A lovely and unique experience! Your visit to this Connecticut treasure will create memories of the charming history of the Lyme Art Colony, an enchanting American art exhibition, and a day of beautiful and peaceful surroundings. You and your family might even leave with your own artful masterpieces from an afternoon of "en plein air" painting fun.
Art, history, and nature come together on a beautiful 12-acre site with riverfront views. Check our website for our popular seasonal special programming including GardenFest, Midsummer Festival, Wee Faerie Village, and Holiday Magic.
We’ll let one of our recent visitors tell you more about their visit here:
"We made the most of our day at the Florence Griswold Museum! When we first arrived and got our tickets (in the lobby of the modern-looking “Krieble Gallery”), we were told about a short film that would tell the history of Miss Florence’s boardinghouse and the artists who made it their home. The film was entertaining and gave us a good background for our visit to the historic boardinghouse. We then walked down to the boardinghouse, a big yellow home of yesteryear, and along the way peeked inside the “Landscape Center” and “Education Center.” Once at the boardinghouse, the first floor is restored to its 1910 glory, and you can learn more about the house restoration from the very helpful docents. The docents also have a wealth of information about the artists who came to Old Lyme to paint and how the Lyme Art Colony began there. Our docent told amusing tales of the artists’ antics (true mischief makers!)while we saw the beautiful paintings the artists painted right on the walls and door panels of the house. The dining room alone was amazing, full of Impressionist paintings even on the fireplace! The second floor of the boardinghouse is set up as a small art gallery with each room displaying a certain theme to the Museum’s art collection – local landscape, Tonalism (the first artists to arrive at Miss Florence’s), Impressionism, and one room dedicated to paintings of the property itself.
After the tour of the boardinghouse, we meandered the old-fashioned garden as well as the rolling lawn down to the Lieutenant River. You can just imagine the painters who lived here a century ago deciding where to set up their easels to paint the beautiful landscape (in fact we passed some young families who were doing just that, the Museum offers landscape painting activities on Sundays during the warmer weather). Next, we had lunch at the Museum’s outdoor lunch spot “Café Flo.” What a relaxing time at our table with a glass of wine and such a beautiful view of the river and marsh. Our meal was delicious and gave us a nice pause before going back into the Krieble Art Gallery to see its exhibition.
Shows in the Krieble Gallery change several times a year, so it’s a good idea to check the website to see what is new there (or if they are in between exhibitions). We were there during a marine art show and while admiring the paintings we also learned a lot about the shipping industry of the 1800s. Although the show had traveled here from another museum, the Florence Griswold put its own spin on the exhibit highlighting the shipping industry’s relevance to the Connecticut shoreline and even its link to Miss Florence, who was the daughter of a sea captain! There were two families with children in the galleries at the same time and the children were entertained by having “I Spy” type cards to find paintings in one of the three gallery rooms. After a quick stop to the well-stocked gift shop, we felt like we had made the most of our day here. On the outskirts of the parking lot we stopped inside a replica of an artist’s studio from the 1920s. All in all, it was both a relaxing and refreshing way to spend time in this beautiful area of Connecticut."
Other amenities: Seasonal Dining Onsite and Year-Round Dining Nearby, Gift Shop, Parking, Printed Guides, Self-guided tours, Group Tour Packages, Walking trails.
