Peabody Essex Museum Bus Trip 2025

PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM BUS TRIP

SEPTEMBER 11, 2025

9:00AM - 7:00PM

$95 INCLUDES BUS AND MUSEUM ENTRANCE

 Rain or shine, no refunds available. 

Guy McLain, Director of the Westfield Athenaeum, will present an introductory lecture on American art and the history of the Pennsylvania Academy. Participants will also have the opportunity to explore the downtown of Salem, which features a number of interesting shops, restaurants, and historical sites.

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts is currently showing the exhibit, "Making History: 200 Years of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts."   The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was founded in 1805 as the Country's first museum and fine arts school. The institution was founded by two prominent artists at the time, Charles Wilson Peale and William Rush. The Academy was very progressive for the times, accepting women artists at annual exhibitions as early as 1811. May Howard Jackson became the first African-American artist to exhibit there in 1895. In the 20th century, the Academy became a center for the education of American artists.Throughout the history of the institution the Academy collected works of art by American artists, assembling one of the most significant collections of American masterpieces in the Country. This exhibit will feature some of the Academy's most important examples of history paintings, portraiture, still life scenes, and landscapes. Hudson River School paintings, like those of Thomas Moran, will illuminate issues related to the American dialogue with the natural world. The works of artists like Childe Hassam and Mary Cassatt will show the influence of French Impressionism. And finally, the paintings of Arthur Dove and Sonia Sekula will reflect the impact of Modernism on American art in the 20th century. Many of the featured paintings will allow visitors to see and make connections across time and place, and will demonstrate how American art created narratives around social and political issues at different points in our nation's history.