Only 15 minutes away from home and I had no idea how nice these museum would be.....my kids loved the "eye spy" activity.
We were staying at Foxwoods in December and the Native American Museum was closed for the season. The weather wasn't great and the museums in New London were also closed and so we decided to explore Norwich. More or less stumbled upon the Slater Museum and decided to invest the $3 each admission. Absolutely no regrets. Small but interesting collection as well as an exhibition of contemporary prints and a nice gift shop.
So many interesting things to look at and read about. Took a group of 1st through 3rd graders here for class trip, they enjoyed in immensley!
Gem of a museum on the NFA campus. Locals don't know what they have. What they have is a world class museum with "one of a kind" castes made in Europe, shipped over in boats almost 80 years ago and reassembled on the schools campus. A must see and you'll want to go back again and again. New exhibits as well.
I grew up in Norwich, went to NFA, and saw art and copies of well known sculptures done when you could make plaster of Paris casts of the originals. It was great to see the originals as we traveled the world. The "local" collections are excellent. So, if you are visiting the local casinos and want to take a break from the tables, a trip to the Slater is absolutely worth your while.
My wife andI spent an hour here after doing some research and loved the place. It is well worth the modest entrance charge and where else can one see exact full size replicas of the Pieta, the Venus de Milo, Michelangelo's David, etc., etc. in the same building? We have been to the Vatican, the Louvre, the British Museum, Florence, and other great museums and feel the Slater is special. Visit it soon!
We visited the museum at an after hours for the Chamber of Commerce and it was beautiful. We enjoyed that there was art from students as well as famous artists. It was very unique. We loved it.
The Slater Museum has been a supported favorite of mine for years. It's a wonderful place to learn sketching skills. In the permanent works: John Denison Crocker and William McCloy. The 70th CT artists exhibition, visited today, has an astonishing variety of media represented. It runs through March 21, 2014.
The cast gallery is always outstanding and some of the statues loaned to another museum have returned. There is not a lot of explanation so you have to know what you are looking at but its pleasant. The is much ado about the new glass front on the building as a large open space and the change to the gift shop. Its a very nice hallway that now has an elevator. Someday it may house a display and that would improve it. The gift shop is a tribute to made in China and more than just a bit disappointing. I really wanted to buy stuff but I can buy it on lline or Walmart for less than half the price so I purchased nothing. There is an art school that is part of the same high school as the museum but there was no student art for sale. Things like reproduced notecards, a jewelry design a poster, etc. Everything was mass produced with a single on display so you would be led to thinking it a one off unless you happen to go to other museum gift shops. The gallery displays were very old school - name of painting or work and name of artist sometimes with a date. Themes had not changed since the 1960's. History exhibits were interesting if you knew the background of what you were looking at but if you were not familiar - there were few clues other than a wealthy family took a world tour and this is what they saw or brought back. The only experience seen with this display was when you read the word on the exhibit sign. Nice for adults on a rainy day. Not for kids or anyone not interested in old art.
Great display and informative - interesting and thought -provoking - learned a lot and worth the time.