We have a new art museum — almost.
The Bellarmine Museum of Art opens to the public on Oct. 25 on the grounds of Fairfield University in Fairfield, Ct.
Now Connecticut is hardly art-poor, and given its proximity to the riches of museums in New York, Boston and the Berkshires, I can think of places in America that could use a new art museum more than Fairfield. The town, home to General Electric and situated on Connecticut’s Gold Coast, is just 20 miles from Greenwich, home of the Bruce Museum, and about 50 miles from New York City.
But, we’ll take new art venues where we can, as long as they are suffiently funded.
The Bellarmine is making its home in galleries lining the basement of the mansion that serves as the university’s administration building, which is not as bad as it sounds. They were completely remodeled to accommodate 20 objects of Celtic, Byzantine, Romanesque and Medieval periods on loan from the Metropolitan Museum’s Cloisters, ten Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings gifted by the Kress Foundation (originally to what is now the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport), a collection of Asian art, and a plaster cast collection, many from the Met.
The initial exhibition schedule, two shows drawn from the Met loans and a contemporary show of work by Norman Gorbaty, can be seen here. The museum has other ambitious plans, outlined here, and is eager to pursue collaborations.
Earlier this month, the Danbury Times published an article on the opening, to which I am giving the last word. It quotes museum director Jill Deupi saying the museum fulfills the university’s mission of “educating the whole person — body, mind and soul.”