Museum Review // Hartford Art Gallery at University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT, March 14th 2025
This is a tale in three parts.
On March 14th, 2025, Quentin was off from school for a professional development day. We decided to try and go see two different museums in our Connecticut Art Trail Passport- with an additional stop along the way. We double checked everything across various websites and somehow things still didn't go as planned.
Our two planned stops for the Passport were the University of Saint Joseph Art Gallery and the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. Saint Joseph was said to open at 11am while the Hartford Art School said 1pm, so around noon we headed to Saint Joseph and... it was closed. We eventually somehow figured out that there was an exhibit installation, so they were closed up for a while but we did find out in the process that an exhibit about the Civil War is coming, so we're staying alert about important dates for that.
When we figured all of this out, it wasn't quite 1pm yet so Hartford Art School wouldn't be open. We went to the West Hartford Public Library instead, where they had the show <title and artist>, which I had heard about being there on Instagram. I enjoy the placement of this exhibit because it's something we went out of our way to see while others might just go to the library every day and not even realize it's there.
The different pieces existed together as different feelings and as such it's nice to look at a piece which is titled "Fearful" and see if you can either see that fear in the art yourself or at least understand why the artist has chosen to represent that specific emotion in this visible way. So it's all really a lot of fun and interesting if you have the time to let it all sink in and as one should with art not just see it but also truly feel it.
Our third and final stop on this day was at the Hartford Art Gallery at the University of Hartford. There are two different galleries (and different exhibits, obviously) at the Hartford Art School. First we went into the Silpe Gallery, which is showing an exhibit called "Dream Murals". Through two big open rooms, artists were given walls to paint their murals. While we were there though, the split walls for Sophy Tuttle were both blank, so that part hadn't even been started yet.
"Dream Murals" says it runs from March 3rd until April 12th, but it isn't even done yet. I was told later on, via email, that the creation- the live painting- was part of the exhibit and there would be an opening reception / artist talk on April 4th. So I'm not sure if that means that eight days later they take it down or not, but it seems like if some of the murals aren't even completed yet they wouldn't be up there for that long.
While there we also got to see artist Chris Piascik working on a nearly complete mural. It was definitely interesting to see because as the Saint Joseph University was shut down to have the new exhibit being prepared, this was something that you could see as a living and functional exhibit, as the walls were each in their various stages. I'd also never really seen someone painting a mural like this before, so it was definitely an experience.
As you walk through the first building, past the book making and photography sections of the school, you'll come outside and end up in the middle of buildings which include the campus library, campus store and the Joseloff Gallery. I didn't read too far into all of this in advance, but the Joseloff Gallery has an exhibit up called "How Can the Grid Deal with a Messy World?" by Silas Munro. And I didn't realize this but it does state it on their website- as you enter the Joseloff Gallery you will see a piece by Sol Lewitt.
If there is a place out there that chronicles everywhere in Connecticut that has art by Sol Lewitt please let me know. (But for now I enjoy finding it on my own)
The "Black Grids" exhibit was quite large and there was a lot to take in. From the pieces which were on the wall in a way which felt like mixed media- some of them made of fabric- to the 3D pieces that were in various block-like shapes, there was even a room which you could go behind a curtain and watch a nine minute film. There was a lot to unpack here and I think the idea of the title is great because not everything can fit so easily into your neat little grid- sometimes things get messy.
So while we didn't make it to the Art Gallery at Saint Joseph University, we did get to the West Hartford Library (off the CT Art Trail) and the Hartford Art School, which we were given a sticker for the Passport. I truly believe though that, as we plan our way back to these places, it isn't always about the destination but sometimes doing all of this with the Passport is about the journey as well.
Please Note: While this is technically Stop 5 on the CT Art Trail for us, we have been to the New Britain Museum of American Art several times in between Stop 4 and Stop 5- we even got the Passport stamped- i just haven't written about it because there is changing but also always so great. The NBMAA was also one of the few museums in the Passport we had been to prior to getting the Passport.
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