‘Rooms With A View: 200 Years Of American Design’

WATERBURY — The Mattatuck Museum is currently presenting “Rooms with a View: 200 Years of American Design,” featuring a series of rooms depicting American home décor over 200 years. The exhibit is on view until September 25.

“Rooms with a View” draws on the long and rich traditions of domestic and decorative arts used in transforming houses into comfortable and appealing homes. Interior design and home makeovers have become one of America’s favorite pastimes. Television channels are dedicated to the idea of making a person’s home reflect their individual needs, style and love of beauty.

The museum’s exhibit features distinctive home design from the colonial period to the early 20th Century. It brings together articles of daily use and adornment, fine arts and handcrafts, furnishings and costumes to examine how American needs and tastes have evolved. The exhibit features regional craft with seldom-seen objects drawn from the museum’s collections. Additional pieces are on loan from area antique shops and historical societies.

Highlights of the exhibition include a simply constructed table and home loomed textiles from the colonial period, a superb cherry and pine dressing table, and a slip-seat dining chair of the Federal period and a fine chest of drawers with carved columns in an acanthus leaf and pineapple pattern demonstrating the Empire style. The exciting and experimental mid-19th Century is represented by gothic chairs, a Rococo Revival upholstered sofa, and painted porcelain.

The Victorian era’s spirited, luxurious forms will come to life in a re-creation of the Luther White Parlor, a gift to the museum of furniture, paintings, mirrors and ornamental articles from the family home of the donor, the late H. Wade White. The new excitement in American design from the 1920s modern movement will be represented by the sleek and efficient furniture and household items inspired by the industrial age.

The exhibition will introduce visitors to the museum’s remarkable collections that are rarely on view and provide an overview of regional design for both the experienced collector and the inquisitive novice.

The Mattatuck Museum is operated with support from the Connecticut Commission on Cultural & Tourism, and is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail, 15 world-class museums and historic sites (www.ArtTrail.org). Located at 144 West Main Street, Waterbury, the museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, noon to 5 pm.  Convenient, free parking is located behind the museum on Park Place.

For more information on all of the museum’s programs, events and exhibits, visit www.MattatuckMuseum.org or call 203-753-0381.