Revolutionary Valley Regional Tourism Council

The Art of Ambition in the Colonial Northeast
2019-09-29 13:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-28 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-27 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-26 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-25 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-24 10:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | 97 University Ave, Lowell, MA, 01854, United States
The works in this exhibition speak to the complexity and ambiguity of artistic identity in the British colonies of northeastern North America during the long 18th century and to the difficulty of defining the boundaries of American art. Separated from their English homeland by the vast Atlantic Ocean, colonists nevertheless participated in a dynamic economic and cultural network that connected them with the peoples of Europe, West Africa, and South America. As British North America grew increasingly prosperous, affluent new Americans emulated the refinement and gentility of their mother country by commissioning artists to create works that expressed both colonial desires for prestige and status and the hybridity of artistic production in early America. ​

George Washington: American Icon
2019-09-29 13:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-28 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-27 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-26 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-25 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-24 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-22 13:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-21 10:00 - 17:00 and 3 more dates
George Washington, political leader, military general, statesman, Founding Father, planter, denture wearer, cherry-tree chopper, first president of the United States is perhaps the first multi-hyphenate celebrity. Washington was also a prolific slaveholder who, at the time of his death in 1799, owned 317 men, women, and children. Drawn from the Addison’s collection of Washingtoniana, this exhibition, presented in the Museum Learning Center as a complement to Men of Steel, Women of Wonder​, explores the complex and often contradictory image of George Washington in American culture.

A Wildness Distant from Ourselves: Art and Ecology in 19th-Century America
2019-09-28 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-27 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-26 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-25 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-24 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-22 13:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-21 10:00 - 17:00, 2019-09-20 10:00 - 17:00 and 3 more dates
“It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such.” – Henry David Thoreau, Journal IX, 1856
Henry David Thoreau’s midcentury clarion call offers a concise distillation of a prevailing, paradoxical, European American conception of the environment as other, a foil for the reason and civility of man, at times an adversary, at others an asset. From the Puritans’ 17th century “errand into the wilderness” to the present, the dichotomy between man and nature has defined the European American experience in the “New World.” Focusing on the 19th century, an era that witnessed both the extreme and violent exploitation of the land and its peoples and the birth of a modern conservation movement, this exhibition will unfold chronologically and move from New England to the West. Paintings, works on paper, sculptures, photographs, and decorative arts by artists both familiar and unknown from the Addison’s collection will enter into dialogue with a selection of objects from the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology and compelling natural history specimens generously lent by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University to bear witness to the complex histories and persistent impacts of the 19th-century European American relationship with the natural world.​

Gallery Tour: A Wildness Distant from Ourselves
2019-09-24 11:00 - 12:00
In collaboration with Andover’s Memorial Hall Library, Addison curator Gordon Wilkins will lead a tour of A Wildness Distant from Ourselves​, offering a discussion of the works and themes presented. The tour is free, but space is limited. Please register online at www.mhl.org/events​ or call 978.623.8430.
