Art Bridges Initiative
Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1828. Oil on canvas. Gift of Martha C. Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865.
Frederic Edwin Church, Icebergs (detail), 1863. Oil on canvas. Emily L. Ainsley Fund.
Thomas Hart Benton, New England Editor (detail), 1946. Oil and tempera on gessoed panel. The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund. Art © T. H. Benton and R. P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
Elihu Vedder, The Questioner of the Sphinx (detail), 1863. Oil on canvas. Bequest of Mrs. Martin Brimmer.
Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1828. Oil on canvas. Gift of Martha C. Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865.
Frederic Edwin Church, Icebergs (detail), 1863. Oil on canvas. Emily L. Ainsley Fund.
Thomas Hart Benton, New England Editor (detail), 1946. Oil and tempera on gessoed panel. The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund. Art © T. H. Benton and R. P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
Elihu Vedder, The Questioner of the Sphinx (detail), 1863. Oil on canvas. Bequest of Mrs. Martin Brimmer.
Supporting an innovative program to engage communities across the region
The MFA has shared works from its collection with four partner museums across the Northeast as part of the Art Bridges Initiative. This program by the Art Bridges Foundation builds on its mission to expand access to American art across the United States.
Curators and museum professionals from the MFA have collaborated with colleagues from the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts; the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York; the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut; and Munson in Utica, New York, to co-organize a series of American art exhibitions over several years, drawing on the combined breadth and depth of the museums’ holdings and encouraging deep engagement with local communities.
This innovative program began in 2018 and involved multiple phases of exhibitions. Phase one, completed between 2018 and 2019, focused on single-work loans to the MFA’s partner museums. Phase two, completed between 2020 and 2022, was collaboratively cocurated with the MFA’s partners and included loaning 15 MFA artworks to each partner site. Phase three, completed in 2024, culminated in two large-scale traveling exhibitions that included 60 MFA artworks. The initiative has also supported professional development exchange and opportunities for dynamic programming.
Phase One Exhibitions
Thomas Hart Benton: A Visiting Masterpiece from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
June 19–December 30, 2018
Thomas Cole and the Garden of Eden
Fenimore Art Museum
May 25–September 30, 2018
Icebergs!
Mattatuck Museum
June 24–September 2, 2018
Mysterious, Marvelous, Malevolent: The Art of Elihu Vedder
Munson
April 5–December 29, 2019
Phase Two Exhibitions
A Face Like Mine
Mattatuck Museum
May 2–September 12, 2021
The Body Adorned: Artistry and Legacy in the Ancient Americas
D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
December 4, 2021–February 27, 2022
Unchained: Allan Rohan Crite, Spirituality, and Black Activism
Munson
February 19–May 8, 2022
Unmasking Venice: American Artists and the City of Water
Fenimore Art Museum
May 28–September 5,2022
Phase Three Exhibitions
Between Worlds: Stories of Artists and Migration
Mattatuck Museum
September 24, 2023–January 7, 2024
Munson
February 17–May 5, 2024
As They Saw It: Women Artists Now and Then
D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts
October 14, 2023–January 14, 2024
Fenimore Art Museum
April 2–September 2, 2024
