Mead Community Day Celebrates 250th Anniversary of Amherst and 60th Anniversary of Mead Art Museum October 3

For Immediate Release
Contact: Karen Cardinal, Accounting, Web and Marketing Manager, Mead Art Museum 413/542-2551

AMHERST, Mass.— On Saturday, Oct. 3, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Mead Art Museum will host a celebration for the entire community in honor of the town of Amherst’s 250th  anniversary and the Mead Art Museum’s 60th anniversary. This event, 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. A complete schedule of museum events is posted on the Mead’s Web site, www.amherst.edu/museums/mead/programs.

The Mead Art Museum docents, who are students from the 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 a work 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 will 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, these tours will include objects of interest to a variety of visitors.

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 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.