Mattatuck Museum Opens New History Museum

Connecticut's Mattatuck Museum has just unveiled a new $2 million history exhibit.

Here are the details:

From Colonial times to the age of technology, past and present come alive in the new $2 million exhibit Coming Home: Building Community in a Changing World, opening at the Mattatuck Museum Arts and History Center in Waterbury, Connecticut on May 9.

The exhibit tells the story of all the people of Waterbury, the original settlers, those who built the city into an industrial giant, and the residents who continue to shape the town today.

Interactive experiences challenge visitors to get involved in learning about the region’s history. Build Your Own Village is a chance to relive the experience of early pioneers. The story of African Americans in early Connecticut is made personal by following the fortunes of one slave named Fortune. The city’s glory years in the Industrial era when Waterbury was known as “Brass Capital of the World” are vividly recalled and a button industry exhibit shows what it took to turn out a button in 30 seconds. More Waterbury products from the museum’s collections are shown than ever before.

The years from 1960 to 2010 focus on new immigrants to the region and the growing service economy, showing how current businesses evolved from the old industrial economy. The actual stories of recent immigrants also are told. The final section, a Community Conversations Table, invites visitors to take a stand on current issues facing the region today. They can run for election by building a platform based on materials in the exhibits, and find out whether they win based on the votes of other visitors.

The Mattatuck Museum, located at 144 West Main Street in Waterbury, is the only museum in Connecticut dedicated to the art and history of the state. Along with the comprehensive new history exhibit, the museum features a permanent gallery of work by Connecticut artists including early artists like John Trumbull and Frederic Church and later masters including Yves Tanguy, Alexander Calder and Arshile Gorky. Another permanent feature is a button room displaying some ten thousand buttons, a donation of the Waterbury Companies, successor to a company that has been making buttons in Waterbury since 1812.

Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10:00am to 5pm. For information, phone 203-753-0381 or see the website: http://www.mattatuckmuseum.org.

My thanks to Janet L. Serra, Director of Northwest Connecticut Convention and Visitors Bureau at http://www.litchfieldhills.com for providing this information to me an allowing me to post it.

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Cliff Calderwood
Editor
www.New-England-Vacations-Guide.com