Summer Programs 2015

Registration deadline is May 18th for all events except May 1st for overnight trip. To register for these programs, complete this registration form and submit it with your non-refundable payment. As a courtesy to those involved in planning and presenting these programs, we ask that you make sure that you will be able to attend an event before signing up for it. Please let the contact person know if you cannot attend.

Please note that buses need to be confirmed and tickets bought weeks before these events.  That is why meeting the deadline is important and calling after the deadline to register will probably not get you a ticket to an event. Please call or e-mail the contact person on your program for information, not the LIR office. Thanks!

The New Harvard Art Museums & Longfellow’s Wayside Inn
See the new consolidation of the three art museums by noted architect Renzo Piano who has creatively brought the three buildings under one roof:  the A .M. Sackler, the Fogg, and the Busch-Reisinger.

Also on view will be the Harvard Mark Rothko murals restored with innovative, noninvasive digital projection as a conservation approach.  The technique employs a camera-projector system that includes custom-made software developed and applied by a team of art historians, conservators and scientists at the Harvard Museums and the MIT Media Lab. The digital projection technology restores the appearance of the murals’ original rich colors, which had faded while on display in the 1960’s and 70’s in a penthouse dining room of Harvard University’s Holyoke Center, the space for which they were commissioned.  Deemed unsuitable for public display the murals have been in storage since 1979 and since then have rarely been seen by the public.

The Busch-Reisinger Museum, founded in 1903 is the only museum dedicated to art from German speaking countries from the late Medieval period to the Bauhaus, and continues its collection with artists such as Anselm Kiefer. Opened in 1985 the A.m. Sackler Museum holds important Asian arts including archaic jades, the widest collection outside of China as well as bronzes, Japanese works on paper.  The Ancient and Medieval collections house works from Greece, Rome, Egypt and the Middle East as well as from India. The oldest museum, the Fogg is renowned for Western art with works by Manet, Cezanne, Matisse and Van Gogh.  American nineteenth century artists include Homer and Sargent. Medieval art and Renaissance painters, such as Botticelli and Fra Angelico are to be found as well as contemporary works.

After your visit, dine with your fellow art lovers at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn, the oldest operating inn in the country. Founded in 1776, the Inn is the inspiration for Longfellow’s Tales of a Wayside Inn and serves traditional New England fare in a picturesque atmosphere. Tour the many interesting exhibits on your own.

Date: Thursday, June 18
Time: Leave Sheldon Field, Northampton at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Return to Northampton at 4:30 p.m.
Place: Harvard Art Museums and Longfellow’s Wayside Inn
Cost: $82 includes admission to museums, lunch (tax and gratuity at the Wayside Inn), and driver’s tip
Contact: Honoré David

Menu choice of entrée:  New England pot roast, seasonal vegetarian pasta, Boston scrod with lemon butter. Lunch includes a tossed green salad, entrée of your choice, Gristmill bakery basket, warm apple pie with fresh whipped cream, and coffee, tea, or milk.
Make your choice of entrée on your registration form.

Each LIR member may bring one non-member as a guest.

Newport, RI and Mystic Seaport, CT: LIR Trip June 23 – 25, 2015
Explore the many architectural and historic attractions in Newport, Rhode Island, visit the “cottages” of the wealthy and dine on lobster before going on to the museum village of Mystic Connecticut, where you can learn about America’s maritime past.

Deadline to register is May 1, 2015. Please click here for the itinerary and special registration form.

For questions, contact Marybeth Bridegam.

New Century Theater Matinee
On Sunday July 5 at 2:00 LIR will sponsor a theater outing to the New Century Theater on the Smith Campus in Northampton.   The play will be a revival of the 1939 production of The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman.  Originally Tallulah Bankhead starred as Regina Hubbard—the scheming heroine of a feuding business family in small town Alabama in 1900.  The title derives from a passage in The Song of Songs: “Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.”  Over the years, this play has won praise for its sharp dialogue and unexpected plot twists.  New Century will give us an update of this perennial family drama.

Date: Sunday, July 5
Time: 2 pm matinee
Place: New Century Theater, Mendenhall Center, Smith College Campus, Northampton
Cost: Discounted ticket at $23
Contact person:  Ellen Peck. Tickets will be distributed at 1:30 at the theater door.

Visit Historic Fruitlands
Fruitlands Museum, founded in 1914 by Clara Endicott Sears, takes its name from an experimental Utopian Community led by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane which took place on this site in 1843.  Included on the site are:

  • The Fruitlands Farmhouse, the site of an experiment in communal living led by Alcott and Lane in 1843
  • The Shaker Museum, home to the largest archive of Harvard Shaker documents in the world
  • The Native American Gallery, which houses a significant collection of artifacts that honor the spiritual presence and cultural history of the first Americans
  • The Art Gallery, containing 100 Hudson River School landscape paintings, and significantly, over 230 nineteenth century vernacular portraits, the second largest collection in the country. The Art Gallery also hosts a variety of rotating exhibits throughout the year.

Sears maintained a summer estate and “gentleman’s farm” here along with the museum complex from 1914 until her death in 1960. During her lifetime, Miss Sears published several books, wrote popular songs for WW1, and ran a cannery and food drying charity which sent 2 tons of food to the troops in the trenches of France. In 1930, Fruitlands Museum, which continues her work in historic preservation, was incorporated.

Fruitlands has a rich history and has been host to some of the most famous people in America. Thoreau walked Prospect Hill and admired its view. Emerson visited Alcott here, and Louisa May (then 10), would relate her experiences at Fruitlands in Little Women.

Transportation up the hill is available to those who need help.

Date: Wednesday, July 15
Time: 9:00 a.m. depart Sheldon Field, Northampton. Return c. 4:30 p.m.
Place: Fruitlands, Harvard, MA
Cost: $50 per person – includes bus, senior admission, and driver’s tip. You may bring a lunch or visit the café on your own between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Contact person: Honoré David

Each LIR member may bring one non-member as a guest.

Summer Chamber Music
Come with us to visit the Camp Greenwood Chamber Music Camp located in the beautiful hills of Cummington. This is an opportunity to hear wonderful music played by greatly gifted young people between the ages of 13 and 18. Deborah Sherr, the director of the Camp, is the daughter of LIR’s Claire Sherr, and she guarantees our pure enjoyment as these talented musicians present their music for us.

We will meet at the Brewmaster’s Tavern in the center of Williamsburg at 11:30 AM for lunch. Some of you may remember it as the old Williamsburg Inn. At 1:00 PM we will continue on to Cummington for the concert. Directions from Williamsburg to the Camp will be provided for those who register for this program. Those who do not choose to have lunch with the group may meet us at the Camp.

Date: Saturday, July 18
Time: 11:30 am for lunch in Williamsburg; 2 – 5 pm chamber music concert in Cummington
Place: Brewmaster’s Tavern for luncheon; Camp Greenwood Music Camp for concert
Cost: $2
Contact Person: Claire Sherr and Ruthie Kosiorek

LIR Collectors’ Open House
Six LIR members look forward to showing you their special collections, featuring art and antiques, as well as Asian puppets, balancing toys, pop-up books and masks. The open house format will allow participants to tailor their own tour with a listing of names, addresses, directions and special features to guide them. Collections are located in either Amherst or Northampton to limit travel time. Participants are encouraged to carpool to maximize enjoyment and limit parking needs.

Date: Tuesday, August 4
Time: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Place: LIR members’ homes in Amherst and Northampton
Cost: $2 per person
Contact Person: Nancy Denig

Geology Field Trip
John Brady, Professor of Geology at Smith College, will lead participants to selected locations, where he will enlarge our big picture understanding of the Pioneer Valley. Join a carpool to join in. Bring a picnic lunch if you like, as well, for al fresco dining at a special place.

Date: Thursday, August 6
Time: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Place: To be determined
Cost: $2 per person
Contact person:  Nancy Denig

Bus Trip to Tanglewood
5CLIR will again offer its traditionally popular outing to a Tanglewood Saturday rehearsal of the Sunday program.  This year on August 8 the program will be the dramatic Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky, Violin Concerto No. 2 by Wieniawski with the amazing violinist Joshua Bell, and Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz.

You may bring a brown bag lunch or purchase lunch at the outdoor café.  There are picnic tables outside and in the cafeteria in case of rain.  Water will be provided on the bus.

Date: Saturday, August 8
Time: The bus will depart from the commuter lot at Sheldon Field at 7:45 am SHARP.  The lot is on Bridge Street (Route 9) near the Three-County Fairgrounds.  We expect to return to the lot about 4:00 pm.
Cost:  $60 per person
Contact Person: Ellen Peck
Registration: This event is open to LIR members and one guest per member.

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Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
(413) 585-3756