If you are an art enthusiast or just looking for some fun things to do in Western Massachusetts, some of the local art museums are worth exploring. The area is home to some of the best college museums in the country, including the following:
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
The Eric Carle Museum is a nonprofit organization located next to the Hampshire College campus, with a mission to “inspire a love of art and reading through picture books.” It hosts more than 13,000 objects, 6,000 of which are permanent collection illustrations. There are three art galleries, an art studio, a theater, a bookstore, and a library. The museum also offers programs for families, scholars, educators, and children.
The Mead Art Museum
The Mead Art Museum is located at Amherst College. It displays a diverse range of art—American and European paintings, Mexican ceramics, Tibetan scroll paintings, an English paneled room, ancient Assyrian carvings, Russian avant-garde art, West African sculpture, and Japanese prints.
The Smith College Museum of Art
The Smith Museum is regarded as one of the best college art museums in the country. It has over 20,000 objects from different time periods and cultures. There are four floors of galleries including a permanent collection — the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs — as well as changing exhibits. There is also a resource area, museum shop, café, and artist-designed benches and restrooms. The museum is located in the Brown Fine Arts Center, which opened in 2003 and also includes the Smith College Department of Art and the Hillyer Art Library. The collection includes modern paintings and sculptures, works on paper, and western European art as well as African, Asian, and Islamic art. The museum also hosts public programs such as monthly Second Fridays and Family Days.
The Joseph Allen Skinner Museum
The Skinner Museum, located on the Mount Holyoke campus, is a 20th century “cabinet of curiosities” collected by local manufacturer and philanthropist Joseph Skinner (1867-1946). It is housed in a 19th century church, which was moved from the town of Prescott before it was flooded by the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s. The museum holds Skinner’s eclectic collection of artifacts from around the world — including furniture, armor, fossils, cooking utensils, and tools. There are also souvenirs from China, Egypt, and many other countries.
The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
Founded in 1876, The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum is one of the oldest college art museums in the country. It provides a space to learn about art, history, chemistry, philosophy, religion, and many other areas of study. Since its inception, it has acquired over 16,000 objects from around the world — including China, Egypt, Peru, and the United States. There is also an online database of objects in the permanent collection, which students can use as a resource.
The University Museum of Contemporary Art
The UMCA, located on the UMass Amherst campus, is “a multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art.” It holds a permanent collection as well as temporary exhibits, and provides educational programs and a visiting arts program. Both new and renowned artists can use the UMCA as a space to communicate with an audience and experiment with new ideas. The museum strives to be a learning resource and an outlet for education, research, and community service.
Hi Brigid! I love our museums too! Another great website that gives you an overview of the museum treasures in the valley is Museums. In the heart of western Massachusetts, Museums10 is a dynamic collaborative of 10 museums that inspire, engage and enrich their communities through shared experiences of art, literature, history and the natural world. Museums10 is affiliated with the Five College Consortium in western Massachusetts. 10 http://museums10.org/
The Museums in the Valley were phenomenal (especially for being outside of an urban area). I was fortunate enough as a Hampshire student (F93-S98) to experience UMCA, Mead, Smith, and Mt. Holyoke’s Art Museums when I was getting my BA in the Valley. As well as the Eric Carle when it opened four years after I graduated from Hampshire, on a 2002 visit to campus from my home in NYC.
I had just earned my MFA from The New School in the Spring of 2002 and was headed up to Vermont, for Thanksgiving with my parents, so I detoured off I-91, stopped by campus and by surprise saw that it was the opening of the Carle. What an AMAZING place! Loved it, and was happy it’s adjacent to the Hampshire campus (if the Carle had been open when I’d been at Hampshire, I would have been in some corner somewhere with coffee and Atkins Farms apple cider donuts studying).
Even randomly ran into my old Advisor and Divisional Committee Chair and several fellow Hampsters at the Carle opening as well, so it was a reunion of sorts Growing up in NYC, I had the privilege of Museums like the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney, the Metropolitan, Museum of Natural History, the MOMA and the Guggenheim, so I know the power of a good museum. As a Theater & Film student at Hampshire, museums and their collections have always influenced my visual palette when it comes to making theatrical design choices and creating cinematography. I will always be inspired and motivated by art, and the spaces that contain it.