Yale Art Museums Will Celebrate

The Arts With An Open House

NEW HAVEN — On Thursday, September 6, from 5:30 to 8 pm, Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) and Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) will host an open house for the public featuring great art, free tours, music, and light refreshments.

The museums are across the street from each other, on Chapel Street between High and York Streets in the city’s arts and entertainment district.

The Yale Art Museums’ Open House is an invitation to the community to get involved and to learn more about art and the museums’ collections in an informal setting. Tours by Yale student guides promise creative insights, while performances by Yale’s celebrated a cappella singing groups will bring music and energy to the experience of looking at works of art.

Student guides and museum staff will be on hand for conversation and to speak more about upcoming exhibitions and events at each museum.

Tours and performances begin at 5:30, with one of the college’s lively a cappella groups, Mixed Company, singing their greatest hits on the front steps of YUAG. Other unaccompanied singing groups — The Yale Spizzwinks, Proof of the Pudding, Out of the Blue, The New Blue, The Baker’s Dozen, and The Duke’s Men — will perform throughout the evening in various locations within YUAG and YCBA.

Yale University Art Gallery, America’s oldest and one of its most important university art museums, was founded in 1832, when patriot-artist John Trumbull donated more than 100 of his paintings to Yale College. Since then, the gallery’s collections have grown to number more than 185,000 objects, spanning the globe and ranging in date from ancient times to the present day.

In addition to its celebrated collections of American paintings and decorative arts, YUAG is noted for its important holdings of Greek and Roman art; early Italian paintings; later European art; Asian art; African art; art of the ancient Americas; and Impressionist, modern, and contemporary works. The recently completed restoration of the gallery’s 1953 Louis Kahn building is part of a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the museum’s entire facility, scheduled for completion in 2011.

Located at 1111 Chapel Street in New Haven, the gallery is regularly open to the public free of charge Tuesday through Saturday between 10 am and 5 pm (Thursday until 8, September to June); and Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. For additional information, visit ArtGallery.yale.edu or call 203-432-0600.

Yale Center for British Art is a public art museum and research institute for the study of British art and culture. Presented to Yale University by Paul Mellon (Class of 1929), YCBA houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom.

The collection of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, rare books, and manuscripts reflects the development of British art and life from the Elizabethan period onward. Works on view include masterpieces by Joshua Reynolds, George Stubbs, Thomas Gainsborough, J.M.W. Turner, and John Constable, as well as major artists from Europe and America who lived and worked in Britain. The Center also offers a year-round schedule of exhibitions and programs.

Resources include a reference library and study room for examining works on paper. Opened to the public in 1977, the Center is the final building designed by acclaimed American architect Louis Kahn. It stands across the street from Kahn’s first major commission, YUAG.

For additional information call 203-432-2800 or visit ycba.yale.edu.