Installation and Interpretation of "Cabinet of Art and Curiosities"

FAIN: GI-50692-14

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT 06103-2911)
Linda Roth (Project Director: January 2014 to July 2018)

Implementation of a permanent, interdisciplinary gallery that will introduce visitors to the phenomenon of the cabinet of art and curiosities, a form of collecting that flourished in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (WAMA) respectfully requests a $400,000 Implementation Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support the installation and interpretation of a "Cabinet of Art and Curiosities." This installation is an integral part of the comprehensive reinstallation of the Museum’s European art collections, European Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era, following a $33M renovation of the Museum’s five buildings. It will feature one of the most important collections of 17th-century objects for an Art and Curiosity Cabinet in the United States, many assembled by the great collector J. Pierpont Morgan. The multi-faceted Cabinet of Art and Curiosities will, through its choice and groupings of objects, immersive design, and interpretative approach, serve as a jumping off point for visitors to deeply engage with the humanities themes explored in this space and throughout the European art galleries.