allowing the potential for multiple perspectives, interpretations and meanings to surface all within one picture. This section taps on histories of land ownership, labor, food and music that intersect with issues of race. The ‘New Lenses on Landscape’ Section interestingly provides background on how Art History has historically included understanding concepts of place, property and national identity with recent studies focusing on social and environment frameworks. Definitions of “American Art” landscape painting are being expanded to a more global approach reflecting the nuances of artists’ international travels, networks and exchanges, The exhibit shows paintings created abroad that focus on issues of artistic process, public taste and histories of colonialism while the paintings created in Connecticut focus on narratives about land ownership, war, urbanization, and fine art’s intersection with mass culture. The ‘Inquiring into Identity’ Section explains how Identity is a construction shaped by culture, individuals and images created by artists and non-artists. As we become more aware of social disparities, inequalities and injustices, it is useful to look to historical art for the cues, roots and lessons of those narratives. This specific section analyzes identity through considerations of landscape, portraiture and still life to help better understand history, its people and experience and the need for works of art to require contextualization. The Special Exhibit: ‘Centennial of the Lyme Art Association Gallery’ is a very nice tribute to the historical significance of the gallery, and to the role that the original Lyme Art Colony largely male members, Florence Griswold, and women painters, among others, played in the creation of the Lyme Art Association Gallery. Revisiting the origins of this art gallery allows an examination of the economics of art and tourism, local history, the impact of World War I and reactions to modernism, and even censorship as the former artists chose what and who should be represented in this gallery. This gallery definitely has a very interesting history and the exhibit nicely depicts that. What I found of particular interest is the evolving role that women played in the gallery, including that Florence Griswold transitioned from art colony matron to be the L.A.A. first gallery manager!! This exhibit was very interesting and well done. . The Florence Griswold House: We then went to the Florence Griswold House, which was built in beautiful Late Georgian architecture. As mentioned previously, the interpretive staff member/docent within the house was very friendly and provided helpful information about what was on display in the house as well as helpful hints about interesting places to visit in the area. . The multiple rooms in the house on the first floor are well restored to the time period of the Art Colony, nicely depicting what the artists would have experienced during their stay. The rooms include Florence Griswold’s bedroom; the Art Colony parlor; an Art Colony member’s bedroom; the Dining Room; a cupboard room with beautiful dishes; and main entry hallway and staircase with each room very nicely arranged and having an informative write-up about it. The furnishings in the house are from the time period of the Art Colony and are beautiful, but are not all actually authentic to the house. The series of wall and door panels painted by the artists of the colony are very impressive and all well preserved. What we missed, but have seen during previous visits, was the film shown in the room on the right as you enter the hallway to the house which included actual footage of Florence Griswold walking through her gardens while she was living in the house in 1935, when she was eighty-five years old. This film was quite unique and nice to see. The second floor of the house has multiple rooms with Impressionist, Tonalist and miniature paintings and sketches painted by members of the Art Colony, with the art representing a subjective interpretation of nature and the surrounding Lyme landscapes, providing a very nice touch of spring. These paintings have harmonious colors, with delicate effects of light, showing rural life with great sensitivity and personal feeling. There is a room devoted to Florence Griswold and information on the restoration of the house and gardens which was quite interesting. Touring the house is like a walk back through time. All the write-ups within the house are quite educational and nicely explain the art on display and reflect the historic significance of the house and the Art Colony. I particularly liked the write-ups about each room in the house as well as those about the ‘Art Colony of Old Lyme’, including the corresponding picture of its members; the ‘Welcome to Florence Griswold’s Boardinghouse for Artists’; ‘Childe Hassam and the American Impressionists’, ‘Henry Ward Ranger and His Tonalist Circle’; ‘the Painted Sketch’; ‘the Landscape of Lyme’; and ‘Replanting an Old-Fashion Garden’.. We enjoyed this museum. It had a lot to offer and provides a good perspective of what the artists would have experienced during their visits to the Art Colony. Again, we recommend a visit to this museum and definitely will go back again soon, as we have always done in the past. We only wish that we lived closer to this museum! A library pass may be available at your local library for free admission into this museum, a rather nice bonus! This time we used the ‘CT Art Trail’ Passport Booklet.
2. Connecticut Impressionist Art Trail
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 3 reviews
Established in 1993, this trail is comprised of 12 museums and historic sites around Connecticut where one can view American Impressionist paintings.
3. Mystic Museum of Art
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 72 reviews
Bordering the Mystic River, this complex features changing art exhibitions, special events and classes. A nonprofit organization created by an artist colony in 1913, the association boasts a membership of over 1,200 artists. Travelers can partake of one-day workshops or enjoy a day on the town while their children are educated and entertained in art classes.
Reviewed By BlueridgeCharlie - Dugspur, United States
The trip to Mystic coincided with the reopening of the museum. We were greeted as the first visitors since the closing. As we entered, staff was putting up the final distancing arrows and markers. It was a very pleasant visit done at a leisurely pace. Exhibits were interesting and many themes along regional/nautical lines. The museum is in a nice setting along the river. Enjoyed a river walk post museum.
4. Slater Memorial Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 66 reviews
Located on the campus of Norwich Free Academy, the Slater Museum awakens visitors to the richness and diversity of the human experience through art and history. For more than one hundred years, the Museum has displayed and interpreted the best examples of fine and decorative art, representing a broad range of world cultures of the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Reviewed By AlexB10499 - Providence, United States
This museum is one of the region’s hidden gems, and I mean that in the most literal sense of the term. Admission for adults is $3, and this is a place that could honestly charge $15 and it would still be fair. There are probably more than a hundred plaster casts in the central hall of some of the finest works of sculpture in the Western Art tradition (the Pieta is among them). There are also numerous galleries of paintings and other artifacts from a wide range of movements, as varied as 20th-century Connecticut paintings, furniture manufactured locally during the colonial days, a large Far Eastern Art collection, and a others. The building itself is an architectural wonder as well, so don’t forget to look at the lofty ceilings and finely-decorated walls while you’re there. This museum was established to enrich the education of the students attending the Norwich Free Academy, and it still serves that purpose today. This is a place worth coming back to, and I will definitely do so.
5. Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 45 reviews
The Lyman Allyn Art Museum welcomes visitors from New London, southeastern Connecticut and from all over the world. Established by a gift from Harriet Allyn in memory of her seafaring father, the museum opened the doors of its beautiful neo-classical building in 1932. Today it houses a fascinating collection of over 17,000 objects from ancient times to the present: artworks from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, with particularly strong collections of American paintings, decorative arts, and Victorian toys and doll houses. Outside, a sculpture trail highlighting large scale works is surrounded by 12 acres of gardens and lawns. Throughout each year, the Lyman Allyn offers special programming including exhibition openings, lectures, educational opportunities, and musical events for families and the general public. Guided tours, self-guided exploration, and tours customized for a group's needs or goals are all available.
Reviewed By kzsull01 - Windsor, United States
My husband and I visited the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Connecticut on Friday, March 5th, 2021. We are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit at this time because the museum had 3 concurrent Special Exhibits, including ones that could be described as excellent, unconventional, fascinating, amazing, impressive, intriguing, interesting, unique, innovative, educational, thought-provoking and much, much more. Our experience with these exhibits is described below in the section entitled ‘Special Exhibits’. We definitely recommend a visit to the museum to see both the Special Exhibits and the Permanent Exhibits, especially the Gamelatron exhibit; the ‘Almost True Tales’ paintings and the Tiffany and ‘American Perspective’ Permanent Collections. This write-up is quite long because there really is a lot to see. General Information Based on Our Experiences at the Museums: The museum is a hidden gem housed in a unique neoclassical granite building in a very nice location near Connecticut College and the US Coast Guard Academy. We are quite thankful that it has continued to maintain its normal hours of operation, even after re-opening for the COVID-19 pandemic, being open Tuesday through Saturday: 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. and Sunday: 1 – 5 p.m. Also, you don’t have to have the added stress of required timed tickets and are allowed more flexibility in the times that you visit the museum without them. This is definitely a more relaxing and less complicated experience than with needing timed tickets. This is not common with many museums that have reduced hours and timed tickets at this point in time. The museum was very clean and we felt safe being able to effectively practice social distancing based on arriving at the museum at around 10:30 AM. The staff member at the Admission Desk was also very friendly and polite. The museum has two main floors with both permanent and special exhibits, including a very exquisite permanent collection featuring the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany and in their ‘American Perspectives’ galleries. It also has an interesting collection of children's’ toys in the basement reflecting “Playthings of the Past”, definitely worth seeing. All the artwork throughout the museum is nicely curated with well written overviews providing great comprehensive background information and context. You get a good education when you visit this museum on various topics. There are even very nice booklets and write-ups available throughout the museum providing detailed information on what is on display in the various galleries to take home and read later. Our visit took a little less than an hour and a half. There was plenty of free parking in front of the museum as well as a place with picnic tables near the parking area when the weather is warmer. There are also some very interesting and unique sculptures on the museum grounds and a map available inside to tour the Sculpture Trail, the McCourt 9/11 Memorial Garden and 12 acres of lawn and parkland. Special Exhibits: ‘Encountering Resonance: Aaron Taylor Kuffner’s Gamelatron’: This is a very impressive, fascinating, amazing, unconventional, comprehensive, educational, and innovative exhibit with cultural and spiritual significance. The exhibit brings together elements of many subject areas into one exhibit, including art, music, science, technology, history, culture, religion, politics and much, much more. This is a very well done exhibit and nicely reflects the many years of in depth research done by Aaron Taylor Kuffner.. Very interesting concepts and definitions are nicely presented and illustrated in this exhibit, including the definitions and origins of Gamelatron, Gamelon, Gotong royong, and Roh Ageng. The write-ups provide great contextual background information. The accompanying music/sound is truly amazing and could be enjoyed by both adults and children alike. A Gamelatron is a ‘sound producing kinetic sculpture that has pieces connected to a physical computing systems that transcribes digital compositions into an array of electrical pulsations resulting in a ghostly musical automation’, which is quite intriguing. A Gamelon is a traditional orchestral ensemble with a resonate sound with its gongs being the most important part of the ensemble and is considered the “Voice of the Gods” in the places of its origins. Specifically, the gong making technology, techniques and process in Java is nicely illustrated in the exhibit. Gotong royong is the guiding principle of the Indonesian Culture on ‘working together’ through shared experience with Gamelon being the first of the highest forms of Gotong royong, relying on each player in an ensemble to form an integral part of a greater whole, being a great concept. We really enjoyed the exhibit, how it all fits together, including the accompanying music. It was quite inspirational! ‘Brian Keith Stephens: Almost True Tales’: This exhibit definitely illustrates beautiful paintings with vibrant and figurative images of iconic animals as mythical symbols over time and culture drawing from iconography, fables, legends, and folk tales. These are quite unique and impressive paintings that tell stories by just looking at each of them as you walk through the galleries which they are located in, and could be enjoyed by both children and adults alike. Walking through this exhibit is an enjoyable experience which is definitely very thought-provoking. The booklet available to take with the pictures of these paintings is quite beautiful and a nice keepsake/memory. We recommend the exhibit, which was well done, and taking a booklet of the impressive paintings, which is definitely an added bonus. ‘Xandra McCagg: Recent Work: Icon’: The exhibit explores the meaning, perception and complexity of the human experience looking to the art and culture of the past to make sense of the present engaging iconic cultural symbols such as the crucifix, the totem and historic relics. The artist comments on the dichotomies that shape our lives on a personal and global level using line, color, and other forms of art and explores the cause and effect of shifting relationships in nature and in humanity. This is an interesting, unique and thought-provoking exhibit which I was able to better understand by reading the overview/white-up about the exhibit before entering the gallery. Unfortautely, this exhibit is not our type of art because it is too abstract for us. The ‘Louis Comfort Tiffany in New London’ Permanent Exhibit - Very Exquisite. : This exhibit, located in the Gilded Age Permanent Collection Gallery on the second floor, is very impressive and includes some quite elegant objects on display, all beautifully curated. This includes stained glass windows, lamps, Favrile Glass vessels, silver, jewelry, paintings and archival photographs. It nicely portrays the artist’s dynamic career and his influences, including with respect to his family and to Connecticut and New London. This exhibit has always been nice to see each time that we have visited the museum. This time there were different lamps on display and parts of the gallery have been rearranged from our last visit. Tiffany’s interesting innovations are with a wide range of materials, including glass, silver, and paint on canvas. His innovations in glass are the results of experiments with different techniques starting with creating tiles for interior designs and eventually patenting a formula for opalescent window glass. His Ecclesiastical works and Favrile Glass vessels are beautifully on display as well as objects and furniture showing his eclectic style and influence in the Aesthetic Era Design Movement. The part he played in the Art Nouveau International Artistic Movement is reflected in the style of his unique designs, which uses curves and symmetry, is nicely illustrated. The role and accomplishments of Clara Driscoll and the “Tiffany Girls” is also nicely portrayed. This exhibit is definitely worth seeing many times and it is great that it is part of the museum’s permanent collections and changes on an on-going basis!! The ‘American Perspectives’ Permanent Collection - Very Well Done: . Featured on the first floor is the permanent collection entitled ‘American Perspectives’ which is comprised of American Art divided into sections by the time periods of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and is quite comprehensive and always nice to see. The art focuses on the unique character of the Southeastern Connecticut Region and its place in the wider world. There are very informative overviews describing each time period as well as the specific types of art on display, addressing the social, economic, political, historical and cultural aspects and influences tied to the artwork. The overviews provide great background information and are quite educational, providing a good lesson in history and an interesting story. All objects on display are very nicely curated. A lot of interesting material is covered in this exhibit, which is interesting to see again and again.. The 18th Century section of the permanent collection illustrates how trade with the West Indies enabled economic growth and acquisition of a large amount of household goods by the people in the area. Beautiful textiles, silver, glass, ceramics, furniture and paintings from the period are all on display. New London’s role during the American Revolution, nation building after the revolution with patriotic imagery, and the city’s whaling and maritime history are all nicely depicted. Pieces by artists and craftsman with focus on colonial identity, status and wealth, including regional craft and industry, are on display. ‘Women and Education’ during the time period is also nicely illustrated. The 19th Century section of the collection illustrates paintings and objects created by artists to unite Americans around the common ideals of liberty, justice and hope for the future. What is on display includes Hudson River School Landscapes and paintings based on travel abroad via Grand Tours through Europe, including Thomas Cole’s painting of Mount Etna. The rise of the age of industrialization, mass production, the westward expansion and waves of immigration, in addition to the impact of the Civil War on New London, are all well depicted. The 20th Century section illustrates innovative approaches to traditional genres, such as landscape, still life, and portraiture. The impacts of rapid expansion and industrialization, waves of immigration and a wave of exuberance after World War I are reflected in the types of art on display. The art shows Abstraction and European Modernism, including Cubism, Futurism and Fauvism. A realistic regional style was also used during the time period resulting in a mix of subjects and styles. Country art from the Old Lyme Art Colony is reflected in Connecticut Impressionist paintings. Objects illustrating Art Deco, the modern city, and the international Arts and Crafts movement, which was a response to the negative aspects of industrialization, are all on display as well as postmodern and contemporary art. There is definitely quite a real lot to see!!
6. William Benton Museum of Art
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 27 reviews
Reviewed By 160wendyf - Massachusetts, United States
I visited on a day I took off from work to attend a concert at UConn in the evening. It was a beautiful fall day, the campus was gorgeous, the ice cream great, and the Museum was another treat. Very interesting permanent collection and exhibits were great, both provocative and beautiful.
7. New England Center for Contemporary Art at Brooklyn
Contemporary art museum located in a barn.
