April 2, 2009
Contact: Karen Cardinal
Accounting, Web and Marketing Manager, Mead Art Museum
413/542-2551


AMHERST, Mass.— On Saturday, May 2, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Mead Art Museum will host a celebration for the college and local communities in honor of the town of Amherst’s 250th  anniversary and the Mead’s 60th anniversary. This event, which is free and open to all, is made possible by the Hall and Kate Peterson Fund, the Amherst Arts Series and the Center for Community Engagement.

The Mead’s docents, who are students from all Five Colleges, will lead the festivities. A balloon-lined path will guide visitors to outdoor craft projects and kite-flying in the Mead’s front courtyard (weather permitting). Children young and old will be welcome to create their own “gilt”-framed masterpieces, perhaps inspired by works in the Mead’s collections. Refreshments will be available for outdoor consumption.

Inside the museum, the Mead docents will conduct themed adventure tours appropriate for all ages. Departing approximately every half hour, these brief tours promise to spark the imagination, introducing princesses to dressy costumes, warriors to battlefields and swords, animal lovers to fuzzy and furry friends and adventurers to far-off lands. Based on highlights from the Mead’s collections and representing a wide range of cultures and centuries, the tours will include objects of interest to a variety of visitors.

For more information on this or any of the Mead’s programs, visit the complete schedule of events on the museum’s Web site: www.amherst.edu/museums/mead/programs.

The Mead Art Museum houses the art collection of Amherst College, totaling more than 16,000 works. An accredited member of the American Association of Museums, the Mead participates in Museums10, a regional cultural collaboration. During the academic term, the museum is open Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays  from 9 a.m. to midnight and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, please visit the museum’s Web site, www.amherst/museums/mead, or call 413/542-2335.

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