Sign up for this exclusive one-hour private tour of the A. Everett "Chick" Austin House in Hartford, led by Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts Katie Tycz. Go where few art-lovers have gone before for an insider's look at the largest object in the Wadsworth Atheneum's Collection. This one-of-a-kind architectural marvel is typically only open once per month for tours, so this private experience will be exclusive and unique!

This private tour is scheduled for Thursday, May 20, 2027 from 2-3pm.

A National Historic Landmark, the Austin House is the former home of the legendary and innovative "Chick" Austin, Jr., the Wadsworth's director from 1927 to 1944. Located in Hartford's West End, the home was modeled on a grand 16th-century villa near Venice, which Chick and his wife Helen Goodwin Austin had seen on their wedding trip in 1929. The twist? The house is 86 feet wide and only 18 feet deep.

Its first floor is decorated in the 18th-century Rococo style, with silk-covered walls, gilded and painted furniture, and a spectacular Bavarian alcove. Upstairs, Helen Austin's dressing room proclaims a radically modern aesthetic with a black linoleum floor, walls of different colors, chromium light fixtures, and tubular steel furniture. As such, the Austin House is one of the first International Style interiors in America.

In the 1930s the Austin House became a gathering place for leaders of the international art world, where the Austins entertained such dazzling party guests as Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder, Gertrude Stein, Martha Graham, Agnes de Mille, and Aaron Copland. Don't miss this rare peek inside!

This sign-up opportunity is open to 8 guests with each slot priced at $200.

Value: Priceless!

Sign up and join friends of the Museum to tour the Lyme studio of contemporary artist Jac Lahav!

Sip brunch cocktails while Jac shows you their studio, works in progress, and offers you a behind-the-scenes look at their artistic process. Enter Lahav's private refuge, a magical A-frame house deep in the woods overlooking Cedar Lake in Lyme CT, while exploring the artist's private art collection and studio. This studio tour is scheduled for Sunday, May 16, 2027 from 12-2pm.

Born in Israel, Jac Lahav grew up in Boston and received a BA in psychology from Wesleyan University. They studied painting in New York at the School of Visual Arts and The Cooper Union and received an MFA from Brooklyn College.

The Florence Griswold Museum hosted a solo exhibition of Lahav's cheeky and thought-provoking large-scale portraits of iconic cultural figures in 2019, titled The Great Americans: Portraits of Jac Lahav. Lahav has had 10 solo museum exhibitions across the country, and their work is included in many major museum collections including the Richmond Art Museum in Indiana; Longview MFA in Texas; and Saginaw Art Museum in Michigan. Lahav's work is also held in many public collections, including the Jewish Museum in Milwaukee, Mount Holyoke Art Museum, the FloGris, and more.
Lahav's work is also featured in the Florence Griswold Museum's juried exhibition, Patchwork: Connecticut Artists Consider 250, on view now.

This sign-up opportunity is open to 10 guests with each slot priced at $150.

Value: Priceless!